Martin-Smith School of Music

The Martin-Smith School of Music (MSSM) was a historically black music school at 139 W. 136th St in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, United States.[1][2] Founded in 1912 by David I. Martin and Helen Elise Smith, the school was a significant music conservatory for African-Americans during the first half of the 20th century. The school was still active as late as 1953, but by 1969 its building was demolished.

History

The Martin-Smith School of Music was founded to serve black students at a time when many institutions of learning were racially segregated and denied admittance to African Americans. It was co-founded in 1912 by violinist David I. Martin and pianist Helen Elise Smith (later the wife of Robert Nathaniel Dett).[3] According to musicologist Eileen Southern, it was "one of the most important black musical institutions in the country",[4] an assessment echoed by historian Reid Badger.[5] In its early years the peak enrollment at the school reached more than 300 students.[6] It was an influential school during the era of the Harlem Renaissance.[2]

The MSSM had both youth and adult orchestras conducted by Martin.[7] The school also had a Ladies' Staff Orchestra founded c. 1915, an all-women ensemble that was directed by Mildred Gassaway Franklin.[8] Walter F. Craig was an early supporter of the school, and many of its students and graduates were featured in concerts that he organized in the 1910s.[9] On May 5, 1915, Scott Joplin's Frolic of the Bears was given its world premiere at the MSSM's annual recital concert.[10] That same year the school hosted a recital given by Daisy Tapley.[11] Later, the school sponsored one of Marian Anderson's earliest recitals.[12]

In 1919 the Colored Music Settlement School was subsumed into the MSSM after its primary teacher, J. Rosamond Johnson, resigned.[13] After Martin's death in 1923,[14] his wife Gertrude took over the business management of the school[7] and his son, violinist and MSSM graduate Eugene Mars Martin,[15] was appointed director.[4] When Eugene Mars died in 1926 he was succeeded as director by David I. Martin Jr.[6] By 1929 the school enrollment had declined to 150 students with 12 music faculty teaching courses in harmony, music theory, strings, woodwinds, brass, voice, and piano.[6] Enrollment increased in the 1930s, and in 1934 approximately 500 students were attending the school.[16]

Gertrude succeeded David Jr. as director, and was still leading the school as late as 1953 when she was honored in a special tribute event by the National Association of Negro Musicians.[17] She died in June 1954.[18] By 1969 the school's building had been demolished and an article in New York Amsterdam News advocated for the placement of a memorial plaque to honor the MSSM.[2]

Faculty

Vocal music faculty at the school included sopranos Marie Selika Williams[4] and Minnie G. Brown;[19] concert tenor Sidney Woodward;[4] and baritone Frank Goodall Harrison.[20] The multi-instrumentalist, composer, and conductor Francis Eugene Mikell was another influential teacher at the school.[21] Other faculty members included Irving Frederick Barnwell (violin),[22] Andrew Fletcher Rosemond (violin),[20] Tourgee DeBose (piano),[23] Lou Hooper (piano),[24] H. Leonard Jeter (cello),[25] James R. C. Pinn (piano),[26] Sonoma Talley (piano),[19] Edwin Coates (piano / music theory),[19] Jessie Ernestine Covington (piano),[19] and Will Marion Cook.[27]

Alumni

Jazz trombonist George Matthews was a student at the school from 1927 to 1931.[28] Other graduates of the school included cellists Clarissa Burton Cumbo[29] and David Irwin Martin Jr.;[15] violinists Winston Collymore,[30] and Gertrude Martin (daughter of David and Gertrude);[15] pianist Hugo Bornn;[2] jazz bassists Chocolate Williams and Olivia Sophie L'Ange Shipp,[31] jazz trumpeter Arthur Briggs;[27] jazz saxophonist and clarinetist Sol Moore;[32] and jazz keyboardist and arranger Skip Hall.[33]

References

Citations

  1. ^ "The Martin-Smith School of Music". The Crisis: 41. May 1923.
  2. ^ a b c d Allen, James Egert (August 2, 1969). "Black History Past and Present: The Martin-Smith School of Music". New York Amsterdam News. p. 13.
  3. ^ Southern 1997, pp. 288–289.
  4. ^ a b c d Southern 1997, p. 289.
  5. ^ Badger 1995, p. 262.
  6. ^ a b c Boris 1929, p. 257.
  7. ^ a b Handy 1998, p. 9.
  8. ^ Howe 2013, p. 150.
  9. ^ Southern 1997, p. 285.
  10. ^ Price, Maxile & Kernodle 2011, p. 515.
  11. ^ Brooks 2005, p. 257.
  12. ^ Palmer 2006, p. 90.
  13. ^ McGruder 2015, p. 149.
  14. ^ Southern 1997, p. 288.
  15. ^ a b c Southern 1982, p. 266.
  16. ^ "Helen Elise Dett". The Brooklyn Times-Union. March 17, 1934. p. 7.
  17. ^ "Musicians Plan Martin Tribute". The New York Age. September 26, 1953. p. 5.
  18. ^ "Gertrude H. Martin: To Be Honored". The New York Age. July 9, 1955. p. 9.
  19. ^ a b c d Allen, Cleveland G. (October 15, 1927). "Music and Drama". The Chicago Defender. p. 18.
  20. ^ a b Southern 1982, p. 265.
  21. ^ Southern 1997, p. 290.
  22. ^ Brooks 2011, p. 1097.
  23. ^ Southern 1982, p. 99.
  24. ^ Kidd, Jim (June 1966). "Louis Hooper". Record Research (77): 3.
  25. ^ "Cellist Jeter Dies; City Resident's Brother". Mount Vernon Argus. June 23, 1970. p. 2.
  26. ^ "Dr. Pinn Assumes Pastorate". The Marshall News Messenger. August 15, 1975. p. 6.
  27. ^ a b Goddard 1979, p. 281.
  28. ^ Koch, Lawrence (2003). "Matthews, George". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J294700.
  29. ^ Gates & Higginbotham 2013, p. 381.
  30. ^ Southern 1982, p. 79.
  31. ^ Smith & Bracks 2014, p. 195.
  32. ^ "Sol Moore Forms Band". New Pittsburgh Courier. May 4, 1946. p. 19.
  33. ^ Feather 1960, p. 240.

Bibliography

  • Badger, Reid (1995). A Life in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195060447.
  • Boris, Joseph J., ed. (1929). Who's Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America : 1928-1929. New York City: Who's Who in Colored America Corp.
  • Brooks, Christopher Antonio, ed. (2011). The African American Almanac, 11th Edition. Gale Cengage Learning. ISBN 9781414445472.
  • Brooks, Tim (2005). Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252028502.
  • Feather, Leonard (1960). The Encyclopedia of Jazz. Horizon Press. ISBN 9780818012037. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  • Gates, Henry Louis, Jr; Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks, eds. (2013). African American National Biography, Second Edition. Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199990382.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  • Goddard, Chris (1979). Jazz Away From Home. Paddington Press. ISBN 9780448223674.
  • Handy, Antoinette D. (1998). Black Women in American Bands and Orchestras. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780810834194.
  • Howe, Sondra Wieland (2013). Women Music Educators in the United States: A History. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810888487.
  • McGruder, Kevin (2015). Race and Real Estate: Interracial Conflict and Co-Existence in Harlem, 1890-1920. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231169158.
  • Palmer, Colin A., ed. (2006). Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: the Black Experience in the Americas. Vol. 1. Macmillan Reference USA. ISBN 978-0028658216.
  • Price, Emmett George; Maxile, Horace Joseph; Kernodle, Tammy L., eds. (2011). Encyclopedia of African American Music. Vol. 2, H–O. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313342035.
  • Smith, Jessie Carney; Bracks, Lean'tin L., eds. (2014). Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780810885424.
  • Southern, Eileen (1982). Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313213397.
  • Southern, Eileen (1997). The Music of Black Americans: A History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393038439.
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