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Date: 1944
Subjects: Marian Anderson
Place: New York, New York
Photographer: Philippe Halsman
Courtesy of The Marian Anderson Collection
Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania
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Marian Anderson studied all aspects of music during her life. As a child in Philadelphia, she amazed the members of her church when she began to sing African American Spirituals. From that early start, Marian's vocal gifts were recognized.
When Marian was young, her father was killed in an accident at work. Marian and her mother had to go to work to support her family. Once the family regained more a more stable financial position, she went back to high school and graduated.
When young, Marian was able to study with some very gifted teachers. However, this was quite expensive so Marian decided to enroll in a local school where she hoped that her gifts would be recognized and the costs of studying would be lower. Marian went to the Philadelphia Music Academy to hand in an application; the secretary told her "We don't take colored." Marian was crushed. |
| She had to again find a private teacher. To help her pay for her studies, her First Baptist Church community took up collections to support her. |
| Marian studied with passion. She felt the pain of racism in her heart and having her faith community support her with their hard-earned funds made her determined to succeed. |
| In short time, Marian mastered the Baroque style (1600-1750) of music and sang the works of Handel and Purcell. She also enjoyed the Romantic Period of Music (1820-1890s) and one of her favorite composers of art songs was Schubert. |
| An art song is a song that requires a highly trained singer. This kind of singing demands great power in sound production and a very high level of control over the notes of the music. These songs were written before we had electricity or microphones. When a singer sang in a hall or a large auditorium, the voice of the singer needed to be heard by all guests. This required the singer to project her voice throughout the hall, just like in opera. |
| During the Romantic era, great care was given to match the emotions found in the music to the words of the art song. Schubert felt that when the emotions brought to mind by the music of a song matched the emotions expressed by its words, the listeners would experience a real emotional connection with it. Marian was a master of his concepts and enjoyed singing his work. She excelled in singing Strauss's works and also was a muse for composer Jean Sibelius. |
| In 1925, Marian's training was complete, and she was ready to perform. She entered the New York Philharmonic voice competition and took first place. From that point on, she was recognized as a great artist. |
| Since many of the classical songs that Marian enjoyed singing were in other languages, Marian went to Europe to study. In Europe, the audiences cheered her every song. |
| When Marian returned to America, however, the racism of our country was again there to greet her. In 1939 she was denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt quit her membership in the DAR due to this insult to Marian. The White House then arranged for Marian to sing at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday of 1939. Over one hundred thousand citizens turned out to hear her sing that day, and NBC broadcast the concert live. |
| Marian continued to sing and to fight for the rights of her people. While many European nations awarded her honors and medals, Marian still struggled during the prime of her singing career with racism here at home. It was not until 1955 that she was able to sing with the Metropolitan Opera in NYC. She was the first African American to do so. |
| In 1961 she sang for President Kennedy's inauguration, and he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. This is the highest honor offered to American citizens by their government. Marian was not just a singer; she was a hero in the fight against racism. In recognition of her work she won the United Nations Peace Prize in 1977. She also won many other awards, including a Grammy for lifetime achievement. The greatest honor that she received, however, was the adoration of the many music lovers who recognized her as a truly gifted singer who helped change her nation and integrate the musical arts. |
| In April of 1993, Marian died from congestive heart failure at the age of 96. |
