Gussie Davis: Difference between revisions
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==Career== |
==Career== |
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Davis had climbed high on the ladder to success within a few years and his songs were being published through Tin Pan Alley. In 1895, he won second place in a contest sponsored by [[New York World]] to find the ten best songwriters in the nation. His song ''Send Back the Picture and the Ring'' won him about $500 in gold. |
Davis had climbed high on the ladder to success within a few years and his songs were being published through Tin Pan Alley. In 1895, he won second place in a contest sponsored by [[New York World]] to find the ten best songwriters in the nation. His song, ''Send Back the Picture and the Ring'', won him about $500 in gold. |
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==Death== |
==Death== |
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Revision as of 05:18, 15 February 2010
Gussie Lord Davis (December 3, 1863 - December 18, 1899[1]) was an African-American songwriter from Cincinnati, Ohio. Davis was one of America's earliest successful African-American music artists, having been the first Black songwriter to acquire fame on Tin Pan Alley as a composer of minstrels.
Early life
He obtained his musical training at the Nelson Musical College in Cincinnati, OH where his application was rejected due to his color. However, he arranged to give janitorial services at a low wage in exchange for private lessons. Written when he was only eighteen, We Sat Beneath the Maple on the Hill became a hit.
Career
Davis had climbed high on the ladder to success within a few years and his songs were being published through Tin Pan Alley. In 1895, he won second place in a contest sponsored by New York World to find the ten best songwriters in the nation. His song, Send Back the Picture and the Ring, won him about $500 in gold.
Death
Davis published more than two hundred songs and certainly left more in manuscript at the time of his death. He wrote a variety of musical forms, including sentimental ballads, comic minstrel songs, art songs, and choral music[2]. One of his musicals, A Hot Old Time in Dixie, was on the road at the time of his death. Also a performer, he played the piano on Bergen Star Concerts and toured with his Davis Operatic and Plantation Minstrels.[3]
Notable Songs
- We Sat Beneath the Maple On The Hill
- In The Baggage Coach Ahead
- Footprints In The Snow
- My Creole Sue
- She Waited at the Altar in Vain
- Why Does Papa Stay so Late?
Perhaps his most notable song, Irene, Good Night (1886), entered the folk song repertoire albeit significantly altered as Goodnight, Irene in Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly (1936), edited by John Lomax and Alan Lomax.
References
- ^ http://musicsack.com/PersonFMTDetail.cfm?PersonPK=100020237 Music Sack
- ^ http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200152701/default.html Gussie Lord Davis
- ^ Southern, Eileen (1997). The Music of Black Americans. WW Norton & Company. pp. 242–244.
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External links
- Library of Congress's electronic archive of Gussie Davis's sheet music
- Life in Nineteeth Century Ohio: Minstrel Songs
- Wylie and the Wild West, Cowboy Ballads and Dance Songs
- Why Does Papa Always Stay So Late Sheet music
- The Black Perspective in Music, Vol. 2, No. 1
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