roland hayes (excerpt)

892019 Roland Hayes (excerpt)

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullroland-hayes-excerpt 16



Te Hayes Conquest (983089983097983090983091ndash983089983097983090983092) 983089983090983089

among the German population that the Africans and their Afro-Germanchildren would lead to the ldquobastardizationrdquo of the German race10486301048631 Inhis infamous work Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler even accused the Jews of

bringing the Africans into the Rhineland for the purpose of corruptingthe purity of the German people10486301048632

What Roland referred to as one of his ldquogreatest triumphs over ha-tredrdquo was a well- advertised and scheduled appearance at the Germancapitalrsquos celebrated Beethoven-Saal in May 98308998309798309098309210486301048633 In Berlin he was pri-marily represented by the Russian impresario J Borkon who under the

best circumstances had a complex relationship with the tenor Hoping

to capitalize on Rolandrsquos success in other parts of Europe Borkon had begun advertising the singerrsquos recital in major German papers whichincluded a six-inch head-shot In addition to promoting the concert asRolandrsquos first Berlin appearance the ad stated that he would sing thelieder of Beethoven Schubert Schumann Brahms Strauss and Wolf

Although it also said that Roland would sing the music of Handel andMozart as well as African American spirituals it was the announcementof the first group of great German song composers that was distasteful

to many concertgoing Berliners Tey had primarily associated African American musicians with jazz and what they regarded as lesser formsof popular music Open leers began appearing in German newspapersdenouncing Rolandrsquos appearance as a sacrilege

Roland stayed in Prague until two days before his scheduled appear-ance in Berlin He crossed the German border inconspicuously withLawrence and traveled to the city On the morning before his May 983089983088

concert Roland received a copy of an American newspaper publishedin the capital which once again called his appearance at the Beethoven-Saal scandalous saying that the best he could do would be to remindthe German public of ldquothe coon fields of Georgiardquo10486311048624 Roland consulted

Ambassador Houghton about the maer Hoping that the presence ofthe American ambassador at the recital that evening would stave off anyunpleasant situation the tenor offered him tickets to the concert Teambassador declined the invitation and gave the tickets to his staff

Te night of the concert was tense for Roland and Lawrence TeBerlin house was filled to its 983089983088983088983088-seat capacity Backstage Roland

braced himself for what he suspected would be an intractable audienceUnlike in previous performances where the custom was to dim the lights



983089983090983090 Roland Hayes

as the performers walked onstage Roland and Lawrence walked intonear total darkness and took their respective positions in a single spot-light aimed at where the tenor was to stand as if he were somehow a

target When he made it to the bend of the piano he began hearing fainthisses Over the course of a minute they grew louder and louder Teldquobarragerdquo of protest continued for close to ten minutes while Rolandstood perfectly still with his eyes closed and his head upright He felt acalm come over him as the audience continued its demonstration10486311048625 Inhis mind he uered his standard prayer while facing an audience beforea performance ldquoGod please blot out Roland Hayes so that the people

will see only theerdquo10486311048626 A er some time the audience calmed down to adeadening silence It was so quiet according to Roland ldquothat the hush began to hurtrdquo10486311048627 He opened his eyes and with only the slightest nod ofhis head signaled William Lawrence at the keyboard to begin

Following the indicated tempo marking langsam (slowly) Law-rence began Schubertrsquos familiar song with a text by Ruumlckert in E-flatmajor at a barely audible pianissimo Schubert took seven measures inthe introductory accompaniment to paint a scene of absolute peaceful

repose With gripped hands and closed eyes the consummate singer began as if he were almost in a transcendental state as the spirit tookover

Du bist die Ruhrsquo der Friede mild(You are calm the mild peace)Die Sehnsucht du und was sie stillt(You are longing and what stills it)

Allowing only his raised eyebrows and altered facial gestures to com-municate the dissonant harmonies of the next phrase he delivered witha sense of longing

Ich weihe dir voll Lust und Schmerz(I consecrate to you full of pleasure and pain)Zur Wohnung hier mein Aug und Herz(As a dwelling here my eyes and heart)

Te final phrase ldquomein Aug und Herzrdquo returned to the warmer originalE-flat major and was then repeated as an affirmation Aer a brief pianointerlude the tonic E-flat major opening returned to establish onceagain the peaceful mood heard at the beginning of the compositionTe next verse is nearly identical harmonically to the first so Roland




gradually opened his eyes and was le to emote and communicate thedifferent text

Kehr ein bei mir und schlieβe du(Come live w ith me and close)Still hinter dir die Pforten zu(Quietly behind you the gates)reib andern Schmerz aus dieser Brust(Drive other pain out of this breast)

Voll sei dies Herz von deiner Lust(Tat my heart may be ful l with your pleasure [last phrase repeated])

Only in the final climactic section of the song did Roland give more vol-ume to his otherwise pianissimo singing He gradually crescendoed inthe vocal line while Lawrence played the complementary harmonies onthe keyboard which included several accidentals Rolandrsquos voice simplysoared above the accompaniment

Dies Augenzelt von deinem Glanz(Te tabernacle of my eyes by your rad iance)

Al lein erhellt O fuumlll es ganz

(Alone is illumined Oh fill it completely)10486311048628

Te gradual urgency in this musical passage climaxed on the word ldquoer-helltrdquo sung on a forte G-natural over a dramatic secondary dominant E-flat seventh chord and resolved to a simple A-flat in the voice and pianoTis was where Roland sang full voice for the first time As his voice rangthroughout the concert hall he gave his listeners a moment to absorbthe forte singing that had just taken place adhering to Schubertrsquos one

measure rest He then peacefully returned to the restful and calm E-flatoriginal with ldquoO fuumlll es ganzrdquo Te composer then repeated the samepassage but the second time Roland following the dynamic markingssang ldquoerhelltrdquo in a stunningly effective pianissimo He then finished thesong by repeating the passage ldquoO fuumlll es ganz O fuumlll es ganzrdquo

Once Roland had completed the vocal line he remained perfectlystill and calm as he had at the beginning of the song allowing Lawrenceto complete the last few chords at the keyboard At the close of the per-

formance there was total silence throughout the house In his heart andpsyche Roland knew that the performance had transformed the audi-encersquos disdain into respect if not admiration for him and his artistryOnly then did he slowly open his eyes Te spirit had done its work



983089983090983092 Roland Hayes

Still stunned by what it had just experienced the audience was jolted back into reality by the sound of a lone sustained clap followed by a fewsparsely isolated claps which quickly turned into cheers and stomping

Te audience members one thousand strong hastily rose to their feetin loud applause Not four minutes earlier the majority of the highbrowBerliners were convinced that the best this black man could do was tosing jazz or songs from the Georgia coon fields Instead he had con-

vincingly demonstrated his mastery of one of their most revered liedercomposers Roland gave a faint smile of acknowledgment (as if to say tohis doubting Berliners ldquoNow what do you think of thatrdquo) but it was

far from the grin that he might have otherwise displayed And the ap-plause continued Tere was lile question about who was in control ofthe theater for the rest of the evening If the tenor had elected to end therecital at that point the Berlin audience would have considered his taskdone But he gave them more

Aer an intermission Roland took his daring strategy one step fur-ther he sang French repertoire to the postndashWorld War I German audi-ence Tis was a risk considering that the French were the very people

who had introduced the continental African troops into the Rhinelandand as such were reviled throughout the country10486311048629 Singing French tothis audience was not unlike Leo Rosenek having spoken German to theCzech audience at Rolandrsquos Prague debut the year before

By the end of his concert his detractors-turned-ardent-admirersgreeted him onstage Among the well-wishers was a white Americanmusic student studying in Berlin He shook the tenorrsquos hand with an

enthusiastic ldquoGoddam it put it there Tis is the first time I have seen theGermans admit that good art can come out of Americardquo10486311048630 Te concert

was not reviewed until two days later in the May 983089983090 edition of the cityrsquosprestigious Berliner Montag Post Tere was no ambiguity on the part ofthe reviewer about how the tenor had fared

Roland Hayes the negro tenor who had been announced with such a flourishof trumpets made his appearance on Saturday in Beethoven Hall Mr Hayesshamed his managers for without exaggeration one can say that their sensa-

tional claims were not of a sufficiently high order Te method of Mr Hayes is very unusual His tenor voice has the sweetness of the great Romantic singersHis special faci lity for languages is remarkable10486311048631




While Rolandrsquos May 983089983088 debut achieved the adoration of the Berlinpublic as he had hoped there is the very strong possibility that his choiceof song and the execution of it was planned Aer his experience the

year before in Prague where he was booed because his accompanist hadaddressed the audience in German and he had spoken to them in Eng-lish as opposed to Czech it is more than likely that the savv y tenor hadanticipated some kind of demonstration in Berlin In light of the mean-spirited editorials that had circulated before his arrival he may even haveplanned on such an action If starting his program with the demandingSchubert work to demonstrate his ability was in fact a gamble that Ro-

land took it paid off big Borkon engaged Roland for another concert inthe city at the beginning of the following month based on the demandof the audience and organizers

Some years later Roland made clear that he believed that theBeethoven-Saal protest was inspired if not staged by the Nationalsozi-alistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei more commonly known as the Ger-man Nationalist Party or the all-too-familiar Nazi Party10486311048632 His deduction

would have been consistent with the well-documented racist ideologies

of NazismRoland and Lawrence traveled back to London with a slew of posi-

tive reviews of his Berlin debut following them Shortly aer their arrivalthey were scheduled for a May 983090983090 performance at Queenrsquos Hall with thePhilharmonic String Quartet Lawrence was at the piano accompanyinghis spirituals arranged for orchestra While Roland had been away fromLondon his dear friend Robert Broadhurst had been taking care of his

personal affairs Broadhurst also became Rolandrsquos scout and promoterthroughout the British Isles

As an ardent Pan-Africanist Robert Broadhurst also reported Ro-landrsquos successes to the African serials in the London area and on thecontinent Several of them were especially overjoyed at how Roland hadput the culturally snobbish Germans in their place with his Berlin debutMany of the Pan-Africanists in London were well aware of the abusesthat their continental brethren had received patrolling the Rhinelandin Germany Several of the Pan-Africanists in London and Paris beganreferring to Roland Hayes as the ldquoAfrican tenorrdquo10486311048633




among the German population that the Africans and their Afro-Germanchildren would lead to the ldquobastardizationrdquo of the German race10486301048631 Inhis infamous work Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler even accused the Jews of

bringing the Africans into the Rhineland for the purpose of corruptingthe purity of the German people10486301048632

What Roland referred to as one of his ldquogreatest triumphs over ha-tredrdquo was a well- advertised and scheduled appearance at the Germancapitalrsquos celebrated Beethoven-Saal in May 98308998309798309098309210486301048633 In Berlin he was pri-marily represented by the Russian impresario J Borkon who under the

best circumstances had a complex relationship with the tenor Hoping

to capitalize on Rolandrsquos success in other parts of Europe Borkon had begun advertising the singerrsquos recital in major German papers whichincluded a six-inch head-shot In addition to promoting the concert asRolandrsquos first Berlin appearance the ad stated that he would sing thelieder of Beethoven Schubert Schumann Brahms Strauss and Wolf

Although it also said that Roland would sing the music of Handel andMozart as well as African American spirituals it was the announcementof the first group of great German song composers that was distasteful

to many concertgoing Berliners Tey had primarily associated African American musicians with jazz and what they regarded as lesser formsof popular music Open leers began appearing in German newspapersdenouncing Rolandrsquos appearance as a sacrilege

Roland stayed in Prague until two days before his scheduled appear-ance in Berlin He crossed the German border inconspicuously withLawrence and traveled to the city On the morning before his May 983089983088

concert Roland received a copy of an American newspaper publishedin the capital which once again called his appearance at the Beethoven-Saal scandalous saying that the best he could do would be to remindthe German public of ldquothe coon fields of Georgiardquo10486311048624 Roland consulted

Ambassador Houghton about the maer Hoping that the presence ofthe American ambassador at the recital that evening would stave off anyunpleasant situation the tenor offered him tickets to the concert Teambassador declined the invitation and gave the tickets to his staff

Te night of the concert was tense for Roland and Lawrence TeBerlin house was filled to its 983089983088983088983088-seat capacity Backstage Roland

braced himself for what he suspected would be an intractable audienceUnlike in previous performances where the custom was to dim the lights



983089983090983090 Roland Hayes


























983089983090983092 Roland Hayes


























983089983090983090 Roland Hayes


























983089983090983092 Roland Hayes








































983089983090983092 Roland Hayes
























roland hayes (excerpt)

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