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Additional Riches

These are possible suggested terms of art and music for those who wish to add some variety to AO's regularly-scheduled terms.

Picture Study

Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937; American) Especially notable: The Banjo Lesson

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656; Italian Baroque) Note: Many of her paintings (such as Judith Beheading Holofernes) are gory depictions of Bible stories. The following should be fine for all audiences.
   1. Self-Portrait as a Lute Player, 1615-1617
   2. Mary Magdalene, 1620
   3. Anunciation, 1630
   4. Esther before Ahasuerus,1628-1635
   5. Samson and Delilah, 1630-1638
   6. Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638-39

Judith Jans Leyster (1609-1660; Dutch Golden Age)
   1. Serenade, 1629, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
   2. A Game of Tric Trac, 1630, Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts
   3. Self-portrait, 1630, National Gallery of Art Washington
   4. The Proposition, 1631, Royal Picture Gallery, Mauritshuis, The Hague
      OR The Happy Couple, 1630, Musée du Louvre
   5. Young Flute Player, 1630s, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
   6. A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel, 1635, National Gallery, London

Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807; Swiss-Austrian Neoclassical)
   1. Hector Calls Paris to the Battle, 1775 The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia
   2. Design, 1778-1780 Royal Academy, Londonfrom a series, The Four Elements, that also includes Invention, Composition, and Colour
   3. Beauty Directed by Prudence, Wreathed by Perfection, 1780
OR Beauty, Directed by Prudence, Rejects with Scorn the Offering of Folly, 1780
   4. Scene with Miranda and Ferdinand, 1782, Belvedere, Vienna
OR Valentine Rescues Silvia in 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' 1789
   5. Self-portrait of the Artist hesitating between the Arts of Music and Painting, 1794, Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
   6. Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, 1796, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901; Canadian-African Hudson River Painter) Info
   1. Moon Over Harbor, 1868
   2. Newspaper Boy, 1869, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
   3. Train, 1875-1880, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
   4. Driving Home the Cows, 1881, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
   5. River Scene, 1883, Honolulu Museum of Art
   6. Palmer River, 1885

Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872; African American second generation Hudson River School Painter; read article at The Federalist)
   1. Summer, 1849 Michael Rosenfeld Art Gallery, New York
   2. Landscape with Rainbow, 1859 Smithsonian American Art Museum, currently on loan to the White House
   3. Landscape with Sheep, no date Smithsonian American Art Museum
   4. Land of the Lotus Eaters, 1861 (based on Tennyson's poem) Swedish Royal Collection, Stockholm
   5. Landscape with Cows Watering in a Stream, 1871 Gallery 759, The Met Fifth Avenue, NY
   6. Loch Katrine, 1871 Detroit Institute of Arts
For Further Interest:
   Vulture and Its Prey,1844 Smithsonian American Art Museum (not on view)
   Fruit Piece, 1849 Detroit Institute of Arts
   Uncle Tom and Little Eva, 1853 Detroit Institute of Arts
   Vesuvius and Pompeii, 1870 Smithsonian American Art Museum

Mary Edmonia "Wildfire" Lewis (1844-1907; African-American/Native American sculptor)
Wikipedia says, "Her work is known for incorporating themes relating to Black people and indigenous peoples of the Americas into Neoclassical-style sculpture."
   Old Arrow-Maker and his Daughter 1866 National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC
    Forever Free 1867 Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
   Hiawatha 1868 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Yorkand Minnehaha 1868 Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey
   Hagar 1875 National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC
   The Death of Cleopatra 1876 Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; she is partially unclothed

Composer Study

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani 1602-1676; Italian Baroque, Benedictine nun. Notable works: Primavera dei fiori musicali (Springtime of Musical Blossoms); Concerti sacri.

Augusta Holmès 1847-1903; French Romantic composer of Irish descent

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 1875-1912; African-British. His mother was an English woman and his father was a Sierra Leone Creole physician. Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the "African Mahler" when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s. He was named after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and was so taken with Longfellow's Hiawatha that he not only composed music for it, but named his son Hiawatha!

1894 Nonet in F Minor, Op 2
      1 Allegro energico *
      2 Andante con moto *
      3 Scherzo: Allegro *
      4 Finale: Allegro vivace *

1898 Four Characteristic Waltzes, Op. 22 * *

1898 Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, from The Song of Hiawatha, Op. 30 *
The entire Song of Hiawatha:
      Overture *
      Hiawatha's Wedding Feast *
      The Death of Minehaha *
      Hiawatha's Departure *

1898 Ballade in A Minor for Orchestra Op 33 *

1904 24 Negro Melodies Op 59, especially no. 10, Deep River. "After his tour, Coleridge-Taylor picked up his composing pen and created a series of 24 Negro Melodies for violin and piano, writing in the preface, 'What Brahms has done for the Hungarian folk music, Dvorak for the Bohemian, and Grieg for the Norwegian, I have tried to do for these Negro Melodies.'"
      Deep River *

1904 4 African Dances Op 58 (violin and piano)
      1 in G min: Allegro *
      2 in F maj: Andante molto sostenuto e dolce *
      3 in A maj: Allegro con brio *
      4 in D min: Allegro energico *

1906 Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Op 63 *

1911 Petit Suite de concert, Op 77 *

He also compiled a popular medley of Christmas tunes: Christmas Overture Op 74

Fela Sowande 1905-1987; Nigerian. Considered the father of modern Nigerian art music. He studied music in London. Performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Became a Fellow of Trinity College of Music and worked as musical advisor for the Colonial Film Unit of the Ministry of Information during WWII, providing background music for educational films. 1945-1952 he was organist and choirmaster at the West London Mission of the Methodist Church, composing organ muisic based on Nigerian melodies that gave a special appeal to the Black members of his congregation. (from Wikipedia) View the educational television special from 1964 "The Music of Africa" narrated by Sowande on YouTube *, and Singing Cultures' 11-minute film "Fela Sowande: Past, Present and Future." *

1944 African Suite for Strings (I. Joyful Day; II. Nostalgia; III. Onipe; IV. Lullabye; V. Akinla) The 1952 Decca Liner notes from the composer: "This Suite consists of five pieces for String Orchestra and Harp, representing five varying moods. Two of the themes used in the Suite, 'Joyful Day' and 'Onipe,' are melodies from the pen of Mr. E. Amu, of Achimota College, Gold Coast, West Africa, to whom the composer is indebted for permission to use them. 'Lullaby' and 'Akinla' are folk-melodies from Southern Nigeria, while 'Nostalgia' is based on an original theme, and represents the nostalgic memories of 'an African in England.'" *

1955 Yorùbá Lament (for organ) (Yoruba is an ethnic group in Nigeria) *

1955 Obangiji "God Almighty" (for organ) *

1958 The Wedding Song (tune by Fela Sowande) *

1959 Come Out And Dance * *

Amazon has the digital album "Softly, Softly," which features instrumental popular tunes here, and "The Negro In Sacred Idiom" here

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799; French-African)
Referred to as "the black Mozart," Boulogne was the son of a wealthy land owner and his wife's 16-year old slave. He fought in the French Revolution. Violin Concerto in D, Op. 3 no. 1 * Many of his other works are on YouTube.

Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (1849-1908; American)
Mostly a performer, but he composed The Rainstorm *, The Battle of Manassas *, The Sewing Song *, Water in the Moonlight *.

Amy Beach (1867-1944; American)
The first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. A major compositional success came with her Mass in E-flat major, which was performed in 1892, and a successful song called Ecstacy. Beach followed this up with an important milestone in music history: her Gaelic Symphony, the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. It premiered October 30, 1896. In 1900, the Boston Symphony premiered Beach's Piano Concerto, with the composer as soloist. Her Quintet for piano and strings in F-sharp minor, from 1905, had well over forty performances, in dozens of cities, over the radio, and by many string quartets. Variations on Balkan Themes, Beach's "longest and most important solo" piano work, was composed in 1904. It responded to revolts in the Balkans against the then ruling Ottoman Empire. (This was pieced together from Wikipedia.)

Florence Price (1887-1953; American)
The first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Works include Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Piano Concerto in One Movement, two violin concertos, 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint, and Mississippi River Suite. She also set Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "Sympathy" to music ("I know why the caged bird sings").

William Grant Still (1895-1978; American)
"Often referred to as 'the Dean' of African-American composers, Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera. Still is known most for his first symphony, the 'Afro-American,' which was until the 1950s the most widely performed symphony composed by an American." Also, Symphony No. 3 "The Sunday Symphony."

Ulysses Simpson Kay (1917-1995; African-American neo-classical)
Known for operas, including one about Frederick Douglass written at the end of his life, and symphonic works, including "Pieta."

Poetry

AmblesideOnline schedules Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Phillis Wheatley as part of its regular line-up. You may also wish to look into:

James Monroe Whitfield (1822-1871) African American abolitionist poet
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) African American abolitionist and suffragist poet
Albery Whitman (1851-1901) "Poet Laureate of the Negro Race"
George Marion McClellan (1860-1934) Congregational minister and writer
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) Harlem Renaissance poet wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which became known as the Negro National Anthem
William Stanley Braithwaite (1878-1962) Influenced Harlem Renaissance poets
Edward Smyth Jones (1881-1968) African-American poet
Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961) poet who edited The Brownies Book
Effie Lee Newsome (1885-1979) A Harlem Renaissance poet who wrote for children
Countee Cullen (1903-1946) African American poet

Some online text resources:
Negro Folk Rhymes, by Thomas Washington Talley, 1922
The Book of American Negro Poetry, by James Weldon Johnson, 1922
The Brownies' Book was a periodical published by W.E.B. Dubois and The Crisis. It was specifically for Black children and it was edited by Jessie Redmon Fauset. Langston Hughes first published poem was in their periodical. Issues can be accessed through the Library of Congress or ChildLit website.
Negro Poets and Their Poems, by Robert T. Kerlin