Nathaniel Dett’s In the Bottoms
This February, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates Black composers and musicians whose music has been suppressed and ignored. All of these musicians should be added to the music history and music theory curriculum. https://youtu.be/2MRD9XcRTcI Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943), born in Canada but raised in the United States from the age of 11, was well known for the use of African American folk songs and spirituals in his Romantic-style compositions. He was the first Black student to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin, where he studied piano and composition. He devoted his life to education and furthering knowledge of Black music history. He later received a Master’s of Music from Eastman, and he also studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. In 1918, Dett said, “We have this wonderful store of folk music—the melodies of an enslaved people. . . . But this store will be of no value unless we utilize it, unless we treat it in such manner that it can be presented in choral form, in ...