Robert Nathaniel Dett
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Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) was a Canadian-American composer, teacher, pianist, organist, and conductor who was the first Black American to receive the BM degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory, where he studied composition and piano. He also studied at the American Conservatory of Music, Columbia University, Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and the Fontainebleau School in Paris. He earned the MM degree in composition from Eastman and honorary doctorates from Oberlin and Howard.
For decades, Dett taught at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including Lane College, the Lincoln Institute, the Hampton Institute, and Bennett College. Dett was the first Black American chairman of the department of music at the Hampton Institute and established the BS degree in music at the school. His profound pedagogical legacy included his choir, which he transformed into an internationally-renowned touring ensemble. The group specialized in performing Black American sacred music, including Dett’s own compositions and arrangements of spirituals.
Dett published nearly 100 compositions for piano, chorus, solo voice, and an oratorio. Additionally there are surviving unpublished works for organ, voice, and an orchestral work. Dett was the recipient of numerous awards for his compositions and literary writings, including the Francis Boott Music Award and Bowdoin Literary Prize from Harvard, and the Harmon Foundation Award. In 1919, Dett founded the Musical Arts Society, which invited distinguished musicians to give concerts in the Hampton and Norfolk region. He was also an active member of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools and the National Association of Negro Musicians, for which he was president from 1924 to 1926.
Dett also strongly advocated for the importance of preserving Black American music in his literary writings. His award-winning essay, Negro Music, discusses the development of Black American music in sacred and secular traditions. Throughout his career, he asserted that Black folk music had African roots, and he was dismissive of those who only viewed popular genres such as ragtime and jazz as worthy of study. He wrote, “It is doubtful if anywhere in the world a race of people ever were so publicly derided in story, drama, and song as the Negro in America.”
Resources
Public Domain Scores
Dett Collection at Eastman Library
Sources
Brooks, Christopher. “Dett, R(obert) Nathaniel.” Grove Music Online. 2001.
Works Featured on Expanding the Music Theory Canon
Prelude: Night from In the Bottoms
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Page: Scales
Honey Humoresque from In the Bottoms
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Page: viio6, viio7+Inversions, Seventh Chords
Listen to the Lambs
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Page: Augmented 6th