Journal Article

Singing the Civilizing Mission in the Land of Bach; Beethoven; and Brahms: The Fisk Jubilee Singers in Nineteenth-Century Germany

THURMAN, KIRA

2016

Overview

In 1877, the African American musical ensemble known as the Fisk Jubilee Singers traveled to Germany to raise money for their university. The choir's ten-month tour provided German listeners with one of their first significant and sustained encounters with African Americans and African American culture in the nineteenth century. As listeners throughout Germany heard the ensemble perform, they began to debate the Fisk Jubilee Singer's musical, cultural, and ethnic origins. At the heart of their growing ethnomusicological and anthropological interest in the Jubilee Singer's music was the question of whether or not African Americans were fulfilling the powerful promise of the civilizing mission: Were they proof that people of the black diaspora were capable of accepting \"Western\" art music and cultural values? This article illustrates how African American music contributed to global conversations on the civilizing mission in the nineteenth century.

• Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I PRESS,University of Hawai'i Press,University of Hawaii Press
• Subject: 19th century / Abolitionism / African American culture / African American music / African Americans / African Christianity / American culture / Apologies / Appreciation / Audiences / Children / Christianity / Colonialism / Crying / Cultural imperialism / Demographic aspects / Diaspora / Fisk Jubilee Singers / Folksongs / Fund raising / German language / Germany / Listening / Missions / Missions (Religion) / Missions, Foreign / Money / Mourning / Music / Music ensembles / Musical performances / Musicians & conductors / Race / Religious songs / Royalty / Singers / Singing / Songs / Spirituals (Songs) / United States / Western art music / Westernization