ART|CULTURELIFESTYLE

Black Composers: Black Excellence

Ignatius Sancho, African polymath and Black Excellence in the 18th century

Gus Franklyn-Bute

The compelling portrait of Ignatius Sancho by Thomas Gainsborough is considered a masterpiece. It has carved into perpetuity the irrefutable evidence of the history of Black Excellence during the Age of Reason –  the so-called period of Enlightenment in western philosophy.

Ignatius Sancho: African Polymath

Ignatius Sancho was an African polymath born in 1729 on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean en route from the coast of Guinea to the Caribbean. At the age of two year, his parents died and Sancho was dispatched to England from the Spanish West Indies. He spent many years in domestic service, including to the Duke of Montagu. The young African applied his intellect, learning to read and write from an early age and later developed a prodigious interest in the wider arts.

Thomas Gainsborough was two years older than Sancho when painter and sitter met in Bath, England in 1768 to document their mutual prodigy in a portrait of Sancho. At the time, Gainsborough’s artistic mastery was in high demand by royalty, nobility and families dripping in new found wealth from Britain’s flourishing transatlantic slave trade. Gainsborough was a draughtsman, printmaker and a founding member of Royal Academy of Arts. He is one of the greatest 18th-century English landscape and portrait painter and his masterpiece of Sancho resides in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Self-made African Man: History of Black Excellence

Ignatius Sancho was a free man when he sat for Gainsborough. By the latter half of the century, his accomplishments had propelled him into the social circles of the British elite. Often described as a man of letters, his erudite accomplishments established him as an author, poet, playwright, musician, composer, actor and slave-abolitionist. Sancho was also an entrepreneur with a grocery store in heart of Westminster, London – the seat of Britain’s political and economic power.  In addition to being the first and only black voter in British parliamentary elections in the 18th-century, he was also the first African to have an obituary published in British newspapers.

Gainsborough artistic expression in the portrait gained Sancho a deeper respect among the British elite in an age when African representation in art was as an objectified motif of wealth for the moneyed class. Black figures were prostitutes, fairground performers, musicians, beggars, peddlers and sailors. Gainsborough’s portrait ascribes Sancho an emotional depth, conveying the warmth and humour for which he was known.  The portrait is of a self-made African man of black excellence. Sancho’s legacy speaks volumes in the present day struggles of black communities who are continuing to flight against institutional racism and for equality of opportunities in campaigns such as Black Lives Matter.

“The Sancho portrait is the most accomplished portrait of an African person in British portraiture of the time.” (“Ignatius Sancho: An African Man of Letters” Reyahn King and Sukhdev Sandhu, National Portrait Gallery, 1955)

Ignatius Sancho: 18th Century Black Composer in western society.

Of course, the history of Black Excellence is millennia old. It doesn’t start with Sancho. However, his rise to notoriety and his achievements must be viewed in the context of an 18th century age of inhumanity where being non-white meant you were uncivilised. Civilisation was characterised as European superiority in art, music, government, science, law and literature. Of Sancho’s letters and books, he dedicated his “Theory of Music” to the Princess Royal. He wrote four books of songs and lively dance music in a collection of Minuets, Cotillons and Country Dances.

As the first black composer to publish music in the European tradition, the collection demonstrates Sancho’s genius as he delicately balances his African heritage with European classical musical composition. The tunes, with French and English titles, were musically styled for popular dance parties where couples would gather for Georgian line-dances and raves.

350 Black Classical Composers

Ignatius Sancho is one of many black composers in what the award-winning violinist, Rachel Barton Pine calls a “landmark project that celebrates the discovery of more than 350 Black Classical Composers and over 900 classical works hidden in the shadows.

Through the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation, three landmarked projects have been launched titled “Music by Black Composers” to show the world that #BlackisClassical. Barton Pine and her RBP Foundation have spent over 15 years compiling this impressive collection covering a period between 1767 to 2014 written by Black composers from Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America, Asia, Oceania and Europe. 

Music By Black Composers: Violin Vol 1 – Arranged by Rachel Barton Pine – Ludwig Masters

The first project is the publication of MBC Violin Volume I – the first of an eight part series of pedagogical books of sheet music exclusively by black classical composers featuring 22 works for violin. The publication includes biographies of the artists.

Two other publications from the project are a colouring book featuring 40 black composers and an illustrated poster of over 300 black composers.

Black is Classical

RBP Foundation asserts that black composers have created masterful classical music for centuries, yet remain underrepresented in concert programming and in classical music education, effectively silencing a rich vein of works from global consciousness. Young musicians very rarely have an opportunity to study and perform classical music by black composers.

Coloring Book Of Black Composers. Illustrations by Sho-mei Pelletier

Aspiring black music students struggle to participate in an art form in which they do not appear to belong, perpetuating a lack of diversity on stage and among audiences. The RBP Foundation hope to inspire black students to begin and continue instrumental training, to make the music of black composers available to all and to change the face of classical music and its canon.

Rachel Barton Pine: Blues Dialogues

The #BlackisClassical launched was  in conjunction is Rachel Barton Pine’s Blues Dialogues, an album of classical works by 20th– and 21st-century black composers on Cedille. 

Additional Resources:

Source
The Rachel Barton Pine FoundationMusic by Black Composers (Facebook)
Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button
Verified by MonsterInsights