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THE STARS AND STRIPESFriday, Sept. 17, 1943Negro\ are*n I hephea-* e re d? hadi re n t dicer. shelssed”f achmu asheir ofablew ithf theA70 ng afiertriedStars and Stripes Photo by Richard Koenigf the itheatedFirst ChorusRaceMcDaniel, of Kansas Citv, Mo., assistantf thehisTo Sing in Albert200 aviation engineersRolandNegroAlbert Hall. London, on Sept. 28 andbullHall in 72 Yearsmore, who led a symphonyplaying one of his own compositions in July at Royal Albert Hall, and Cpl. MarcBlitzstein, of New York, composer-authorof “The Cradleorchestraad.• *steeroth. Is inBy Richard WilburStripesppedandBATTALION HQ, Sept. 16—Two hundred Negroone had missed the cue to come in with, “Yeah, Paul Revere had a horse raceWhomanded.*aul Revere?’' Weisgall Someone raised hisdehandWill Rock play produced several years j Welles.“Thehe soldiers, members of fourV ■ I 'lavelation engineers battalions, sat on benches togetherandsang:cue, soldier-chorusBlitzstein shouted to thesheepishly.Weisgall said.fromtheMister Tom Jefferson. a mighty fine man,He wrote it down in a mighty fine hanreelIt he vAnd the rest all signed with a mighty finefuin'stage, is ‘Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ Then—loud—‘Shallnot perish from the earth.’Some of the soldiers, restless fromThey came to the words, “Let my people go. Weisgall wasn't satisfied with thebesteady sitting, shifted around in their seatsand murmured, “1 need complete silence, Blitzstein said.And they crossed their T's and dottedtheir IsA bran' new country did arise.”Let's Hear It“I meanIIn a bare Nissen hut here the aviation“Balladforengineers were rehearsing Americans, one of the songs they will sing before Allied audiences in Royal Albert Hall, where they will give a concert w ith the London Symphony Orchestrayou,1 up atAn airplane roared overhead.too.” Blitzstein shouted, grinning the roof.way they sang it. “I mysterious,” he said. “I want it to be religious. It's a plea. You’ve got to feelit deeply, but with restraint.”Sgt. Jimmy Daniels, of New York, hadthe line, “Abraham Lincoln said that onNov. 19, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.” The line was a lot different from lyrics that Daniels usedtoand Roland Hayes, AmericanNegro4ti good humor, the aviation engineers took up their cue again—“Let’s hear it,” Blitzstein said. “Blast it out! andsing as an entertainer in New York and Harlem nightclubs. Most of the other chorus members used to sine in Methodist choirssingamateur quartets back homeornationThe people found the going rough.sang the stretch right. Then they startedontenor, on Sept. 28 and 29.“The machine age came with a great bigroarAn all-Americanprogram, including ten Negro spirituals, has been planned for the concert. The opening^ight will mark the first appearance of a chorus in the 72-year-oM history of Royal Albert Hall, officials of the hail believe.Americans grew in peace and war And a million wheels went around andNegro“That among these rights are life,Liberty,The cities reached into the sk\'round.And dug down deep into the ground.'’itmgtheeityAnd the pursuit of happiness”the chorus sang. A soloist put in his line:sound mighty tine, saidA throat-cutting gesture by Blitzstein.“No!” he shouted from the stage. “Too heavy. In that part, you've got to travel like an airplane.“ThereAnd thirteen states weren't large enough—So they started to expandInto the western lands,”the chorus sang. Weisgall was satisfied.All right, that’s damn good, he said. Chuckles at his frankthrough the chorus, very, very well,”sounds swell.”opinion swept “You guys are doing Weisgall added. “ItMcDaniel tookchoruson Negro spirituals, Weisgall, full ofsteeredCecil Jefferson, of Kansas City, Mo.The battalion men who built this GIchorusup from scratch—ChaplainWilliam M. Perkins. Philadelphia; l.Sgt. Alexander B. Jordan, St. Paul, Minn., and T 5 James McDaniel, Kansas City, Mo.— watched from the . sidelines. Ahatofn'tbethe professional rehearsal of “Ballad forare two hundred of us, and j chorus we've got to sound like one voice.”Sgt. Jordan, who used to sing with and help direct the famed Tuskogee College choir in Alabama, explained aside-how the chorus idea started. A group of 18his battalion went around“I honestly think they could .be the bestdirectionOpening Performance Sept. 28ofAmericans was under way. led by two GIs up from London—T/Sgt. HugoWeisgall, composer-conductor from Balti-m ms oaiianon went arounu singingChristmas Carols in nearby villages. AfterChristmas, the carolers broke up into quartets, then the quartets gradually grewto choir size.We’re in a place where there’s notJordanThe chorus was on the spiritual, “Over My Head.” These aviationengineers Head” withfull knowledge of its timeliness:“Over my head, there's trouble in the air,There must be a God somewhere ”m uch’re in a placeamusement nearby.”Sgt.said.“At nights some of the singers usedthe huts and say, ‘WhyHigh-ranking officials of the UnitedlTE bregerto slop by in the huts and say, don’t you come out to choir rehearsals?’ and more came along each time.”One of the battalions formed singingNations are expected to attend the opening-night performapce Sept. 28, from which the proceeds will go to British war charities. On the 29th. the performance will be eiven free for all service men and!groups as far back as a U.S. staging area, where it stayed for three months, accord-1/Lt. William Work, of Pitts-ing to bursh.The boys used to get togetherthere and-harmonize to relieve the monotony of training films,” he recalled.Rehearsals—Good FunThe 200 GIs have rehearsed as a choruswomen.The 200 aviation engineers will leave this backwoods region for a week in London before the concert. They'll spend the week in intensive rehearsals withexpectedfrom the United States this week, andSpringfieldformer member of the St. Louis Municipaltwo nights weekly during the past month.On the other nights, the 've rehearsed inBlitzstein, who hastwo separate groups, been living up here with one companyrecently, has alternated leading the twoand coordinated them at fullOpera Co., who, as special soloist, has“Ballad forvirtually the final say in * Americans.” At the end ofballad,when Pfc Cantril asks, “Am I an American?” he answers himself affirmatively:Tm just an Irish, Negro, Jewish, Italian,groups,I chorus rehearsals.In a PX hut, Blitzstein has also been composing a symphonic poem, based on Negro spirituals, which will be playedduring the concert.“It’s been wonderful fun,’’ he said, as Weisgall took over,the rehearsal, “trying to compose this in the PX, with the guys singing several other songs at the same time, and some of them leaning over my shoulder, correcting me. One guy didn’t think some part I w.rote fitted in with Negro spirituals—said it sounded Russian. So I had to throw it out.”French and English, Spanish. Russian,mialC hinese,'1YPolish, Scotch, Hungarian, Litvak,Greek andSwedish, Finnish, Canadian,and Czech and double Czech.”T urk,So there isn't much left to be said afterthat, except, as the script directs:“CHORUS (Whistle, in amazement)oeiir,,«*•4 4 4 4• * .4 4 4 *.4 4*44444 ... * 4 4 4 4 4I . .....• 4 * •,4 .4 4, .4.4. 4.• . 4• 4 » 4,44 *4• 44 4 4^4 4 4 4 4 4The chorus, still rehearsing “Ballad for Americans” under Weisgall’s direction,about»•« *.4 4 444. ,4.444 . .4.4,L* 444:» 4 V* *'4 4 44)* • 44.444444,4.44.444 4444444 4* 4,44.444.4,4*44444.44. • 4 ■■ 4444 44 4 4*4444*44.4 4 4 4 4*. *4 *4 44 ,44 .4 * 4 4 4J4 444-*# . 4.4*44 «« 4• ■44**1 4.44*4 .4*444#...»4*4,44•Si.'.“But he hated oppression, he hated wrong,And he went down to his grave to freethe slave.Man in white skin can never be free While his black brother is in slaverybeersee SAILORS carry in’ packsplatform, Weisgall both chorus and or Hall, waved hisBerlin is burning, the Ruhr is on fire,troops retireSicilian straits seethed like hot lard,■aHamburg lies smoking and NaplesdrawingAlbert Hall, waved ms arms music out of the 200 GIs. Army cement-carpentersthe day, some of them were^etting sleep] during the four-hour night rehearsalWeisgall’s arms floppedSome-Viking torchesDanishblazed!«■t m , *—...In smoke near Vienna a factory’s *1.1. mkAn old proverb proves Hitler’sZ-V:•K'iit.IftMlgood slave, but flame•vf- ■ »~•*SgtG-*;1 •:St. _....j *
Newspaper Details
New York Stars and Stripes
New York, New York, US
Fri, Sep 17, 1943
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anya P.
GB 01 Jun 2022
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