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THE STARS AND STRIPESFriday, Sept. 17, 1943Negro GIs Making Musical HistoryFirst Chorus of Race To Sing in Albert Hall in 72 Years| By Richard WilburStars and Stripes Staff Writer— AVIATION ENGINEER^ BATTALION HQ, Sept. 16—Two hundred Negro soldiers, members of four aviation engi-, neers battalions, sat on benches together I and sang:I Mister Tom Jefferson, a mighty fine man,' He wrote it down in a mighty fine han I And the rest all signed with a mighty fine ! han'And they crossed their T s and dotted their Is—A bran' new' country did arise.In a bare Nissen hut here the aviation engineers were rehearsing “Ballad for 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 Orchestra and Roland Hayes, American Negro tenor, on Sept. 28 and 29.An all-American program, including ten Negro spirituals, has been planned for the concert. The opening^ight will mark the first appearance of a Negro chorus in the 72-year-oM history of Royal Albert Hall, officials of the hail believe.“That among these rights are life, Liberty,And the pursuit of happiness the chorus sang. A soloist put in his line: “That does sound mighty fine, said Sgt. Cecil Jefferson, of Kansas City, Mo.The battalion men who built this G1 chorus up from scratch- Chaplain William M. Perkins. Philadelphia; 1. Sgt. Alexander B. Jordan. St. Paul, Minn., and T 5 James McDaniel, Kansas City, Mo.—watched from the. sidelines. A professional rehearsal of “Ballad for Americans was under way, led by two GIs up from London—T/Sgt. Hugo Weisgall, composer-conductor from Balti-Stars and Stripes Photo by Richard KoenigCpl. James C. McDaniel, of Kansas City, Mo., assistant conductor, calls for a soft and reverent passage in a Negro spiritual from his chorus of 200 aviation engineers practising for two performances with the London Symphony Orchestra and Roland Hayes, American Negro tenor, in Royal Albert Hall, London, on Sept. 28 and 29.*more, who led a symphony orchestra 1 one had missed the cue to come in with, playing one of his own compositions in “Yeah, Paul Revere had a horse race.”July at Royal Albert Hall, and Cpl. Marc Blitzstein, of New York, composer-author of “The Cradle Will Rock,” a musical play produced several years ago by Orson Welles.“The cue,” Blitzstein shouted to thesoldier-chorus from the stage, “is Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ Then—loud—‘Shall not perish from the earth.’ ”Some of the soldiers, restless from steady sitting, shifted around in their seats and murmured, “1 need complete silence,” Blitzstein said. *Lets Hear ItAn airplane roared overhead. “I mean you, too.” Blitzstein shouted, grinning up at the roof.to\ good humor, the aviation engineers took up their cue again—“Let’s hear it,” Blitzstein said. “Blast it out!” and sang the stretch right. Then they startedE BREGERa ever see SAILORS carryin’ packs ?The machine age came with a great big roarAs Americans grew in peace and war And a million wheels went around and 'round.The cities reached into the sky And dug down deep into the ground/*A throat-cutting gesture by Blitzstein. “No!” he shouted from the stage. “Too heavy, in that part, you’ve got to travel like an airplane.“There are two hundred of us, and 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 18 in his battalion went around singing Christmas Carols in nearby villages. After Christmas, the carolers broke up into quartets, then the quartets gradually grew to choir size.“We’re in a place where there’s not much amusement nearby.” Sgt. Jordan said. “At nights some of the singers used to stop by in the huts and say, ‘Why don’t you come out to choir rehearsals?’; and more came along each time.”; One of the battalions formed singing i groups as far back as a U.S. staging area, where it stayed for three months, accord-I ing to 1,/Lt. William Work, of Pitts-! burgh. “The boys used to get together there and.harmonize to relieve the monotony of training films,” he recalled., Rehearsals—Good Funj The 200 GIs have rehearsed as a chorus J two nights weekly during the past month.' On the other nights, the’ve rehearsed in ! two separate groups. Blitzstein, who has i been living up here with one company . recently, has alternated leading the two groups, and coordinated them at full ! chorus rehearsals.In a PX hut, Blitzstein has also been composing a symphonic poem, based on Negro spirituals, which will be played during 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 wrote fitted in with Negro spirituals—said it sounded Russian. So I had to throw it out.”The chorus, still rehearsing “Ballad for Americans” under Weisgall’s direction, sang about Abraham Lincoln:“But he hated oppression, he hated wrong, And he went down to his grave to free the slave. . Man in white skin can never be free While his black brother is in slavery .” Standing on a beer box for a conductor’s platform, Weisgall, who will conduct both chorus and orchestra at Royal Albert Hall, waved his arms, drawing music out of the 200 GIs. Army cement-mixers, bricklayers, and carpenters during the day, some of them were^etting sleepy during the four-hour night rehearsal. Weisgall’s arms flopped suddenly. Some-Who’s Paul Revere?” Weisgall demanded. Someone raised his hand sheepishly. “OK, pal, wake up,” Weisgall said.They came to the words, “Let my people go. Weisgall wasn't satisfied with the way they sang it. “I want that to be mysterious,” he said. “I want it to be religious. It’s a plea. You’ve got to feel it deeply, but with restraint.”Sgt. Jimmy Daniels, of New York, had the line, “Abraham Lincoln said that on Nov. 19, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.” The line was a lot different from lyrics that Daniels used to sing as an entertainer in New York and Harlem night clubs. Most of the other chorus members used to sing in Methodist choirs or amateur quaUets back home.“Building a nation is awful tough.The people found the going rough.And 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 frank opinion swept through the chorus. “You guys are doing very, very well,” Weisgall added. “It sounds swell.”As Sgt. Jordan and T/5 McDaniel took over the rehearsal and started the chorus on Negro spirituals, Weisgall, full of enthusiasm, steered for the background. “I honestly think they could be the best chorus in the world, with the* right kind of firm direction,” he said.Opening Performance Sept. 28The chorus was on the spiritual, “Over My Head.” These aviation engineers, Blitzstein said, sing “Over My Head” with full knowledge of its timeliness:“Over my head, there's trouble in the air, There must be a God somewhere.High-ranking officials of the United Nations 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 given free for all service men and women.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 with Roland Hayes, who is expected in England from the United States this week, and; with Pfc Ken Cantril, of Springfield, Mo., former member of the St. Louis Municipal Opera Co., who, as special soloist, has virtually the final say in “Ballad for Americans.” At the end of the ballad,^ when Pfc Cantril asks, “Am I an American?” he answers himself affirmatively: Tm fust an Irish, Negro, Jewish, Italian^ French and English, Spanish, Russianp Chinese,Polish, Scotch. Hungarian, Litvak, Swedish, Finnish, Canadian, Greek and Turk, \and Czech and double Czech. *So there isn't much left to be said after that, except, as the script directs: j“CHORUS (Whistle, in amazement)/* IConflagrationBerlin is burning, the Ruhr is on fire, From flaming Orel the storm troops retire ;|| Sicilian straits seethed like hot lard, Hamburg lies smoking and Naples 3Like Viking torches the Danish blarIn smoke near Vienna a factory’s t An old proverb proves Hitler’s disaSt Fire’s a good slave, but flame’s a ciSgt. Stanly Fet
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New York Stars and Stripes
New York, New York, US
Fri, Sep 17, 1943
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