Two Poems by Ray G. Dandridge

When the terms African American and the arts are mentioned the first thing that comes to most minds are Negro Spirituals. However, in 1922, James Weldon Johnson compiled a beautiful anthology of poetry for this very reason; “the public, generally speaking, does not know that there are American Negro Poets “. Through the 20th century Johnson’s anthology of gifted poets has largely been left behind. When I came across this collection I was enchanted, 20 years later, no less so. The two poems set to music here are notable in that neither are spiritual in nature. The subject matter reflects poles of the spectrum of human experience, celebration and death, and both are void of longing for the afterlife, but rather, they reflect on the human condition and of the life lived on earth. The words of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Death Song and Ray G. Dandridge’s De Drum Majah richly express character and psychology through the use of Negro dialect in a way that is anything but quaint; but to artistically break the “fixing effect of long convention”. Johnson desired the anthology to be a testament to the greatness of a people through the creation of literature and art. The musical settings seek to celebrate the poems through stylistic diversity; blending quintessential American products that are rooted in Negro artistry, ragtime and folksong, with 20th century jazz and art song elements. The result, I hope, is an advocacy to mine this anthology for its richness still to be enjoyed