Note: This message was originally sent on January 15, 2021
This Monday, our great nation will pause to observe and reflect on diversity, equity, and inclusion in honor of the man who took such bold steps to level the playing field for all Americans – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. King held aloft education as one of the most important equalizers. He said, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” (Sounds very Jesuit, don’t you think?) Gonzaga University lives and breathes our educational mission for the benefit of our students, our communities, our nation and the world. We sharpen intellect, build character, and nurture appreciation for beauty – underpinned with the faith that God is omni-present in all things. Thank you for believing in this important work and mission.
Without the traditional marches and days of service to honor Martin Luther King Jr., Day, Gonzaga and community partners have created a number of other opportunities to continue conversations about his legacy. See the event listing here: https://bit.ly/3oJcH2j
And, as important as it is to feed the mind, it is as equally important to feed the soul. In the spirit of the MLK Holiday, please enjoy the GU Concert Choir (see link below) as they perform: “Baptism.”
R. Nathaniel Dett is one of the composers GU’s Concert Choir explored and sang in Fall 2020. We share this recording of "Baptism," particularly grateful for the scholarship of Marques L. A. Garrett and the Nathaniel Dett Chorale in the learning about this Spiritual and the composer: https://youtu.be/gNa3TijVBNo
“Baptism” is from The Dett Collection of Spirituals, the second of two published spiritual collections (1927 and 1936). Dett also published over 100 other compositions, including works for piano, solo voice and piano, and choir, as well as one oratorio (Oxford Music). We learn from Marques Garrett’s dissertation, “The Short Works of R. Nathaniel Dett,” that Dett dedicated “Baptism” to his brother Sam, and that the melody was transcribed from the singing of his maternal grandmother, Ms. Harriet Washington, who would sing spirituals to Nathaniel when he was a child.
Nathaniel Dett was born in Drummondville, Ontario, in 1882, and he moved to Niagara Falls, New York, when he was eleven years old. Dett attended Oberlin College, graduating as the first African American to receive his bachelor’s degree there in 1908, only forty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in America (Oxford Music). He promptly commenced his teaching career at many Historically Black Colleges, and eventually received his master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. (www.nathanieldettchorale.org)
Among many of Dett’s professional achievements, he was the first Black chairman of the music department at Hampton Institute, where he assembled a choral ensemble that travelled across the United States and internationally to perform African American spirituals (Oxford Music). This ensemble, following the lead of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, played an integral role in the dissemination of the sacred songs of enslaved African Americans. Dett was dedicated to preserving and arranging these songs, describing in his essay “The Development of the Negro Spiritual” that spirituals were “a music fresh as morning, as intimate as breath, and as vital as the heartbeat” (The Dett Collection of Spirituals, Group Four, 1936).
~Background information written by Karlee Ludwig, class of 2022.
With gratitude,
Joe