tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post6925583276828721611..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Music industry cabal ended a black conductor's careerUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-38061691995023171592016-12-15T20:59:42.810+00:002016-12-15T20:59:42.810+00:00I must agree with Halldor. However, I also wonder ...I must agree with Halldor. However, I also wonder why Dunbar chose to settle in London. He went to Paris after graduating from Julliard, and there Debussy's widow arranged for him to give a private recital before teachers from the Conservatoire. He was a great success in France, and there we know a number of African-American performers settled and were welcome. Another odd turn is that he was a distinguished war correspondent during WWII -- for the U.S. What particularly caught my attention is a passage in an article in Guyanese Online:<br /><br />The colonial government voted to give five thousand pounds to Dunbar to show their appreciation to him for "contributions to the Empire". At his American debut, British cameras couldn't get enough of Dunbar. This led him to remark that "they want to show these films in the colonies and say 'look what we have done for Dunbar' -- but it is not the British who have done this for me, it is the Americans."<br /><br />The chronology is unclear in that article, but I must think that he made that remark not long after the War. I cannot know how widely spread that remark was, but if it came to the attention of the 'powers that were' in London, it may, if only in part, explain his fate there. I sense that his story in total is unusually interesting, and not just his life in music. I note, e.g., his record as a war correspondent and also his work with Learie Constantine [great Trinidadian cricketer, also lawyer and politician, later Lord Constantine] meliorating the lives of black workers in munitions factories. Beyond doubt, he deserves a biography and a good one!Philip Amoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11739418522974972567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-7665508584414845582016-12-15T14:14:27.041+00:002016-12-15T14:14:27.041+00:00My original article about Rudolph Daunbar was publ...My original article about Rudolph Daunbar was published <i>On An Overgrown Path</i> in April 2007, and was the first major article about him published outside Guyana since his death in 1988. Four months later BBC Radio 4 broadcast 'The Strange Story of Rudolph Dunbar' presented by Wayne Marshall. The BBC programme had striking similarities to my article that could not have been coincidental, but no credit was given to sources. (The next time BBC Radio 4 produced a documentary based on my posts they adopted a different approach. When they made 'The Colour of Genius' based on the posts by me and John McLaughlin Williams about Philippa Schuyler, they asked my permission, credited me, and used John as a contributor and included the piano recordings he made for <i>OAOP</i>). <br /><br />'The Strange Story of Rudolph Dunbar' documentary contained no new material, despite Rudolph Dunbar having conducted BBC orchestras, and despite the allegations from several sources that the BBC played a role in derailing his career. Given the content of this newly uncovered interview, and given the absence of any recordings of Dunbar as a conductor, is it too much to ask that the BBC now devote some of their considerable resources to searching for documentary and recorded material relating to him?Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-49527533474522843402016-12-15T13:26:06.410+00:002016-12-15T13:26:06.410+00:00Kevin, there is actually a recording of Rudolph Du...Kevin, there is actually a recording of Rudolph Dunbar playing the clarinet - in a black hot jazz group!<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G2cLeGWZuUPliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-45925065337879097542016-12-15T13:11:09.740+00:002016-12-15T13:11:09.740+00:00Kevin Scott emails: 'The even greater crime is...Kevin Scott emails: 'The even greater crime is that we have no video or audio recordings (to my knowledge) of Dunbar's conducting. Truly the British had something against him.'Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-4668370752673085012016-12-15T11:19:37.757+00:002016-12-15T11:19:37.757+00:00Halldor yes, Rudolph Dunbar's activist support...Halldor yes, Rudolph Dunbar's activist support for unpopular causes was almost certainly a factor. As my original post in 2007 recounted, Dunbar's brief obituary in the Musical Times says: 'He gradually withdrew from public life, and devoted himself to fighting racism and trying to increase black involvement in Western art music.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-87690006699963932422016-12-15T11:15:20.162+00:002016-12-15T11:15:20.162+00:00Fascinating story, and it'd be interesting to ...Fascinating story, and it'd be interesting to find out more. It can't have been merely that British classical music at that time had an antipathy to non-British conductors, with posts at the LSO (Monteux), BBCSO (Dorati, following Schwarz), LPO (Steinberg), ROH (Solti), RPO (Kempe), Philharmonia (Klemperer), Bournemouth (Silvestri) all held by eminent non-British musicians and posts at the RLPO (Kurtz, Mehta) and CBSO (Schwarz, Panufnik) only recently vacated by them. Race was clearly a factor but did Cold War politics perhaps also play a role? That he'd performed in Poland, Yugoslavia and Cuba presumably won't have endeared him to certain people.<br />Halldorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12003785622088730831noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-23235788575268759112016-12-15T09:27:58.928+00:002016-12-15T09:27:58.928+00:00On Facebook Edith Guilbaud comments - 'Cet hom...On Facebook Edith Guilbaud comments - 'Cet homme exprime tellement fort la segregation de cette époque... 'Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.com