Editor's introduction.(Harry T. Burleigh )(Editorial)

The articles on the life and work of African-American composer-singer-arranger Harry T. Burleigh featured in this issue of Black Music Research Journal originated in presentations at the 2003 national conference "The Heritage and Legacy of Harry T. Burleigh," sponsored by Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. This first national conference on Burleigh's life and work was designed to focus on the heritage of African-American culture that shaped Burleigh and on his multifaceted legacy: the broad scope of his work as a singer, a composer of art songs, a pioneer arranger of spirituals and music editor, and a role model and mentor for singers, composers, and arrangers who have followed him.

At the conference, Horace C. Boyer presented a demonstration-lecture on Burleigh's compositional style and a lecture-recital tracing the lineage from spirituals to gospel songs. Ann Sears discussed the pianism and vocalism in Burleigh's songs and with tenor William A. Brown gave a lecture-recital of songs by Burleigh's friend Will Marion Cook. The Rev. Charles Kennedy Jr. presented his one-man show Deep River, in which he brings Burleigh to life as an elderly man reflecting on his long career. A teacher's workshop led by Odell Hobbs and a choral workshop led by Roland Carter offered practical instruction on African-American music to the broader community. And two documentary films relevant to Burleigh's life and career were screened by their producers.

Several additional sessions were planned, but for various reasons the speakers were unable to attend: Karen James was to describe the nineteenth-century Erie that shaped Burleigh in his first twenty-five years; the late Josphine Harreld Love was to discuss influences on Burleigh and Burleigh's influence on younger singers and composers; the late Doris Evans McGinty was to examine Burleigh's role in the development of African-American concert music; and Rae Linda Brown was to speak to Burleigh's influence on Florence Price.

The conference also provided numerous opportunities to hear and sing the music being discussed. Each day at noon, conference participants sang through a variety of Burleigh's sacred and secular choral arrangements. A choir directed by Rebecca Ryan from Mercyhurst College in Erie presented Burleigh choral pieces and art songs. The McIntosh County Singers demonstrated the ring shout, a representation of the oral heritage from which Burleigh drew for his concert arrangements of spirituals. A shared recital by tenor William A. Brown and soprano Louise A. Toppin brought art songs and spiritual arrangements by Burleigh and other African-American composers vibrantly to life. Pianist Kristine Denton played several of Burleigh's piano sketches and George Walker's Sonata no. 2. Erie artist Mary Alice Brown played her distinctive jazz renditions of spirituals. And the culminating concert by the Morehouse Glee Club displayed the remarkable choral tradition of the historically black colleges at its finest.

Although these articles represent only a small portion of the topics covered in the conference sessions, they extend the scope of research on Burleigh's seminal influence on the development of African-American concert music. This is an issue not of conference proceedings but of articles that have grown out of the discussions and interactions generated by the conference.

Samuel A. Floyd Jr.'s conference keynote address examined Burleigh's role in the musical culture of African Americans before the Harlem Renaissance and raised the question of why Burleigh's influence and reputation seem to have been submerged by the forces of modernism and the rise of popular black music styles. His provocative suggestions about Burleigh's probable influence on other black performers and composers invite increased scholarly attention.

My recent research on Burleigh's singing career in Erie, Pennsylvania, before he began his studies at the National Conservatory of Music in New York City documents his significant formal music training and his substantial public reputation among Erie's finest classical and church musicians. His success as a student at the conservatory and his immediate acceptance into the highest ranks of black concert singers in New York were assured by his previous accomplishments in Erie.