The Dunbar Music Archive was established by Dr. Minnita Daniel-Cox in 2014. This resource is meant to increase awareness and consumption of musical settings of texts by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar the poet, author, librettist, activist, and essayist was a seminal figure in establishing a poetic voice that would influence African-American poets for generations, including those responsible for the blossoming of the Harlem Renaissance.
For translation and pronunciation information for dialect terms used in Dunbar's poetry, see the Dunbar Glossary of Dialect Terms.
This collection was produced by University of Dayton's Department of Music, the University Libraries and the University of Dayton's media production group.
The Dunbar Music Archive will be expanding through generous funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the University of Dayton College of Arts and Sciences. Please explore the contents of this collection and stay tuned for the launch of the Dunbar Library and Archive.
Musical Settings
Sol' Down de Stream (voice and piano), Fay Foster
Song of Summer, Philip Hayden
Song of Summer (medium voice and piano), Gary Bachlund
Southern Lullaby, William Wallace Gilchrist
Speak up, Ike, an' 'spress yo'se'f, Henry S. Sawyer
Spring Fever, C. Koerner
Spring Song (Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar), Zenobia Powell Perry
Sunset (Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar), Zenobia Powell Perry
Swing Along: The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook, Marva Griffin Carter
Sympathy, Florence Beatrice Price
Sympathy (soprano and piano), Richard Thompson
The Awakening, Adolphus Hailstork
The Birth of Morn, Franco Leoni
The Boogah Man, Mary Jordan Lea
The Boogah Man, William McCoy
The Dance (medium voice and piano), Gary Bachlund
The Deserted Plantation, Evelyn McCue Wright
The Lawyers' Way (medium voice and piano), Gary Bachlund
The Mask, Jeff Arwady
The Mask in the Mirror, Richard Thompson
The Master-Player (SATB chorus and piano), Louis Adolphe Coerne
The News (bass or baritone and piano), Gary Bachlund
Theology, Carson P. Cooman
Theology, Reginald Evans
Theology, Betty Jackson King
