John Wesley Work Jr. (August 6, 1871 – September 7, 1925) was a musicologist choral director, educationalist singer and songwriter. He was the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

collector of

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

s and spirituals.

Early life and education

Work was born on August 6, 1971, in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, to Samuella and John Wesley Work Sr.,Emory Libraries MARBL: John Wesley Work Papers
who was director of a church choir, some of whose members were also in the original

Fisk Jubilee Singers The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American a cappella ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college. Their early ...

. The Hymns and Carols of Christmas: John Wesley Work Jr.
/ref> Work attended

Fisk University Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...

, where he organized singing groups and studied

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and history, graduating in 1895. He also studied at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Career

Work taught in

Tullahoma, Tennessee Tullahoma is a city in Coffee and Franklin counties in southern Middle Tennessee, United States. The population was 20,339 at the 2020 census. In 2019, the population was estimated to be 19,555. It is the principal city of the Tullahoma microp ...

and worked in the library at Fisk University, before taking an appointment as a Latin and history instructor at Fisk in 1904. His colleague, instructor and registrar Minnie Lou Crosthwaite, later commented on his deep interest in the "progress and welfare of his students", though he had conflicts with others in the Fisk music department. With his wife and his brother, Frederick Jerome Work, Work began collecting slave songs and spirituals, publishing them as ''New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers'' (1901) and ''New Jubilee Songs and Folk Songs of the American Negro'' (1907). The latter book included the first publication of " Go Tell It on the Mountain", which he may have had a hand in composing. His other songs included "Song of the Warrior", "If Only You Were Here", "Negro Lullaby", and "Negro Love Song". He also established the music publishing company, Work Brothers and Hart. As the director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, he was responsible for taking them on tour each year. However, because of negative feelings toward black folk music at Fisk, he was forced to resign his post there in 1923. He then served as president of Roger Williams University in Nashville, until his death in 1925.

Personal life and death

Work married Agnes Haynes in 1899. They had six children, with John III going on to become a composer. Work died on September 7, 1925, aged 54, in Nashville.

References

External links

* *Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University
John Wesley Work papers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Work, John Wesley Jr. 1871 births 1925 deaths African-American songwriters People from Nashville, Tennessee American folklorists Fisk University alumni Singers from Tennessee Fisk University faculty Harvard University alumni Songwriters from Tennessee 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics 20th-century American musicologists 20th-century African-American musicians