Seth Weeks

Silas Seth Weeks (September 8, 1868 – December 1953) was an American composer who played mandolin, violin, banjo and guitar.Oxford African American Center, ''Weeks, Seth''
/ref>Henry T. Sampson, reprint of ''Banjo World'', Vol. 8, No. 73, December, 1900, p. 20, in his book ''Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows'', Scarecrow Press, Oct 30, 2013, pages 1439-1440.
/ref> Although he played many instruments he concentrated professionally on the mandolin. He is considered to be the first African American to play mandolin during its golden period and was considered instrumental in bringing the mandolin to the prominent national standing that it had in the early 1900s. He was the first American known to write a mandolin concerto (in 1900) and led a mandolin and guitar orchestra in Tacoma, Washington.

Biography

Weeks was born in Vermont, Illinois. One of his musical goals was to make the mandolin independent of other instruments, and his playing emphasized the duo style, a way of playing in which the mandolin takes the melody, counter melody and harmonic parts all at once. Properly done, duo style produces what sounds like "two or more instruments" instead of only one.ARCHIVED TOPIC: "Duo Method?"
''Banjo Hangout''. A review of his music by Lyon and Healy of Chicago indicated success, saying that he had included harmony with the melody in most of his arrangements.

He toured America in "circuits" performing and teaching, including in public schools in Chicago, Boston, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. He also performed in New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, Rhode Island, and internationally in Montreal, Canada.

He composed and arranged as well, performing his own works on tour. He became prominent enough that he was able to tour Europe (England, France and Russia) and live there periodically. He settled temporarily in Europe, living first in London until World War I, when he returned with his family to New York and played in jazz bands. When he returned to Europe in 1920, he went to France, playing at the Apollo in Paris. His place of death is unknown, but was reported in the January 9, 1954, edition of the ''New York Amsterdam News'', on page 9.

He was an admirer of the performances of America's other mandolinists of his day, Samuel Siegel, W. Eugene Page, Valentine Abt, J. W. Marler, W. L. Barney (a Chicago musician in the 1890s through the 1920s), and Fred Lewis.

Recordings

Weeks made recordings with Edison Records in London and with Berliner Gramophone in Berlin while touring Europe. His recordings are mostly unknown or lost today and are available on compact disk only as part of box set about Black-people who made music in Europe.Rainer Lotz
"Black Europe, Some early African-American recording artists outside the United States"
(presented at the 2011 IAJRC Convention), ''IAJRC Journal'', December 1, 2011. Recordings which have survived include:Black Europe compact disk track list
/ref>

(Record companies and dates come from a list of lost music published by the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board, and not from the Black Europe compact disk set.)

* ''Poet And Peasant''
* ''Concert Polka'' (Pioneer/Columbia/Edison) (1901/1903/1904)
* ''Handicap March'' (Pioneer/Edison Bell/Pathe) (1901/1903/1904)
* ''Georgia Camp Meeting'' (Pioneer/Columbia) (1901/1903)
* ''Hungarian Dance'' (Pathe) (1904)
* ''Poet And Peasant''
* ''Soldiers In The Park'' (Pioneer) (1903), (Pathe) (1904)

List by the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board of recordings feared lost:
* ''Allegro'' (Pioneer/Columbia/Edison) (1901/1903)
* ''The Charlatan March'' (Berliner) (1900)
* ''Donauwellen'' (Pioneer) (1903)
* ''Jeunesse Doree'' (Nicole) (1904)
* ''Laburnum Gavotte'' (Pioneer/Columbia) (1903)
* ''Lumbrin' Luke'' (Columbia) (1904)
* ''Mazurka de Concert'' (Pioneer/Edison) (1901/1903)
* ''Overture'' (Pioneer/Columbia/Edison) (1903)
* ''Popular Airs Medley'' (Pioneer) (1903)
* ''The Washington Post March'' (Pioneer/Pathe) (1903/1904)
* ''Whistling Rufus'' (Pioneer) (1903)

Personal life

He is the father of Fay E. Allen, an accomplished musician in her own right. Father and daughter would frequently play together with on at least once occasion they were invited to perform before King Gustav of Sweden. She would later become a distinguished music educator and the first African American to serve on the Los Angeles Board of Education.

See also

* List of mandolinists (sorted)
*Mandolins in North America

References

External links

List of published works. Also reprint of Banjo World article about Weeks.


mandolin and piano compositions edited by Neil Gladd. Still being edited. Will contain sheet music for three of Seth Weeks' works: ''Grand Concert Polka'', ''Laburnum Gavotte'', and ''Polka Caprice''.

Sound samples that include Seth Weeks, as part of the sales literature for the compilation albums
''Black Europe''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weeks, Seth
1868 births
1953 deaths
19th-century African-American educators
19th-century American educators
19th-century African-American musicians
19th-century American composers
19th-century American guitarists
19th-century American male musicians
20th-century African-American educators
20th-century American educators
20th-century African-American musicians
20th-century American composers
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century jazz composers
African-American jazz composers
African-American jazz guitarists
African-American jazz musicians
African-American male composers
African-American music educators
American classical mandolinists
American jazz bandleaders
American jazz composers
American jazz mandolinists
American male guitarists
American male jazz composers
American male jazz musicians
African-American mandolinists