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| JONAH - final page of score. |
Felsted’s significance lies in the work he composed around 1773-4 while he was organist at the St. Andrew Parish
Church. His oratorio – JONAH – was the first oratorio written in the Americas, and its re-discovery created a
great deal of interest in the music world. Dr. Howard F. Smither, the world’s
premier authority on the oratorio, has documented the unique position of Felsted’s JONAH in his authoritative work,
A History of the Oratorio, (1987).
It was a matter of some surprise that the first oratorio written in the
Americas was produced by a hitherto unknown Jamaican composer in an island now known primarily for the music of Bob Marley.
However, the work points to a Jamaica that then featured much more prominently on the world scene as the most valuable of
Britain’s colonies and as able to support a level of musical and theatrical activity that could attract the interest
of metropolitan performers.
~~~~~~ Oratorio JONAH .
. . . . . Samuel Felsted ~~~~~
Overture
Allegro. Andante. Allegro
Jonah,
Arise
Recitative,
(Narrator)
Out
of the Deep
Air,
(Jonah)
Billows Foam Around My
Head
Air,
(Jonah)
The Lord Commands, the
Fish Obeys
Recitative,
(Narrator)
My God and King, To Thee I
Sing
Air, (Jonah)
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Jonah, Arise, Thy Steps
Prepare
Recitative,
(Narrator)
Lord,
I Obey
Air,
(Jonah)
Repent,
Ye Men of Nineveh
Recitative,
(Jonah)
Have Mercy, Lord
Chorus
God
Saw Their Works
Recitative,
(Narrator)
Tune
Your Harps, Your
Voices
Raise Grand Chorus
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The only other work by Samuel Felsted so far discovered, by Sister Mary Dominic Ray, founder of the American
Music Research Centre, is ‘Six Voluntaries for the Organ or Harpsichord’, which was probably published between
1793 and 1795
The
background to Samuel Felsted's career
In
the programme notes for the 1990 performance of Jonah, Valerie Facey described the Jamaican cultural scene in the later
18th century:
‘Jamaica
has a rich and varied historical heritage influenced by the many ethnic groups which have graced her shores and shared their
distinctive style of artistic and social expression. From the time of the aboriginal Arawak Indians to the arrival of Columbus
in 1492 followed by 161 years of Spanish influence and finally the conquest by the British in 1655, an amazing groundwork
was laid.
Within
a remarkably short period Jamaica became a colony of importance and wealth. Accompanying both the voluntary and involuntary
immigrants, the indigenous cultures of Europe and Africa came to the now flourishing and fashionable island where they melded
and blossomed into a unique culture all its own.
The
first ‘Publick Theatre’ is documented in 1682 and horseracing in 1687. Exquisite tortoiseshell objets d’art
were being made while gold and silversmiths were crafting Jamaican hall-marked designs in Spanish Town and Port Royal prior
to the great earthquake of 1692. In 1688, Sir Hans Sloane was writing his definitive, illustrated natural history of Jamaica.
Printing was instituted in 1718 and the many newssheets and periodicals were advertising a plethora of theatrical presentations,
musical happenings and dance opportunities soon after that time. Repertory companies from London and New York were visiting
Kingston and Spanish Town by the 1750’s. Grandiose monuments and paintings by visiting artists of repute were being
commissioned in addition to exotic wood furniture and fitments. Architectural competitions abounded so that dignitaries could
vie for the finest Jamaican/Georgian homes.
The
latter half of the 18th century could be referred to as the ‘Jamaican Renaissance’ and it was in this climate
of learning, science, aesthetic values and ‘elitist’ high-living that Samuel Felsted grew up in Jamaica.’
Errol
Hill in The Jamaican Stage, 1655-1900 quotes John Stewart, writing in
1808, as saying that there had been no theatrical performances for about 25 years, but that,‘In Kingston, there are
occasionally tolerable concerts, the principal performers in which are French emigrants from St. Domingo.’ The French refugees, and presumably their Black and Coloured slaves, had to use their performing skills
to earn a living. In view of the high level of musical performances in St. Domingue
before the Revolution, one may well think that the refugees from that colony were somewhat less than impressed by the ‘Jamaican
Renaissance’.
The following quotation gives some idea of the music scene in colonial St. Domingue in the later
18th century:
‘The Music of Colonial South America’ by Robert Stevenson,
Professor of Music, UCLA.
in The Cambridge History of Latin America, Volume II: Colonial Latin
America, edited by Leslie Bethell, C.U.P. 1984
pages 795-6
The foremost mulatto composer born in the Caribbean during the eighteenth
century was Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (b. Guadeloupe, 1739;
d. Paris, 1799), who studied music in Saint-Domingue with the black violinist Joseph Platon before emigrating to Paris in
1752. In Paris he built up a reputation comparable with that of Gossec (1734
-1829). Beginning in 1775 he published eleven symphonies concertantes, three symphonies, ten violin concertos, fourteen
string quartets, twelve sonatas for piano and violin and numerous smaller pieces. His operas included the three-act Ernestine
(Paris, Comédie-Italienne, 19 July 1777), La chasse (12 October 1778) and a two-act ‘comédie melée de ballets’,
L’Amant anonyme (8 March 1780). Joseph [Platon] played an unspecified Saint-Georges violin concerto at Port-au-Prince
on 25 April 1780.
The brilliance of concert and operatic life at Cap-Français, Saint-Marc, Léogane,
Cayes, Jérémie, Petit-Goave, Jacmel, and especially Port-au-Prince during the 27 years that can be documented from the Gazette de St.-Domingue, Avis Divers et Petites Affiches Américaines, and other
later newspapers covering 1764 to 1791, rivalled or exceeded contemporary musical offerings in the Spanish viceroyalties.
Apart from 23 operas by Grétry, six by Philidor, and lesser numbers of works for the lyric stage by Gluck, Dalayrac, Monsigny,
Rousseau and Pergolesi, at least three operas
by locally based composers were produced: Dufresne’s Laurette (28 October 1773), Bissery’s Le sourd
dupé (21 June 1777) and Bouquet disputé (18 June 1783). Dufresne composed also a grande sympbonie concertante
a deux orchestres et a echo (25 August 1778) and Bissery a concerto sur
forte-piano (22 February 1777). Petit at Port-au-Prince wrote two concertos (8 July 1783, 13 June 1783), Fontaine composed
‘ariettes’ and ‘choeurs’ for L’Amant Loup-Garou ou Monsieur Rodomont (16 November 1779).
Rivière, a black composer, wrote symphonies concertantes performed at Cayes (iz October 1785), and also ‘ariettes a grand orchestre’, serenades champêtres
and pot-pourris for ‘grand orchestre’ (4 March, 23 November 1786; 18 January 1787). Maulan tried his hand at local
colour compositions (24 January i1788; 11 March 1790).
The first black violinists in the Cap-Français theatre orchestra were three
pupils of Tasset aged fifteen, sixteen and seventeen in 1764 and 1765. Rivière played a solo in the Port-au-Prince production
of Grétry’ s Le Tableau parlant on 28 December 1779, and on 31 December 1781 the mandoline in a concerto for
mandoline and guitar. Julien, another black violinist, played violin solos in a Davaux symphonie concertante (25 April 1780).
Two mulatto sisters, Minette and Lise, sang in numerous concerts and operas of the 1780s, Grétry accounting for at least five
of their operas: Sylvain, Zémire et Azor,
Aucassin et Nicolette, L’Amant jaloux and La caravane du Caire.
ABOUT
THURSTON DOX
The
story of the research conducted by Dr. Thurston Dox into the history of the oratorio JONAH and the life and work of the composer
Samuel Felsted is an interesting and fascinating story in its own right.
After
the re-discovery in the 1970’s of Samuel Felsted’s oratorio JONAH and the Six Organ Voluntaries by Sister Mary
Dominic Ray, Founder of the American Music Research Center at Dominican College in Boulder, Colorado, and in conjunction with
his own research in the field of American oratorios and cantatas, Dr. Dox embarked on what has since become an all absorbing
life’s work and a vibrant association with the Island of Jamaica.
From
the British Library, which has held a copy of the original 1775 printed score in repository for over 200 years, he was directed
in 1979 to Mr. Kenneth Ingram, bibliographer and former librarian of the University of the West Indies. In turn, Mr. Ingram
directed Dr. Dox to the National Library of Jamaica where a close relationship was established through correspondence, telephone
calls and many personal visits over the next several years.
Further
invaluable information was obtained from the Jamaica Archives but not without exhausting hours of his personal scrutiny of
myriad documents. Dr. Dox’s indomitable enthusiasm joined with his painstaking research into primary source material
and the method with which he sifted and analysed each new item of information became legend with the staff at both the Jamaica
Archives and the National Library of Jamaica. They were able to share first hand the excitement of a new discovery and the
reward which can be achieved as a result of determination and hard work.
Dr.
Thurston J. Dox is a lecturer at Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York. In 1988, the American Music Research Center awarded
Dr. Dox a substantial grant which permitted him to undertake further research into the life of Samuel Felsted. In April 1990,
he delivered a paper on Felsted at the conference of the prestigious Sonneck Society for American Music. This paper is soon
to be published and Dr. Dox’s ongoing work is with a view to a future biography of Samuel Felsted. It is a special privilege
to have the presence of Dr. Thurston Dox and Mrs. Dox at this historic performance of Felsted’s JONAH.
(from the programme of the 1990 performance of JONAH in 1990 in Jamaica.)
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