Episode 304. Portia White, Canadian Icon
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As the United States faces its most momentous and contentious election since at least 1968, let’s turn for today to our neighbors to the North to become acquainted with one of their cultural icons: the African Canadian contralto Portia White (1911-1968), the first internationally renowned Black Canadian classical singer, named a “person of national historic significance” by the Canadian government in 1995. Her story is taught to Canadian school children, her legacy has yielded operas, musicals, plays, and memorials which celebrate her contribution; she has even appeared on a stamp issued by Canada Post. In Canada she is revered with the same significance as are Marian Anderson, Dorothy Maynor, and Roland Hayes. And yet in the United States she is virtually unknown. Part of this is no doubt because she left no commercial recordings, and because her international career was so brief. This episode seeks in its own humble way to right that wrong, and to place Portia White in the context of other Black singers of her era. At the time of her death of cancer in 1968, a memorial LP was issued containing live recordings from the 1940s, including selections by Schubert, Fauré, Bizet, and Arne; French Canadian folk songs, and spirituals. I have arranged those selections into an “imaginary recital” such as she might have given in one of her concerts during those years. The episode is framed by two different recordings of her “theme song,” the poignant and plangent “Think on Me.” White is the first of two contraltos of international significance I will be presenting this week. I am honored and thrilled to introduce (or re-introduce) her to you today.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All tracks feature Portia White, contralto. The pianist and venue on these live recordings is unknown, but some of the selections (Schubert, Fauré, Bizet, spirituals) might be from her third New York Town Hall recital on 5 December 1945, accompanied by Frederick Kitzinger.
Alicia Ann, Lady John Scott: Think on Me.
John Jacob Niles: I Wonder As I Wander
Franz Schubert, Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg: Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D.774
Franz Schubert, Ludwig Rellstab: Aufenthalt, D. 957/5
Franz Schubert, August von Platen: Die Liebe hat gelogen, D.751
Traditional French Canadian: Là-bas sur ces montagnes
Traditional French Canadian: Le Coucou
Thomas Arne: The Lass with the Delicate Air
Gabriel Fauré, Sully Prudhomme: Les berceaux, Op. 23/1
Georges Bizet, Victor Hugo: Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe
Traditional Spiritual: Ride On, King Jesus
Traditional Spiritual, arr. Harry Burleigh: Oh, Wasn’t that a Wide River
Traditional Spiritual: Four and Twenty Elders
Alicia Ann, Lady John Scott: Think on Me.
