4 .
In reaction to the article in Dwight's Journal, twentieth century historian, David DeVenney commented: "The writer of this article, using condescending and derogatory language and phrases common in his day but offensive in ours, talks about the genesis of these important singing groups .""5 Another view about Blacks in classical music is found in 1908 by New York's Herald Tribune music critic, H.E. Krehbiel, who complained: "Why savages who have never developed a musical or other art should be able to have more refined aesthetic sensibilities than the people who have cultivated music for centuries, passes my poor understanding .""6 These late nineteenth century views towards Blacks made it very hard for them to join White composers in the field of classical music. .
AntonÃn Dvořák was a composer during the late nineteenth century and his views about Black music were very different. He left his home of Czechoslovakia in 1892 to fill the position of music director at the New York National Conservatory of Music. In a letter to a friend, he replied, "The Americans expect great things from me. I am to show them the way to the Promised Land, the realm of a new, independent art, in short a national style of music!-7 After he arrived in America, he began to search for basic material for a characteristic style. While at the Conservatory, he met Black students Will Marion Cook8 and Henry Burleigh.9 The National Conservatory, unlike many schools, admitted Blacks and provided them with scholarships. During the early twentieth century it was The Juilliard School of its time, and Cook and Burleigh were the first to introduce Dvořák to Black music. Dvořák asked Burleigh to sing some southern spirituals and plantation songs for him. Dvořák was so taken by the songs that the next three pieces10 he wrote, employed themes based on Black spirituals and folk songs.
