Professor’s ‘Complete Works’ preserves music of pioneering African American bandleader
LAWRENCE — Historians know the early 19th century African American bandleader and composer Francis (Frank) Johnson had performed for and rubbed elbows with presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren as well as French general and Revolutionary War hero Lafayette. Johnson also is known as one of the first African Americans to publish his own sheet music and tour Europe.
But until the publication of Colin Roust’s new “Francis Johnson: Complete Works” from A-R Editions, they only knew of roughly 175 works composed, arranged by or otherwise associated with Johnson. By combing nearly 30 archives from coast to coast, sorting out what he found and painstakingly transcribing handwritten sheets of music, the University of Kansas School of Music professor’s “Complete Works” ups that total by more than 100 — to 282 songs, cotillions, quadrilles, waltzes and quick steps — the popular dance music of Johnson’s day.
Roust said he hopes the book will encourage musicians to expand their repertoire beyond the “top 20” Johnson compositions most often heard today.
The KU scholar penned an introduction, putting Johnson in the context of his antebellum times, plus extensive end notes on the author’s research methodology.
Roust began pulling on a thread that took him further and further into his research subject. He and Matthew Smith, KU School of Music director of bands, applied for but did not receive a Francis Johnson fellowship from The Library Company of Philadelphia, the city where Johnson was born a free man in 1792.
But Roust wouldn’t leave the subject of Johnson’s music alone.
“The Library Company has a manuscript that was given to Phoebe Rush, who was one of Johnson’s patrons and piano students,” Roust said. “It has about 100 pieces in it. Originally, I was planning to do a critical edition of that manuscript. But as I worked to identify which pieces from it were published during Johnson’s lifetime, the project expanded from being just about that to become a complete-works edition.
“There are two biographies of Francis Johnson, one by Arthur LeBrew and the other by Charles K. Jones. Both of those authors wrote that they believed there were 175 pieces that survived, and that they thought he composed a little more than 300. And, at a certain point, I looked at my files and thought: I have 275 pieces on my hard drive right now. I'm almost there, so I might as well find the rest and make it a complete-works edition.”
In the introduction, Roust notes where the two biographies contradict each other, indicating the difficulty of the historical task before him. It is unknown, for instance, how Johnson received his musical training.
What is clear, Roust said, is that Johnson possessed an exquisite combination of musicianship, entrepreneurship and bravery. Not only did the all-African American band (of varying sizes, depending on the occasion) play for white high society and military functions (and sometimes Black and integrated affairs), the musicians extensively toured the growing nation, including places where slavery was still in effect like Missouri and Kentucky. On at least one occasion, Roust writes, they were physically attacked for their trouble.
Johnson himself was a master of both violin and keyed bugle, a sort of cross between a trumpet and a saxophone.
“In order to play in his band, you had to play a string instrument plus a wind instrument,” Roust said. “The more instruments, the better. Johnson seems to have taught most of them to play. He taught some of them to compose. He taught some to arrange. He taught some to conduct. And so this band became very versatile, and several of his band members went on to lead their own bands.”
Roust believes he has found every piece by or about Johnson that it is possible to find in the 21st century. Any other works are likely lost to history.
Johnson’s music is worth saving, he said: “Every melody feels fresh. Every melody feels different.”