Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms

by Kira Thurman

In Singing Like Germans , Kira Thurman tells the sweeping story of Black musicians in German-speaking Europe over more than a century. Thurman brings to life the incredible musical interactions and transnational collaborations between people of African descent and white Germans and Austrians. Through this compelling history, she explores the ways in which people reinforced or challenged racial identities in the concert hall.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, audiences assumed that the categories of Blackness and Germanness were mutually exclusive. Yet upon attending a performance of German music by a Black musician, many listeners were surprised to discover that German identity was not a biological marker but something that could be learned, performed, and mastered. While Germans and Austrians located their national identity in music, championing composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms as national heroes, the performance of these works by Black musicians complicated their understanding of who had the right to play them. Audiences wavered between seeing these musicians as the rightful heirs of Austro-German musical culture and dangerous outsiders to it.

Thurman explores the tension between the supposedly transcendental powers of classical music and the global conversations that developed about who could perform it. An interdisciplinary and transatlantic history, Singing Like Germans suggests that listening to music is not a passive experience, but an active process where racial and gendered categories are constantly made and unmade.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Germany

372 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2021

Reviews

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a standout book. Thurman brings together musicology, history, critical race theory, and much more in this excellent account of how Black American musicians were treated in Germany and Austria, where many at first thought they had found a new and welcoming home away from the overt racism of the United States. But as Thurman documents, most Black performers in Germany found themselves treated as the Other nonetheless. As Nazism grew, singers like Marion Anderson realized that despite their followers and admirers, they were in grave danger. Thurman focuses on many notable musicians whose stories are important, even if we do not remember them as well as Anderson, and the narrative is clear and elegantly written. This should appeal to a large audience, not just academic readers, and I hope it will be picked up by book clubs and similar reading groups as one of the best works of non-fiction (and musicology) I have read in a very long time.

[Magalys · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that you can tell had blood, sweat, and tears go into it. It is extremely well-researched and valuable for providing the history that is unknown to many, probably most, in a single book. I think we should all appreciate what Kira Thurman has done with this recordkeeping and I am grateful for the songs and artists it has introduced me to, I even learned a bit about my own history (Cuba), which I was not expecting. My actual rating for this book is 3.5. I didn't rate it higher only because the writing was a bit too academic for me and I think my reading experience would have been more enjoyable if i had more of a fine arts/classical music background. However, I have started to look up recordings of the performances she mentions throughout the book so maybe that will change!

[Plots and Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ Deeply researched and detailed chronicling of the interest and abilities of African-American German musical art students across the USA who impressed and awed German teachers and audiences in the early 19th century
~ A clever juxtaposition of music against the period of the American Depression, US and diaspora racial segregation, WWI and the climates of upcoming WWII
~ Inclusion of historical images chronicling the progress of German and Austrian music across African-American and then the journey of AA and other Afro-populations from the diaspora towards Germany itself (I love photographic proof)
~ Well-written and reflective

Singing like Germans is much more than a mere assessment of German music amongst a group of people, it does a remarkable job at explaining and questioning racial tensions at the time, lines drawn within races and the influence German music may have had on furthering divides within the AA population. Here, we are forced to consider and weigh the benefits of these associations but also wonder in the power of music and respect of musical ability to occasionally bridge gaps that may otherwise seem insurmountable.

✨Give it a read.

🌱THE MEH
~ A tough read if you are not very much into fiction or if you don’t have a strong interest in Classical music

♡🌱 But that’s just me ;)

[Shannan Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would be a great book for history buffs as well as music majors. It gives a detailed information regarding african americans learning music and singing while in Germany during the early part of the 1900's and is very well researched.

I received a copy of the book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the musicology we need!

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapters on post-war East and West Germany were especially interesting.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thurman's passion and expertise are evident in Singing like Germans. The material is fascinating and in-depth, though it is delivered in a dry, academic way, so it took me a bit to finish the book. I love the inclusion of photographs of the artists, concert programs, newspapers, etc.

*my favorite performances that I listened to while reading (most of which are mentioned in the book, but not all):

Roland Hayes' "Go Down, Moses" and "Du bist die Ruh" (the song he sang when he won over angry crowd in 1924), Paul Robeson's "Ol' Man River" ("I'm tired of living, but scared of dying") and "Moorsoldaten" (written and sung by prisoners in Nazi concentration camp), Marian Anderson's "Komm Süßer Tod" and "Ave Maria", William Grant Still's "Afro-American" Symphony, Aubrey Pankey's "Swing Low", and Emeka Ogboh's The Song of Germans installation