In De Col’ Moonlight

From the Southland

Harry T. Burleigh (1866–1949)

About the Composer

Harry T. Burleigh (1866–1949) was a composer, baritone, arranger, and advocate whose work helped transform the place of African American spirituals in American concert music. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Burleigh learned spirituals from his grandfather, Hamilton Waters, who had been enslaved in Maryland before escaping to freedom. Those songs became a lifelong source of inspiration for Burleigh, shaping both his own compositions and his sense of musical purpose.

After studying at the National Conservatory of Music in New York, Burleigh built a remarkable career as a singer and composer. He became closely associated with Antonín Dvořák during the Czech composer’s years at the Conservatory, and Burleigh’s singing of spirituals is credited with helping deepen Dvořák’s understanding of African American musical traditions. Burleigh later became a longtime soloist at St. George’s Episcopal Church in New York and at Temple Emanu-El, navigating spaces where Black artists were rarely granted full recognition.

Burleigh is especially remembered for his art-song arrangements of spirituals, which helped bring these songs into recital halls and conservatory settings while preserving their expressive dignity. His work challenges any simple division between “folk” and “classical” music; for Burleigh, the spiritual was not raw material to be elevated, but a profound American art form already worthy of the concert stage.

About the Piece

“In De Col’ Moonlight” is the third piece from From the Southland, a collection of six “Piano Sketches” published in 1910. The collection is dedicated to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the celebrated British composer whose own work drew deeply on African and African diasporic musical traditions. Each piece in the set is preceded by an original poem by Burleigh’s wife, Louise Alston Burleigh, creating a close relationship between poetry and music.

The poem preceding “In De Col’ Moonlight” reads:

Just a tender heart repinin’:-
‘Cased yet ‘scapes its bindin’
And in mem’ry of a home
Forgets it’s not it’s own.

Toil on seeker – stumble, cry
Never know de reason why!
Alone in de moonlight call to de sky
Listen for de col’ reply!

Burleigh’s music unfolds with the lyricism of a song, reflecting his lifelong affinity for vocal expression and his deep connection to the tradition of the spiritual. The piece offers a glimpse of Burleigh not only as an arranger of spirituals but also as a composer with a distinctive musical voice of his own. Like many works in From the Southland, it occupies a space between art song and character piece, inviting listeners into an intimate and evocative musical world.

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Sheet Music

This public domain work is freely available via IMSLP.