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"Two Souls, Two Thoughts, Two Unreconciled Strivings": The Sound of Double Consciousness in Roland Hayes's Early Career

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One feels his twoness,--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. W. E. B. Du Bois There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion. Ralph Waldo Emerson The Gods will not descend without song. Common West African aphorism Tenor Roland Hayes was one of a small handful of black singers to bring spirituals before the American public in the early twentieth century, declaring that the music of slaves--and therefore, to an extent, the music of Africa--was worthy of display in America's halls of honor. Breaking down the barriers that had kept black singers and black songs confined to the black community in the United States' post-emancipation years, however, proved challenging on a number of levels. Even within the black community, there were some who wanted to distance themselves from African-inspired music that reminded them too painfully of the days of slavery. White America, moreover, did not usually smile upon such offerings, and some resisted forcefully the idea that black Americans or their music had any place on the concert stage. Despite such challenges, Hayes helped open the stage to black American artists who were dedicated to shattering the blackface minstrel tradition. He insisted on incorporating spirituals into his performances, and, fairly early in his career, recognized and celebrated the black timbres and enunciations that he found in his voice. "Before my time," he remarked, "white singers had too often been in the habit of burlesquing the spirituals with rolling eyes and heaving breast and shuffling feet, on the blasphemous assumption that they were singing comic songs" (Helm 1969, 188-189). (1) Music and art critic Alain Locke wrote that because of Hayes, "barriers raised for generations against Negro musicians fell like the Walls of Jericho; international acclaim forced American recognition and a great musical personality clinched it. ... Roland Hayes vindicated Negro musicianship" ([1936] 1969, 123). A young American studying music in Berlin put it somewhat more succinctly: "Goddamn it," he said, greeting Hayes after a performance and reaching out to shake his hand, "[P]ut it there! This is the first time I have seen the Germans admit that good art can come out of America" (quoted in Helm 1969, 212). Simultaneously, however, Hayes felt pressure to conform to the standards of white America, and to some degree he internalized white America's expectations. He judged his own success as a musician using the measures established by Europeans and white Americans. This mindset reverberated through his music, especially early in his career, as Hayes tried to pattern his singing after European masters. Indeed, before his first big concert in Boston, Hayes often chose to present only music of European origins. When not performing, Hayes called on members of his race to earn their rights by working harder and by making their goals correspond more closely to what whites expected of them rather than pushing for equal opportunities. As he broke down racial barriers and "vindicat[ed] Negro musicianship," Hayes was, on some level, aware of the great importance of the culture of the black community. Participating in African-American group music and dance formed some of his earliest memories and shaped significantly Hayes's childhood identity, although he would only later come to understand the complex contributions of Africa to his own cultural background. As he tried to reconcile his pride in his African heritage with the assimilationist goal of "blending in," Roland Hayes was undoubtedly afflicted by conflicting values. …