ABSTRACT
In Dahomey: A Negro Musical Comedy was composed and conducted by Will Marion Cook, an important figure in the history of African-American music in Britain as in 1903 he brought this show and also, in 1919, the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, to London. Both groups consisted entirely of black performers, and represented a conscious effort by Cook to promote black music and musicians. Cook had obtained a 'classical' music education, including studying the violin under Joachim in Berlin and at the National Conservatory in New York, which at the time was headed by Dvořák;, who 'urged American composers to forge a new path using the indigenous musics of America' (Carter, 2000:207). Cook made his Carnegie Hall debut and received a promising review, but was clearly classified as a 'colored violinist' and realized that his career as a performer would be limited by the fact that he was black. He then devoted himself to composition, writing several musicals in his lifetime and influencing other black musicians and composers, most notably Duke Ellington (Dixon, 1992:14-15). 1 Cook first became well known through Clorindy, the Origin of the Cakewalk, which through his sheer determination was performed at the Casino Roof Garden in New York in 1898 (Dixon, 1992:15). Cook commented optimistically on the importance of this achievement for black artists: 'Negroes were at last on Broadway, and there to stay. Gone was the uff-dah of the minstrel! Gone the Massa Linkum stuff! We were artists and we were going a long, long way.' (Cook, 1947:233).
