b. 1894d. 1967

Cecil Cohen

Cecil Cohen's songs set the poetry of writers from Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen to Sara Teasdale. However, all of them are currently out of print, except for "Death of an Old Seaman," which is included in the Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers.

About

“Cecil Cohen was born in Chicago in 1894. He was educated at Fisk University of Oberlin Conservatory. Mr. Cohen taught for many years on the faculty of Howard University in Washington DC. Possessed with dynamic temperament and rare artistic style, Mr. Cohen often broke away from formal, measured expression to find a new self-expression in a seemingly chaotic music period of atonal, swing and ecstatic motion. With the same exhaustive and thoughtful precision injected into his teaching, he captured a similar brilliant vitality in his composition. He was reported to be an excellent pianist. Cecil Cohen died in 1967.”

–The African American Art Song Alliance Website

Related Information

Lieder.net

lieder.net/lieder/get_settings.html?ComposerId=10594

African Diaspora Music Project

africandiasporamusicproject.org/compser/cecil-cohen

African American Art Song Alliance

darryltaylor.com/alliance/composers/cecil-cohen

University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre, & Dance

smtd.umich.edu/black-american-composer-anthology

Songs

Death of an Old Seaman1932Cecil CohenLangston Hughes

Records

2008

With a Song in My Heart

H. Leslie Adams, Henry T. Burleigh, Margaret Bonds, Robert Owens, Cecil Cohen

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Sheet Music

Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers, Compiled by Willis C. Patterson

H. Leslie Adams, David Baker, Margaret Bonds, Charles Brown, Cecil Cohen, Noel de Costa, Mark Fax, Adolphus C. Hailstork, Eugene Hancock, Thomas Kerr, Jr., Charles Lloyd, Jr., Wendell Logan, Maurice McCall, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Undine Smith Moore, Robert Owens, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Florence Price, Hale Smith, William Grant Still, Howard Swanson, George Walker, Olly Wilson, John Work, Jr.
For You There is No Song (H. Leslie Adams)
Early in the Mornin' (David Baker)
A Good Assassination Should Be Quiet (David Baker)
Status Symbol (David Baker)
Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man; Dream Variations; I, Too (Margaret Bonds)
The Barrier (Charles Brown)
Song Without Words (Charles Brown)
Death of an Old Seaman (Cecil Cohen)
Two Songs for Julie Ju (Noel da Costa)
Cassandra's Lullaby (Mark Fax)
Love (Mark Fax)
A Charm at Parting (Adolphus C. Hailstork)
I Loved You (Adolphus C. Hailstork)
Absalom (Eugene Hancock)
Nunc Dimittis (Eugene Hancock)
Riding to Town (Thomas Kerr, Jr.)
Compensation (Charles Lloyd, Jr.)
If There Be Sorrow (Wendell Logan)
Marrow of My Bone (Wendell Logan)
Chanson Triste (Maurice McCall)
Sweet Sorrow (Maurice McCall)
Weary Blues (Dorothy Rudd Moore)
Love Let the Wind Cry...How I Adore Thee (Undine Moore)
Faithful One (Robert Owens)
Genius Child (Robert Owens)
A Child's Grace (Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson)
Melancholy (Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson)
Night (Florence Price)
Song to the Dark Virgin (Florence Price)
Velvet Shoes (Hale Smith)
Grief (William Grant Still)
A Death Song (Howard Swanson)
I Will Lie Down in Autumn (Howard Swanson)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Howard Swanson)
Lament (George Walker)
A Red, Red Rose (George Walker)
Wry Fragments (Olly Wilson)
Dancing in the Sun (John Work, Jr.)
Soliloquy (John Work, Jr.)
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