Foundation for Research in the Afro-American Creative Arts

Professor J. Southern (Managing Editor-Publisher)

Orpheus Myron McAdoo: Singer, Impresario

Author(s): Josephine Wright
Source: The Black Perspective in Music, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Autumn, 1976), pp. 320-327
Published by: Professor J. Southern (Managing Editor-Publisher)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1214541
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In Retrospect...
ORPHEUSMYRONMcADOO- SINGER,
IMPRESARIO
COMPILED BY JOSEPHINE WRIGHT

RPHEUS MYRON McADOO, singer and impresario of the Virginia

[McAdoo] Jubilee Singers, is one of those now forgotten black
musicians who helped to introduce the secular and sacred songs of
black America to international audiences at the close of the nineteenth
century. Born in 1858 in Greensborough, North Carolina, McAdoo
studied at Hampton Institute (Hampton, Virginia), from which he was
graduated in 1876. He taught for approximately ten years (in Pulaski
and Accomac County, Virginia, as well as at Hampton Institute) before
turning to music as a professional career. In 1886 he joined a quintette,
which was composed primarily of members of the original Fisk Jubilee
Singers, and toured Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and the Far
East. This tour lasted three years. Encouraged by the group's success,
McAdoo returned to the United States to form his own company,
recruiting Hampton graduates and ex-students-including his future
wife, the contralto Mattie Allen, and his brother, Eugene. This newly
organized McAdoo troupe set sail for Europe during the summer of
1889. Approximately a year later, in early summer, we find the McAdoo
Singers in Cape Colony, South Africa, where they opened on 30 June
1889. The McAdoo tour of South Africa lasted a record-breakingnineteen
months. After leaving South Africa, McAdoo made a second tour of
Australia. Here he found the audiences' reception of the singers so
favorable that he eventually leased a theatre and opened a stock company
of colored musicians in Sidney c.1899.
The primary readings that are reprinted below reconstruct a history
of Orpheus McAdoo and his Jubilee Singers for the years 1886 to 1899.
Several of the McAdoo sources provide valuable information about the
impresario's impressions of cities that he visited, as well as audiences'
reactions to the singers. At a time when world attention is focused now
upon the escalating struggle for independence of South African blacks,
it is indeed reflective to read how a black nineteenth-centuryAmerican
viewed life in South Africa, and equally reflective to read how con-
temporary black South Africans viewed their American brothers.
** *

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 ORPHEUS McADOO 321

"From a Hampton Graduate in Australia," Southern Workman 15 (No-

vember 1886): 118.

A Hampton graduate, whose fine voice procured him an invitation

to join some of the original Jubilee Singers of the Fisk University, who
are making the tour on their own account, has written, from different
points, of their interesting journey, letters which have been quoted in
the Southern Workman. For several years a valued teacher in the Butler
School, Night School and Indian Classes at Hampton Institute, he
[Orpheus McAdoo] is an intelligent observer .... We are gratified
to see also that he carries a loyal heart to Hampton round the world
with him!
* * *

"Letters from Hampton Graduates: A Letter from New Zealand," South-

ern Workman 16 (April 1887): 41.
Waipukuan, New Zealand
January 20, 1887
Dear Friends:
During [sic] the last two years of my life has been very varied,
and brim-full of pleasure. I have enjoyed life beyond my powers to tell.
I have traveled nearly two-thirds round the globe, and have seen and
come in contact with thousands of people. I have given you some idea
in previous letters how I enjoyed dear old England, and my trip on
the Continent. I traveled in Australia from May until December [1886]
-and wrote you from there. The first of December, summer began (!)
and the heat drove us to this wonderful island. . . . We came directly
from Sidney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand. . . . Auckland is
quite a city. I spent weeks there. We sang to crowded houses. All
through the colonies, Mr. London has been highly successful. After
finishing New Zealand, we shall return to Australia, and from Australia
we shall visit Fiji, and other South Sea Islands. We go to China, Japan,
and India after leaving this section....

Yours,
McA.
* * *

"A Letter from South Africa: Black Laws in the Orange Free State in
Africa," Southern Workman 19 (November 1890): 120.

Mr. Orpheus McAdoo-a Hampton graduate, who sailed last

summer for a tour of the world with his troupe of singers,
several of whom are ex-Hampton students, writes thus . . .
from Cape Colony.

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322 THE BLACK PERSPECTIVEIN MUSIC

Dear General [Armstrong]:

Since seeing you I have visited many strange scenes and places.
You know already of my visit to England and Scotland [in 1889].
Well, on the 29th of May [1890] . . . I took my company and sailed
for South Africa, having but little idea of the country and only knowing
Sir H. B. Locke and Lady Locke (the Governer and Lady). After three
weeks at sea, enjoying the most delightful weather, we arrived at Cape
Town. The first hour of my arrival I began to work hard. I soon had
friends to become interested in me. Got the support of the press by
inviting them to my rehearsals. Visited Governor Locke and secured
his and Lady Locke's patronage, and opened in Cape Town on June
30th, to the most fashionable audience. Everyone seemed captivated
with the singing; never heard such singing in all their lives, and they
said, "and just to think that black people should do it." The latter
remark will give you some idea of a feeling of prejudice; well, so it
is. There is no country in the world where prejudice is so strong as
here in Africa. The native to-day is treated as badly as ever the slave
was treated in Georgia. Here in Africa the native laws are most unjust;
such as any Christian people would be ashamed of. Do you credit a
law in a civilized community compelling every man of dark skin, even
though he is a citizen of another country, to be in his house by 9 o'clock
at night, or he is arrested? Before I could go into parts of Africa, I
had to get out a passport and a special letter from the Governors and
Presidents of the Transvaal and [the] Orange Free State, or we would
have all been arrested. Black people who are seen out after 9 o'clock
must have passes from their masters. Indeed, it is so strict that natives
have to get passes for day travel. ... I meet a few colored men,
Americans, living here. One opened a business in Johanissburg [sic]
and before he could open, he had to get a white man to allow him to
use his name, because no Negro is allowed to have his own business.
These laws exist in the Transvaal and [the] Orange Free States, which
are governed by the Dutch, who place every living creature before the
native. I have so much good and bad to tell you about Africa, but I
haven't the time.. . . Having to do my own business, I am kept busy,
but [I] hope to send you a letter of some interest soon. We are doing
well here and the Virginia Jubilee Singers are known throughout South
Africa to-day. I have received letters of welcome from several of the
good Christian people; one I will send you for publication soon ....
I am sincerely yours,
Orpheus M. McAdoo

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 ORPHEUS McADOO 323

Imvo Zabantsundu (Kingwilliamstown, South Africa, Thursday, 16

October 1890.

The vocabulary of praise has been exhausted by the press of this

country [Kingwilliamstown, South Africa] in the eulogy of the per-
formances of the world-famed Concert Company of the Jubilee Singers.
To such an extent has this been the case that it would tax the ingenuity
of an ordinary writer to add to the rich encomiums of which Mr.
Orpheus McAdoo's Company have been the recipients. They have sung
before the millions on the habitable globe the honeyed music which
served to dissipate the miseries of their African forefathers in the plan-
tations of the New World, whither they had been taken by shipload as
slaves: and melodious strains they sing, diffusing sweetness wherever
they are heard. It would strongly savour of presumption for a Native
African of this part to venture a critique on his brethren from America,
who are now visiting this quarter of their fatherland, and whose position,
socially, is being deservedly pointed at on all hands as one that Native
here should strive to attain. But we may be allowed to join in the huzzas
that have greeted their musical entertainments in the towns and cities
they have visited. All the ungrudgingly conceded that the Africans
possessed musical talents of an exceptional order, which needed cultiva-
tion to turn them into good account. It would appear, however, that it
was reserved for our countrymen in America to give an object lesson
as to the developmentthese dormant gifts are capable of. Four gentlemen
and six ladies of our colour have shown, and are showing, that as many
voices may be made so to blend as to sound as one voice, which is
cultivated to such perfection as to be set to every trick of the art,
conceivable or inconceivable. One would suppose that now a hundred
people were singing, and then but one was, while all the time these
Jubilee Singers were singing together. It has been well said that such
singing, sui generis, has not been heard in this country, and will probably
not be heard soon unless this Concert Company elect [sic] to re-visit
South Africa.-As Africans, we are, of course, proud of the achievements
of those of our race. Their visit will do their countrymen no end of
good. Already it has suggested reflections to many who, without such a
demonstration, would have remained skeptical as to the possibility, not
to say probability, of the Natives of this country being raised to anything
above remaining as perpetual hewers of wood and drawers of water. The
recognition of the latent abilities of the Natives, and of the fact that
they may yet play a part peculiar to themselves in the human brother-
hood, can not [sic] fail to exert an influence for the mutual good of all
the inhabitants of this country. . . We need not say that we wish
them a successful trip through the land, a trip which must be fruitful
of reflections to them as their appearancein it has been to the descendants
of those who escaped transportationto America.2

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324 THE BLACKPERSPECTIVEIN MUSIC

The Transvaal Mining Argus (Johannesburg, South Africa), 28 January

1891.

The Jubilee Singers, who have been affording so much amusement

lately to the inhabitants of the town by their unique performances,
appeared in a new character yesterday morning, when Mr. Orpheus
Myron McAdoo, the principal, was united in the bonds of holy matri-
mony to Miss Mattie Allen, the lady with the "tenor" voice. . . . The
wedding took place in St. Mary's hall [on 27 January 1891, at Port
Elizabeth, Cape Colony, South Africa], and the bride-groom, attended
by Mr. H. Hodges as "best" man, and the rest of the company having
taken their places, the bride entered the church on the arms of her
future brother-in-law [Eugene McAdoo], attended by Miss Harris as
bridesmaid. The Rev. J. T. Darragh officiated, and the hymn "The
Voice That Breathed O'er Eden," was sung as the bride proceeded up
the church. After the ceremony the other wedding hymn was sung,
and the bridal party moved to the vestry. Mr. H. E. Stidelph played
the "Wedding March ...."3

* * *

The Castlemain Leader (Talbot County, Australia), Wednesday, 18

May 1892.
JUBILEE SINGER'S CONCERT
The coloured Jubilee Singers gave a concert in the Mechanics'
Institute [Castlemaine (Victoria), Australia] last night to a house
crowded in all parts with the exception of a few seats in front, and had
the entertainment been held in the Theatre Royal, where there is abun-
dance of room for all prices, there is no doubt that even such a com-
modious building as that would have been taxed for seats. The members
of the present jubilee combination, as is well-known, formerly belonged
to the famous Fisk Company, and are now travelling on their own
account, under the direction of Mr. Orpheus M'Adoo [sic]. The enter-
tainment was opened with the beautiful chorus (A) 'Steal Away to
Jesus,' and (B) 'The Lord's Prayer.' The rendering of this pretty
chorus was sufficient to mark the success of the evening, and received
rapturous applause. This was followed by another chorus, 'Great Camp
Meeting,' which so aroused . . . the audience that an encore was
demanded, the company responding with 'He lives in the middle of
the earth.' Mr. O. McAdoo gave a bass solo, 'I am king o'er land and
sea,' in which the capability of the vocalist thoroughly exceeded all
expectations, the strength and mellowness of his rich, deep voice bing
[sic] used with splendid effect. In response to a vociferous re-call, the
singer gave a feeling rendention of that plantive old plantation melody
'Old Black Joe.' The company followed with another of their choice

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 ORPHEUS McADOO 325

choruses, 'The winter will soon be over.' Miss Belle F. Gibbons made
herself a favourite with 'The song that reached my heart,' and a
repetition had to be given before the appetite of the audience could be
satisfied. A duet and chorus, 'The bulldog on the bank and the bullfrog
in the pool' was full of merry references, and literally brought down
the house, 'Farewell, my own true love' being given as an encore. 'In
silent mead,' a quartette by Messrs. Collins, Hodges, E[ugene] and
O[rpheus] M'Adoo, was finely sung, as was also the chorus by the
full company, 'I'm rolling through an unfriendly world.' This closed the
first part of the entertainment, and during the interval the manager
(Mr. O. M'Adoo) gave the audience a short account of their previous
visit to Castlemaine, and made amusing reference to their advent in
Africa, where they had intended to stay for a couple of months, but
they had met with such a cordial reception that their stay in the Dark
Continent was prolonged for 19 months. The second part of the pro-
gramme opened with a lively medley on English, Irish, Scotch and
American airs, the running together of snatches from the different songs
-from 'The Wearing on the Green' to 'Rule Britannia'-gave a ludicrous
savor to the affair, and tickled the audience immensely. An encore was
demanded, when 'A sailor's life is the life for me' was pealed forth
with such a spirit as to evoke continued applause. Then followed the
wonder of the evening, in which Miss Mattie E. Allen (Mrs. O. M'Adoo)
gave'a tenor solo, 'The Castle Gate.' This indeed, was a supreme effort,
and its equal has not been heard since the days of Grace Egerton. To
an irresistible demand for a second number the lady fairly took the
house by storm with a song of the late T. K. Emmett, 'Der Dutchman's
leetle dorg' [sic]. 'The gospel train is coming,' was another of those
quaint plantation choruses, and its fervid simplicity in words together
with the capable rendering of the jovial music were fully appreciated.
The audience . . . [was] then given a treat seldom witnessed here,
viz., a recitation by a lady elocutionist, and Miss Julie E. Wormlie must
be awarded the palm of palms. 'Trouble in the amen corner,' was
beautiful[ly] treated by this talented young lady, its various passages
of emotion and pomposity being carefully handled, while the action in
every instance was suited exactly to the word. In response to a well-
merited encore, Miss Wormlie gave 'The Hindoo's paradise,' in which,
if anything she excelled her previous task. A soprano solo, the best of
the evening, 'Cinderella's Dream,' was efficiently treated in the hands
of Madame J. Stewart Ball, the extensive range of voice, and perfect
tone, being without fault. An encore being demanded, Madame Bell gave
'Twickenham Ferry' in a style which was a lesson to hear. 'My Lord
delivered Daniel,' another of the Fisk choruses had an electrical effect
upon the audience, and in reply to a re-call the company repeated the
first number of the evening, 'Steal away to Jesus.' Mr. M. H. Hodges
fully sustained the reputation of the troupe in his baritone solo, 'The
Patriot,' which was quite enjoyed. The choruses (A) 'Swing low, sweet
chariot,' and (B) 'Benediction,' gave those present another good example
of the efficiency of the singers, and closed the programme.4

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326 THE BLACKPERSPECTIVEIN MUSIC

The following letter was written from Lovedale, South Africa, by

McAdoo's brother, Eugene, who toured the continent with the Jubilee
Singers. Southern Workman 23 (January 1894): 15.
. . . While in South Africa recently I had the pleasure of visiting
this African Hampton [sic]. Our company was in Grahmstown, when
there came a letter from the officers of Lovedale Institute to my brother
[Orpheus], begging that we pay them a visit and sing our songs for
them. The school is about sixty miles from Grahmstown,and there is no
railroad. The regular mail coach was too small to carry our large party
-so a long, covered "Dutch Wagon" was chartered. This was drawn
by eighteen huge oxen, in the charge of the owner and a native boy.
We had to leave Grahmstown on Sunday night in order to get to
Lovedale in season to sing on Wednesday. We arranged ourselves
as comfortably as possible in our close quarters, and for the first few
miles enjoyed it; but in a little while the constant jolting began to
make us ache all over, and we were indeed glad to welcome the sun.
This was the month of November [1893?], the beginning of summer in
the Southern Hemisphere, and the heat was so intense that it was next
to impossible to travel in the middle part of the day. After two days
and three nights our sixty miles were accomplished, and we were in the
beautiful little town of Alice, and just across the river . . . was the school.
After a hurried dinner at our hotel, we were escorted to the school
by two of the young men who were sent down for us. The many nice
buildings, the boys in the work-shops,the girls at their different labors,
made me imagine that I was at Hampton. We were ushered into the
Treasurer's office, where we were introduced to several of the officers.
Dr. Stewart [the director] was away in central Africa at this time ....
We were soon shown into the Assembly Room where we were to
sing. . . . The girls and boys came in much in the same way as do the
students here [at Hampton]. There were nearly five hundred of them,
and their faces were a picture of interest and anticipation. We sang for
them for nearly a couple of hours, and then they favored us with some of
their songs, which we thoroughly enjoyed, for their voices were indeed
good. In passing out, many of them shook our hands and bade us good-
by after thanking us for singing . ...
Respectively yours,
Eugene McAdoo

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 ORPHEUSMcADOO 327

Excerpt from the Southern Workman22 April 1899): 142.

Mr. Orpheus McAdoo, Class of '76, . . . arrived from Australia on
the 8th [of April, 1899]. Mr. McAdoo has returned to this country for
the purpose of securing more artists for his company. He has leased a
theatre in Sidney, Australia, and will have a stock company there.

The ColoredAmerican (Washington,D.C.), 22 April 1899

(advertisement)
IMPORTANTANNOUNCEMENT
MR. ORPHEUS M. McADOO
Sole lessee Palace Theater, Sidney, Australia

WILL ARRIVE IN

Washington from Australia

(About Middle of April)
SEEKING

Musical, Minstrels and Vaudeville Attractions

Tour:-Australia, New Zealand,Japan, China and
India. Engagementsfrom 6 to 12 months.
Good salaries and return fares.
Only Colored Artists Engaged. None but Best
Need Apply. Also sopranos, contraltos,tenors
and bassos required for Jubilee Singers and Concertcompany.
The Palace Theater, Sidney, is the handsomestand
most completevaudeville house in the world.

Address all communicationsto

ORPHEUS M. McADOO
Care of The ColoredAmerican, Washington, D.C.

NOTES
1. The McAdoo letter which follows the editorial pertains primarily to
descriptionsof the aborigines.It is dated, "Craig'sPalace Hotel, Ballarat,Australia,
September 7, 1886."
2. Contributedby Mutero Chirenje, HarvardUniversity.
3. Contributedby EleanorRice, HamptonInstitute.
4. Ibid.

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