‘Ol’ Man River’ at the Front: Paul Robeson, Music, and Blackness in Republican Spain

Abstract

Several scholars have discussed the impact of the Spanish Civil War on the Black singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson, including his brief 1938 tour of Republican Spain. Yet none has considered the tour in musical terms, nor taken into account Spanish reaction. Drawing on coverage in the Republican press, along with recent work on vocality and identity, I argue that the tour challenged prior notions of blackness in Spain. Spanish journalists addressed Robeson’s singing from the standpoint of the ‘suspect whiteness of Spain’ (to borrow Fra-Molinero’s apt description) while Robeson himself linked blackness and flamenco and reformulated the ‘sorrow song,’ as W. E. B. Du Bois called the spiritual. I also analyse Robeson’s performances of ‘Ol’ Man River’ from the musical Show Boat in terms of Republic ideology. In sum, Robeson challenged Franco’s vision of ‘blood purity’ (limpieza de sangre) while calling for racial justice worldwide.

KEYWORDS:

• Paul Robeson
• Spanish Civil War
• performance
• Blackness
• Show Boat
• flamenco

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this work were presented at the conference, ‘Music and Politics in the 1930s’ (University of Melbourne, 7 December 2019) and at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Music (18 July 2020). The author thanks Juan Diego Díaz for a careful reading of this essay and many helpful suggestions.

Notes

1 When invited by Kern to appear in the original 1927 production, Robeson turned down the role, giving scheduling conflicts as his reason (Redmond, 2014: 101). Jules Bledsoe sang the role.

2 It is not clear that Robeson had an official invitation from any Republican cultural entity. The government provided the Robesons safe-conducts, escorts, and drivers throughout the tour. See Duberman, 1988: 215.

3 These words are spoken by a character in a short story from Bessie, 1952: 29.

4 The song is not identified. My thanks to Yolanda Acker for calling this press source to my attention.

5 It is too much, therefore, to propose that ‘none of Robeson’s films confronts slavery or racism directly.’ Dyer, 1986/2004: 83.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carol A. Hess

Carol A. Hess teaches at the University of California, Davis. Her research explores the intersections between musical style and political currents, focusing on links between music criticism and political rhetoric in the Spanish-speaking world. Among her books is Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan American Dream (Oxford, 2013), in which she analyses reactions to Latin American music in the United States during the twentieth century; in 2018, her textbook Experiencing Latin American Music was published by the University of California Press. Grants and awards include Fulbright Fellowships, NEH Summer Stipends, two Robert M. Stevenson Awards for Outstanding Scholarship in Iberian Music, the Society for American Music’s Irving Lowens Article Award, and the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award as well as teaching and mentoring awards. She is currently completing two books: Aaron Copland in Latin America: Music, Politics, and Cultural Diplomacy, and a study of Manuel de Falla’s El amor brujo.