HAROLD ARLEN (1905-1986) and TED KOEHLER (1894-1973). Americanegro Suite: Four Spirituals, a Dream, and a Lullaby.
New York: Chappell & Co., [1941]. First edition, inscribed by Harold Arlen to his parents "Schmul & Celia" and signed using his Yiddish name "Chaim." Original printed boards. lllustrated by Henry Botkin. 12 x 9 inches (31 x 24 cm); with 6 (of 7) plates. Lacks the plate affixed to the cover, most plates detached and laid-in, extremities rubbed and evidence of old dampstaining.

Provenance: A Portion of the Harold Arlen Archives, Property of Mrs. Rita Arlen

"If ever two white men lost themselves in the spiritual and musical vernacular of another race, those two are Composer Arlen and Lyricist Koehler!" -R. A. Wachsman, foreword to Americanegro Suite. Having written for many Black performers at the Cotton Club in the 1930s, Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler wrote Americanegro Suite in 1941 which was well received by their contemporaries. Composer Hall Johnson studied the Americanegro Suite and wrote, "Of all the many songs written by white composers and employing what claims to be a Negroid idiom in both words and music, these six songs by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler easily stand far out above the rest." This is a fine association between Harold Arlen and his father Samuel, a prominent Buffalo cantor, and his mother Celia Orlin.

C A Portion of the Harold Arlen Archives, Property of Mrs. Rita Arlen

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