347pp. Original blue cloth in original printed dust jacket. First Edition.
Inscribed on front flyleaf, “To Mr. Alec Rowley from his pupil, Lawrence Brown Sept. 22, 1924”. Important association copy of a rare and significant volume of Black musical history. Brown, then studying music in London, would return to the US to become a Black composer, singer and pianist, and, most notably, the lifelong concert accompanist of famed baritone, athlete, lawyer, singer and actor Paul Robeson
Brown, then 31, was in London for advanced musical studies. Rowley, to whom he presented this book, was his professor at Trinity College of Music. The book itself is a classic compilation by a Black scholar of African-American secular folk songs, which “marked a turning point in the study of African-American verse.”
Brown, returning to the US,the following year, began his professional relationship with Robeson; for the next forty years, he would accompany the famous singer in concerts in the US and throughout Europe.