Nathaniel Clark Smith

1877 - 1935

About

N. Clark Smith (1877-1935), born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is known as one of the first African- Americans to notate spirituals. During the late nineteenth century, a time in America’s history when most African Americans were working in the fields, Smith was receiving his academic training in music from military schools and universities and from abroad. His first introduction to formal instruction was from a H. E. Gungle, a prospective band director from Germany. Under the encouragement of his teacher and his father, Smith left the military behind and pursued music full-time. As a young adult, he studied music at Western University in Kansas and at Guild Hall in England, however it was overseas where he began to study seriously. Smith returned to Kansas in 1894 and after working a while as a teacher and arranger for the Whitman and Con Music company, he embarked on a tour with the Ernest Hogan Minstrel Show, traveling to Africa, the Caribbean Islands, Asia, Europe, Australia, and throughout the Americas. Smith eventually settled in Chicago and worked as a music teacher and orchestra conductor of small ensembles. Smith is considered to be one of the pioneers, or “master teachers” in African American society, having taught at high schools in Kansas City, Missouri, Chicago, Tuskegee Institute and St. Louis, Missouri. He is also the founder of the first African American Publishing Company, the Smith Jubilee Music Company.

Related Information

Biographies of black composers and songwriters, E. Diane Lyle-Smith The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education Vol. 17, No. 2 (Jan., 1996), pp. 98-116)

Works by Nathaniel Clark Smith