Premiere of the Oratorio 'The Ordering of Moses'
Poet involved
What happened
Robert Nathaniel Dett's oratorio 'The Ordering of Moses' premiered at the Cincinnati May Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, for soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, chorus, and orchestra. The live NBC radio broadcast of the premiere was controversially cut off mid-performance.
Literary impact
This oratorio represented the culmination of Dett's ambition to render spiritual material in large-scale symphonic and choral form, based on his Eastman master's thesis. The broadcast interruption became a notorious symbol of the era's racial barriers in national media.
Source: Wikipedia
