Suite: In the Bottoms

• Published in 1913, In the Bottoms is one of eight suites for piano which Dett composed.¹
• The composer noted the following about the suite:

“In the Bottoms is a Suite of five numbers giving pictures of moods or scenes to Black life in the river bottoms of the Southern sections of North America… As it is quite possible to describe the traits, habits and customs of a people without using the vernacular, so it is similarly possible to musically portray racial peculiarities without the use of national tunes or folk songs.”²

• In the Bottoms is programmatic in nature. The composer offered the descriptions for each movement in the preface of his published score:
  1. Prelude – Is nightfall; the heavy chords represent the heavy shadows, and the open fifths, the peculiar hollow effect of the stillness; the syncopated melody which occurs, is the “tumming” of a banjo, which music is, however, only incidental to the gloom.
  2. His Song – The psychological phenomenon is historic, that the moods of suppressed people have oftenest found their most touching expression in song. An aged [Black person] will sometimes sit for hours in the quiet of an evening, humming an improvised air, whose weird melody seems to strangely satisfy a nameless yearning of the heart.
  3. Honey (Humoresque) – Literally, “Honey” is a colloquialism–the familiar term of endearment (South). It may mean much, little, everything or nothing; the intimation here, is one of coquetry. It is after a poem, “A Negro Love Song” by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
  4. Barcarolle – The rhythmic figure which forms the theme of this Barcarolle is in reality, the rhythmic motif of the whole suite; it is of most frequent occurrence in the music of the antebellum folkdances, and its marked individuality has caused it to be much misused for purposes of caricature. Here it paints the pleasure of a sunshiny morning on the Father of Waters.
  5. Dance (Juba) – This is probably the most characteristic number of the Suite, as it portrays more of the social life of the people. “Juba” is the stamping on the ground with the foot and following it with two staccato pats of the hands in two-four time. At least one third of the dancers keep time in this way, while the others dance. Sometimes all will combine together in order to urge on a solo dancer to more frantic (and at the same time more fantastic) endeavors. The orchestra usually consists of a single “fiddler,” perched high on a box or table; who, forgetful of self in the rather hilarious excitement of the hour, does the impossible in the way of double stopping and bowing.³
• Dett dedicated this suite to “My friends, the Hon. and Mrs. Fred H. Goff.”  
  • Frederick Goff was a lawyer and banker who had served as mayor of Glenville, Ohio. When Dett was in his first year as a student at Oberlin, Goff heard him play in a recital and was deeply impressed. After that, Goff financed the rest of Dett’s studies at Oberlin.⁴

1. Christopher Brooks, “Dett, R(obert) Nathaniel,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 16, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000007669.
2. Essay in accompanying booklet, Bach to Black: Suites for Piano performed by Rochelle Sennet, Albany 1869, 2021, compact disc.
3. “In the Bottoms,” (Dett, Robert Nathaniel), IMSLP, accessed July 16, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/In_the_Bottoms_(Dett%2C_Robert_Nathaniel).
4. Anne Marie Linnaberry, “Niagara Discoveries: R. Nathnaniel Dett, internationally known musician,” Lockport Union-Sun and Journal (April 1, 2017), accessed July 16, 2021, https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-r-nathaniel-dett-internationally-known-musician/article_1225308e-5e22-5ebb-aafd-c939498c8cd0.html.