{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/iiif/zp3vt1hh4f/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Morris Queen oral history, 2002 March 19"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/008/original/peabody-institute.logo.large.horizontal.blue.cropped.png?1549570058","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":[" Morris Queen (1931-2003) was a signer, organist, and music educator. During World War II he performed and toured as a member of the Great Lakes Singers and the Great Lakes Octet. After the war he attended Howard University, where he received degrees in music and in education. Queen was the organist at Sharp Street Methodist Church for more than 50 years and taught in Baltimore City Schools and the Peabody Conservatory's Summer Youth Project. He was the founder and conductor of the Morris Queen Chorale. (Abstract)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":[" 2002-03-19 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":[" Queen, Morris, 1931-2003 (Interviewee)"," Osowski, Ken (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":[" English (Primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["audio/mp3"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["The collection is open for use. Contact peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information."]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/215389"]}}],"summary":{"en":[" Morris Queen (1931-2003) was a signer, organist, and music educator. During World War II he performed and toured as a member of the Great Lakes Singers and the Great Lakes Octet. After the war he attended Howard University, where he received degrees in music and in education. Queen was the organist at Sharp Street Methodist Church for more than 50 years and taught in Baltimore City Schools and the Peabody Conservatory's Summer Youth Project. He was the founder and conductor of the Morris Queen Chorale."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["The collection is open for use. Contact peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information."]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/008/original/peabody-institute.logo.large.horizontal.blue.cropped.png?1549570058","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/117/488/small/queen_photoshop.jpg?1651085532","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - pims0091_QueenM_01.mp3"]},"duration":3025.03184,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/117/488/small/queen_photoshop.jpg?1651085532","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-peabody.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/117/488/original/pims0091_QueenM_01.mp3?1624270967","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":3025.03184,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["QueenM_1_OHMS_20220609 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"KEN OSOWSKI: All right. It is Tuesday, March 19th, 2002, and we are here in\nRandallstown, Maryland. My name is Ken Osowski, and I am going to be\ninterviewing Mr. Morris C. Queen for the Peabody-Johns Hopkins Oral History\nProject, Music of Baltimore. How are you Mr. Queen?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Fine. Thank you.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Just so we have it on tape, could you give us your full name?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: My full name is Morris Chester Queen.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Just let's start at the beginning I guess. There's a lot to talk\nabout, but could you tell us where and when you were born?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, September 30th, 1921.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=0.0,60.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And I mean, you have a very, very rich musical past so I guess\nmaybe you can start at the beginning. Where did you begin your music education\nor where were you first exposed to music?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Well, my father used to play music every Sunday on an old wind-up\nVictrola. And these were old 78 records. Well, they were all classical records\nthat were given to him by the people that my mother worked for. And some were\npiano pieces, some were orchestral pieces, some were choral pieces.\n\nI started studying piano at age 7, and my teacher was a Mrs. Manila Smith. I\nstudied with her for about six years. I began playing the piano in public at age\n9, and that was in my church when she was absent as my teacher. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=60.0,120.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"She was absent\none Sunday, and the pastor asked if I would come up and play the hymns for him.\nAnd I went up and played. I was short, couldn't reach the pedals, which was a\nblessing as far as I was concerned because I didn't know how to use the pedals\nin the first place.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So you mentioned that you were exposed to a lot of records in your\nhouse. Were your parents musical; were they musicians themselves?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: They played piano, but they didn't play piano by reading. In those\ndays most Blacks could play chords on the piano like tonic, subdominant,\ndominant, back to tonic. And basically from that you could sing most of the\npieces that they were singing which were religious pieces in the first place,\nwhich was mostly hymns. You'd say, well, you wouldn't go the supertonics or the\nmediants or the leading tone; you weren't involved with that, you just say\ntonic, subdominant, dominant, back to tonic.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=120.0,180.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So you were exposed to classical music and then also to church music?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: We were raised with church; I was raised in the church. That was\nalmost a law for the children cause the whole family went to church every\nSunday, and just about stayed in church all day at that time. I'm talking about\nthe 1920s or 30s.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: What church did you go to when you were young?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church. That's the church. Of course\nit's no longer Episcopal. Now Methodist, United Methodist as it's known today.\nNot called Episcopal any longer.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And where is that?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: The church now is divided, split up into three different churches.\nMt. Zion, St. Luke's and St. Mark's. From that one church they just split and\nwent, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=180.0,240.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"formed three churches out of one. I didn't say with them too long cause\n1943 I went into the United States Navy.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So at Mt. Zion you played piano and organ?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I didn't bother that much with the organ; mostly piano.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Okay. Did you direct the youth choir there?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I directed the youth choir. I was about seventeen, eighteen years\nold. I sang top on the senior choir. I played for the chorus choir and directed\nthe youth choir. So that's why I have such an interest in choral music as\nopposed to instrumental music.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And then also at this time were you getting exposure and education\nto music through your schools and high school?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yes. We had high school music.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=240.0,300.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Where did you go to school?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I went to Frederick Douglass Senior High School and Booker T.\nWashington Junior High School. That's where I went to school.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And then you entered the Navy in 1943.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yes. 1943. May of 1943, yes. In Great Lakes, Illinois, that's\nwhere I was stationed.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And I read a little bit about this. You were in the Great Lakes Octet.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I was in it and also the director and arranger of the Great Lakes\nOctet. And this group traveled in the United States and two countries outside,\nHawaii and Okinawa. And we went there to sing for the wounded veterans who had\nbeen brought back from Japan and the islands where they had been fighting. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=300.0,360.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And\nwe went there to entertain.\n\nI was, this group, Great Lakes Octet was put in what was called in those days\nShips Company, and we were confined to Camp Lawrence and Camp Smalls. And during\nthis period, we traveled over the United States by train, by plane, by bus, by\ncab, and when we were traveling, we sang mostly at churches, colleges, and at\ntheaters. But we mostly sang spirituals and some secular songs like \"Passing By\"\nby Purcell- things of that nature. And \"Invictus\" by Bruno Hahn.\n\nWe didn't sing hymns. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=360.0,420.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"That was not for the octet, that was for the Blue Jacket\nChoir. Every camp had a choir. I not only trained the octet, but I trained the\nchoir that sang every Sunday morning for Protestant service. I trained the\nlittle choir for the Catholic service. So we had three services on Sunday\nmorning, not counting the one where we broadcast over CBS radio. And we\nbroadcast over CBS radio for two years.\n\nAnd that's where I met one Navy gentleman who was responsible for me going to\ncollege. He told me that I needed to go to college to study theory. And he said\nstudy all the music you can cause you've got talent, and you don't even know\nthat you have talent. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=420.0,480.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And he was an assistant at St. John the Divine in New\nYork; played a whole lot of organ.\n\nAnd every Sunday morning E. Power Biggs would come on, and I would go over to\nthe broadcast studio, and I could always try to remember what kind of melody he\nhad played that morning. Might be something about Bach, something by Buxtehude,\nand he would say, oh, you mean this. He right off play it, and that to me was amazing.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So did this get you further interested in organ?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yes. It did. Because I was fascinated by what I saw him do. He\nwasn't playing pipe organ. We didn't have pipe organs at Great Lakes. We had the\nbig Hammonds, small Hammonds, and the spinet type.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=480.0,540.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I performed one of his choral pieces. He had a choral piece called the Lord is\nMy Shepherd by Tom, his name was Thomas Matthews.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Okay. Yes. I remember that.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: He was my buddy, my true buddy. And if anybody says anything about\nmy mentors- Tom Matthews and Robert Shaw.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Do you want to talk about how you got to meet Robert Shaw?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Well, we were invited to New York. See we broadcast over the\nradio, and so we couldn't go all the places we were called upon to go, for the\nNavy couldn't allow that. The Navy only selected those areas that they thought\nwould publicize Great Lakes.\n\nWe were invited to New York by a lady by the name Mrs. Ogden Reed, the owner of\nthe Herald Tribune. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=540.0,600.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"She had many of the generals who were in World War II at\nthese forums, and she invited the Great Lakes Quartet to be on one of the\nprograms, and that was how I met Robert Shaw. Robert Shaw was interested in how\nI made the arrangements that I made for the group to sing. I told him I didn't\nknow to write music, and he offered me a scholarship to the Juilliard.\n\nHe gave me his address, and later on I, when I was discharged from the Navy, my\nmother took ill, she had a slight heart attack, and I didn't want to leave home\nto go all the way to New York. So I ended up using the GI Bill, the rights for\nsome of my education. I went to Howard University, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=600.0,660.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"but I would go to Robert\nShaw's workshops and would talk to him. And I was fortunate enough, just\nrecently before he died when he came to Baltimore, a few years ago, to go\nbackstage; and I carried one of my scrapbooks, and I said, \"Do you remember\nthis?\" He looked at it and looked at me, and he remembered who I was. So we both\nwere getting ready to go into our eighties.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And so what year did you enter Howard?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: 1947. That was the year I entered Howard. I entered Howard, and I\nentered as a voice major. I was fortunate enough to, having been in the Navy and\ntalked to most of the musicians who were there. Most of the musicians, whites\nand Blacks who were there, were college professors of music, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=660.0,720.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and I would go to\nthem with all kinds of questions, and ask them about this, about that. So when I\ngot to Howard, I was really, say, a junior in some areas of music because I had\nno problems sight-reading music. I had no problems reading music to play the\npiano. I had a knowledge of chords. I even knew jazz chords, and fooled around\nwith the jazz bands.\n\nSo that was a great help to me as well. And by having that background, I\nwouldn't tell my professors I can do that blindfold. You know, they give you\nharmony exercises. Of course, I played hymns, and hymns are basically structured\nharmony, all of the chords. You know, tonic, subdominant, supertonic, tonic 6,\ntonic 6-4, and all that crazy stuff. The leading tone chord, altered chords, and\nsupertonic 6-4-3s.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=720.0,780.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And I used to laugh at it cause I commuted, I didn't live on campus. I caught a\ntrain every day to go to Howard and come back home.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: At this point were you living in downtown Baltimore?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I lived in Baltimore with my mother and father. Yes, I lived in\nthe city.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: What part of town?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I lived in the Northwest.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So most of the arranging you did before you went to Howard like for\nthe Great Lakes Octet, you would just, you'd do it by ear sort of?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yes.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: You'd teach the musicians this by ear?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I'd hear this as we working on something, and I just filed it\naway. Like, for example, I knew that for having seen music that was written for\nmale groups, I knew that most of it was C, A flat or B flat. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=780.0,840.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"When you went to E\nflat, D flat and the F chord, F major chord, you were going in mixed choir. You\nhad to think or the sopranos but you couldn't put the men up in that range.\n\nSo that's how I learned. I could just hear it. That's all it was. Some people\nare just fortunate enough to have an ear to hear music that way.\n\nThe dean called me downstairs one day and said, Morris, why don't you take a\nsecond degree? I said a second degree, why? He said, well, you can graduate in\nthree years. So I said okay. And that's what I got the Bachelor of Music\nEducation to be able to teach public music in the public school system. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=840.0,900.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I\ngraduated in five years. I did seven years of work in five years. I graduated at\nthe top of our class with a 3.7 average.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So it was a double major in music education and vocal performance?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Vocal music which is Bachelor of Music, and a Bachelor of Music\nEducation, BME.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So this would be 1952 when you finished college?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: '52. 1952.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: I think I read, so you were the first person to graduate with two\nmusic degrees from Howard?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Right- in music.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And then also you mentioned earlier that when you started at Howard\nsome professors there thought you would become a piano major.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yes. But I said I didn't want to be a piano major. I said I was\ninterested in choral music, but that I spent most of my life as a young man\nlistening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. And I thought there was nobody in the\nworld that could sing like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=900.0,960.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And then I started\nlistening to the Robert Shaw Chorale, which was a much smaller group, and that\namazed me. I said he could make that small group sound almost like the three\nhundred and seventy voices of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.\n\nAnd then I would go out to concerts and listen too. Then I used to go down to\nthe Peabody even though that had to be a favor. We had segregation, and Blacks\nwere not allowed in the audience. We had to go up in the balcony and stand in\nthe balcony. Because I was there to hear Virgil Fox. Went to the Lyric to hear\nRachmaninoff. Real long, tall, gaunt looking man. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=960.0,1020.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I also heard a man at Peabody\nplay the organ, Louis Robert who was Virgil Fox's teacher. I would also go to\nhear other concerts of choral singing.\n\nAnd then one year I was what you might call a vice principal at Peabody. When I\nwas teaching in Baltimore City schools during the summer, we were handling\ngifted and talented black and white students. They had a program there for them\nwhere they were taught by professors. And my job was to check the rolls and make\nsure the kids went to class. Sometime I'd have to take the choir over. Thank\ngoodness he didn't ask me to take the band over; ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1020.0,1080.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"couldn't have helped him there.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So when was the summer program at Peabody?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Oh, I can't remember that now. But I know I was teaching, I was\nstill teaching in the public school system.\n\nYou know, I'd help with putting on summer little short musicals. And one year I\nhad about twenty Hammond organs and Lowrey organs in organ class. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1080.0,1140.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We did a\nprogram at Poly-Western [High School], which was a lot of fun.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Just to backtrack a little bit, to get back to your years at\nHoward, after you graduated in '52 with a bachelor's, you then moved on and did\na master's there.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yup. I went back to Howard in 1955 and that goes back Thomas\nMatthews. Because he told me that, you know, you need to study some composition\nas well as the theory. Because I used to, I could always write, he said that's\nno problem. I'd tell my church choir. I said I can write a new hymn. I said just\ngive me a hymn, I'll write you a new tune for the words.\n\nAnd they were amazed that I was able to do that. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1140.0,1200.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And sometime I amazed myself,\nand my professor, the late Mark Fax, when I went to his class in composition,\nhe'd say, okay, you take board on that side, I'll take board on this side. We're\ngonna write a song form and trio. He'd play mine; I'd play his.\n\nHe would say we'll take a spiritual and we'll turn it into a hymn. That's how,\nthen I worked on my thesis which was for the organ.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1200.0,1260.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Yes. So this was the passacaglia you wrote for your thesis. And it\nwas in the style of Bach?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Of Bach's passacaglia.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And ultimately you arranged this for orchestra and it was performed.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Transformed from organ to symphony orchestra.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And then how did that eventually performed? It was performed by the\nNational Symphony in Washington D. C.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Every now and then, you know, they will have things come up, and I\nwas the only one who could represent Howard. I was the only, in fact, I was the\nfirst master's recipient in 1957 of Howard. And I just happened to have a piece\nready to be played. They had students from Capital University, American\nUniversity, all those schools. They had composition majors who were turning\ncompositions. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1260.0,1320.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I was the only Black to represent Howard.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So you were the first master's student of composition at Howard?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: That's right.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Did you find it difficult to make the transition from organ to\nwriting for a full orchestra?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Oh Lord, yes. Totally different and extremely difficult. Because\nyou have, with the organ, if you have C minor, you have C minor. If you're doing\nit for the orchestra, your clarinets are going to be in one key, your French\nhorn is going to be in another key. Your cello is going to use one clef, viola\nis going to use another cleft. It was a trip. The only thing you can have some\npeace with would be your strings to a point, And oh, the transposing trumpets, I\nforgot about them. \n\nBut that's what makes it difficult. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1320.0,1380.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Because you have to remember and have the\ntuning of the timpani.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Were you happy with the result?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Oh yes.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And it was performed at Constitution Hall?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yes. And the thing about that was, when I played it on the piano\nalong with my teacher, I got one sonority. When I had the organ teacher playing\nand I sat in the back of Rankin Chapel, he had enormous talent. But when you\nhear it performed by an orchestra, it's like day and night.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1380.0,1440.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So wasn't it around this time you also started working with the\nMorris Queen Chorale?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: That was in 1954. The Chorale was the finest choral group I ever\nworked with. We didn't have anything in the state of Maryland that was equal to\nthat group. Not because I was the director, it was because of him, Robert Shaw.\nGoing to his workshops, he used to tell us when you form a community group, you\ncan't get this with a church choir unless you are lucky. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1440.0,1500.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"But if you form a\nchoral group of community singers, and you got to use the audition as a palette.\nYou get a soprano in one range, and then you've got to color it with another\nsoprano, and then you color it with a soprano against the two until you get the\nsound of sopranos that nobody else has. You do that with each section.\n\nThen you work. That way you know what you want. I say you got a roof and you got\na foundation and then you got some chairs and some drapes for your tenors and\nyour altos. He said, now if you're going to buy some cheap drapes, you're gonna\nget a cheap alto sound. And if you buy damask cloth for your altos, then you got\nthat chest sound like a cello when you go to A low, middle C. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1500.0,1560.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And he was right.\n\nAnd with that group, they loved singing. They would get angry if I cut the\nrehearsals off after an hour. They would go around to each other's houses and\nsit down and rehearse by themselves. And they sang everything. For the most\npart, I would say ninety percent of their singing I had them sing acapella.\n\nThey'd sing Randall Thompson's Alleluia backwards, forwards, upside down.\nBeethoven's Hallelujah Chorus from the Mount of Olives- tear it up. They were\nthat kind of group. They loved Bach. \"Priceless Treasure,\" they loved that. They\nsang all spirituals.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1560.0,1620.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"As I said, they were the first black choir to ever sing in the Lyric Theater. We\nsang the choruses of Porgy and Bess. This was the first black choir to ever sing\nat Ford's Theater, and we did the production of Showboat with the late actor,\nWilliam Bendix. Some of the choir members were singers and some were actors in\nthat show.\n\nOf course they had a command performance to sing aboard a battleship here in\nBaltimore, the Sierra. They were commanded to do that by the, I guess they found\nout I was in the Navy, someone said something. Of course they sang in\nPhiladelphia, Washington, D.C., and just about every church in Baltimore.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1620.0,1680.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Can you just talk a little bit about Fords Theater. I'm not\nfamiliar with it.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Well that was something. The Mechanic took its place. It was an\nornate building. That was the first time I'd ever been there. I said, Baltimore\nwas highly segregated.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: About what time did the segregation start to relax a little bit?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I would say just a little bit before, to me there seemed to be a\nlot more freedom right after World War II. Because it's around that time when\nBlacks start moving further out into the city. And, of course, blacks always\nlived out in Randallstown. In fact, they tell me that most of Randallstown was\nblack. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1680.0,1740.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I don't know if that's what they say. So I just go by what I've heard\npeople say.\n\nThat's when they started to integrate the schools because our school system had\nDouglass High School, Dunbar High School, Carver High School. Blacks could not\ngo to those schools.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So what year was this that you did the performance of Showboat?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I can't remember that.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: But how large was the group, the chorale?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Oh they ranged in the area of forty to forty-five. Very rarely we\nwould always have that many because of people's jobs and other factors, you\nknow, working. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1740.0,1800.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"But basically whenever I wanted to do a program, I always had the\nright complement. And you could not sing with me unless you passed the quartet\nvoice check-out.\n\nWhen we got ready and had a concert coming up, I would say Mary, Martha, John,\nPeter to the back let me have Randall Thompson's Alleluia. Here's the pitch.\nI'll give you one, two, three, hit. And then I'd say let me have I Got a Crown\nof His Kingdom. Let me have Rider's version. Cause I gave them some of these\nspirituals we'd have more than one arrangement. I'll give you the pitch. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1800.0,1860.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Now if\nyou haven't paid attention to rehearsal, and I found you weak on your part, I'd\nmark it down. But I'd always call you back another night. I'd say oh by the way,\nlet me have that Rider piece again. You might not have the same soprano or tenor\nand bass, but you'd have complement for a quartet. They already knew if I don't\nknow my music, I'm not going to be allowed in any concerts.\n\nSo they didn't have any comeback. And that's what made them learn their music.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So did you do a lot of arranging for the group also?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: To a point. But most of my arranging was for spirituals. Because\nsome spirituals, I just didn't care for what they're doing. Today one of my\nfavorite arrangers of spirituals is Moses Hogan. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1860.0,1920.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I think he does an excellent\njob, and it's new and fresh. Spirituals were simple pieces of music of a people\nwho were struggling. Keep it simple. That's what I always try to do with\nspirituals. I was more interested in the beauty they projected.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So that your repertoire with the chorale was in classics, sort of\nBach, and also in spirituals?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1920.0,1980.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Yes. But we sang classical, secular songs. \"Madame Jeanette,\"\nDeems Taylor's \"Waters Ripple and Flow,\" all that. Pieces like that used a lot\nof piano. Deems Taylor was noted for having excellent accompaniment. His\naccompaniment was equal to his vocal part of the music. So we did all kinds of\nmusic during that period of time, which is a little different now. \"Climb Every\nMountain.\" Pieces from the Broadway musical.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: The Sound of Music?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yes, and \"You'll Never Walk Alone.\"\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So now you also, after your master's, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=1980.0,2040.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"then when did you start\nteaching in Baltimore City schools?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: 1959. Started at Lemmel Junior High School. And I was a just a\nregular teacher. 1961 I was a regular department head. Was a department head for\ntwenty-three years. I retired 1984. Taught fifteen years junior high school, ten\nyears senior high school. And senior high school I used to put on Broadway\nmusicals. Hello Dolly, Guys and Dolls, Li'l Abner, musicals like that.\n\nIn fact, I was asked to come to that school because they knew I could do that. I\nused to do miniature musicals, not that kind, but these were miniature musicals\nwhere the students went on stage and did a little musical idea. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2040.0,2100.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We had teachers\nwho formed these little musical ideas ourselves, and we'd take, borrow a song\nthat would fit what we would doing just to give children the idea of what a\nmusical was all about.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Did you also direct the choirs in the schools?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Twenty-five years I had twenty-five choirs. Every year I had a\ndifferent choir because children would graduate so you'd have spots to fill.\nWhen a new seventh grade came in, I had a brand new seventh grade group of\nstudents to draw from because I'd lost the ninth grade from graduation.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And all this time you're still very active with the Morris Queen Chorale?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Oh yes. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2100.0,2160.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Then after that I had another community group, the\nBaltimore Chapel Choir. This was made up of some members of the Morris Queen\nChorale. And we had another very good choir in Baltimore around that time, the\nGreat Hymns Choir. That was conducted by a minister, Rev. Daniel Rideout. When\nhe passed away and the Morris Queen Chorale ceased to be, they joined this choir\ntogether. This was in 1974, and we sang Handel's Messiah every Christmas. We did\nthe Christmas portion of the Messiah. For about twenty-five years, we did that portion.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2160.0,2220.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I just started working with that, and that same group sang Brahms's Requiem.\nDubois's \"Seven Last Words.\" Mendelssohn's Hymn of Praise. And we traveled, in\nfact, got an award where we sang in Dayton, and the guy that played the piano, a\nguy named Dr. Mack Statham -- very good pianist. He wrote a composition called\nTrilogy. We performed that several times, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2220.0,2280.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and it was also performed by the One\nVoice Choir at the Meyerhoff [Symphony Hall] a few years ago.\n\nThat's why I asked you about Eric Conway. Because Eric Conway, he played one of\ntwo pianos with three trumpets, two trombones, tuba and timpani.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Actually, I wanted to ask you about Dr. Mack Statham because I'm\ngoing to be interviewing him also a little bit later on.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Heck of a musician. In fact, everybody that knows me would say,\nMorris, when you go to do something musically, who do you have with you? I'd say\nDr. Mack Statham and Ms. Audrey McCallum, a graduate from Peabody- piano. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2280.0,2340.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Plays\na whole lot of piano. Because usually when we do things together, he plays the\norgan and she plays the piano, or we do two pianos. He graduated from Hampton,\nthe same place where his father graduated from, Hampton Institute. Very good musician.\n\nMack is very close friend of mine. Funny thing, what I like about Mack Statham\nis we know our place. He calls me Rachmaninoff and I call him Horowitz. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2340.0,2400.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And I\nsay, \"We got it backwards cause you're tall. You should be Rachmaninoff, and a\nlittle short person like me should be\n\nHorowitz.\" He plays a lot of piano. Even at his age still able to. And reads!\nVery few things you can put before him that he won't read right off the bat.\n\nI have a friend, another friend here in Baltimore does that. He plays with a guy\nwho gives regular concerts here, Simon Estes. Julius Tilman. We used to have in\nthe school system that all the teachers would have, you know, workshop meetings.\nAnd we'd be checking through new music that the companies would come to our\nworkshop and would bring anthems or pieces of music for choirs to try, and the\nteacher would look through it. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2400.0,2460.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And only one person of all those teachers at that\nplace, and the supervisor would call out Julius. And we'd all sit back. And a\nwhole lot of people in there could play it, but they'd have to go and practice\nit. And he's from Howard, a graduate.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Speaking of piano, you mentioned earlier that you played piano your\nwhole life, but you said you never actually owned a piano.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: No.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So you just used the one at church?.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Wherever I worked, I was working with music was being used, so I\nhad pianos in the Navy; I had pianos in church; I had pianos in school. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2460.0,2520.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So I\ndidn't have a need to purchase one. And then too in most of the instances I had\ngrand pianos. I had grand pianos to work with. And then I was always in places\nwhere I could do it quietly. Not bother anybody and nobody bothered me.\n\nBecause at school, as I said, I'd get there early in the morning. Nobody in the\nroom but me. At church I'd go there when we're not having church. Nobody there\nbut me. The same thing in the Navy. I'd go in the big drill hall, and you'd hear\nechoes all over the place.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: We've covered a lot of time, but almost this whole time you've been\nat Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Church.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Right.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And you're still there to this day?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2520.0,2580.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Right now.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: That must have been over fifty years.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Fifty-five. It was fifty-five last month, February. I went there\nthe same year that I went to Howard, 1947. Same year I went to Sharp Street Church.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So what do you do there? Now you still playing organ?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Working with the choir.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And you've been out Randallstown for how long now?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Since 1974.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: You've been in the Baltimore area your whole life?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: All my life except when I was in service. Other than that, been in\nMaryland all my life. But I've seen most of the United States. I had seen, had\nbeen in over thirty-seven states before I was twenty-five.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: This is mostly traveling with the Great Lakes Octet?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2580.0,2640.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Yes. Because of that group I was able, I tell people I said I saw\nthings that cost me not red cent. And I take my wife to a lot of places, like\nwhen I went to Hawaii. And I told her, it didn't look like this when I came\nhere. And places like that. So I try to take her to a lot of places where I've\nbeen. Of course, she's been to a lot of places on her own. All over the world\nand back. Traveled all over the United States.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Do you have any insight on what makes Baltimore unique as a musical community?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: I really never tried to figure that out. I guess some places are\njust like that. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2640.0,2700.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Cause then too you say, well, my church choir was about the\nfirst black choir, in fact we still are, the only choir to ever sing at Timonium\nUnited Methodist, Towson United Methodist, Lovely Lane United Methodist, Mt.\nVernon United Methodist, and Mary Our Queen Cathedral.\n\nThey can't do this now because they don't have the complement of choir members,\nand most of us are pretty near my age. But for church service, Dubois's Seven\nLast Words. I mean for the morning service, and Christ Lay in Death's Bonds by\nBach. That way back. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2700.0,2760.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I had a complement of voices to sing it.\n\nI look at choirs today and it disturbs me that you don't see men. Tenors are\nalmost unheard of. And yet in some places like Washington D. C. and New York,\nyou have choirs of men and boys; whole lots of basses, baritones, and tenors.\nNot here. We had a visiting choir here Sunday. It had three men on it.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Three men out of how many?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Three men out of the eleven. And a couple of them were singing melody.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: And yourself, you're a tenor.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Used to be. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2760.0,2820.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I was first tenor. First tenor. Because I gave my\nrecital. Because you have to, when you're a major, you know, you have to give\nyour recital. We had what was called at Howard jury every Thursday. And when you\nhad that jury, my piano teacher would say, okay, you're up. My voice teacher,\nhe'd say, you're up.\n\nAnd whatever you were working on, you went up there and sang before your\nclassmates and all of the faculty. I'd say, what do the theory teachers know\nabout what I'm doing?\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Well, we've covered a lot of ground. Is there anything else you\nwant to add or talk about?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: No. You already found out that I had a hobby of bowling. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2820.0,2880.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I was\npresident of my bowling league for twenty-five years.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Okay. Do you still bowl?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: No. Most people don't realize. My church could tell you, my wife\nwill tell you- I painted this whole apartment.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Yeah. I read that you've always been interested in...\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: --manual labor. I could build just about a whole house. That's\nbecause my father did things like that for a living. I used to work with him.\nSummertime when I didn't go to Howard summer school, I'd be working with him.\nPlastering, cementing, roofing, all that kind of stuff. I enjoy doing it. Still\ndo. I don't bother with it now. I'm retired.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2880.0,2940.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And as I said, I'll be retiring from my job at church last Sunday in April.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: So this is your last year there. Wow.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: One family is quite upset. And I tell them, don't get upset. I'll\nstill be coming to church. And I said I'll be working with you. But I said I\ndon't want to go up there anymore. People don't understand. You would. When\nyou're working with something and you know what's supposed to be, and you know\nyou cannot go nowhere near what you want it to be, it's time to hang up. You\nknow. And if you aren't giving anything to take the place of. Like I lost two\nbasses at a time. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=2940.0,3000.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488/transcript/38491/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And both of them read music. You lose something like that.\n\nAnd then I lost an alto who reads music. My sopranos, I don't have a reader in\nthat section. But sopranos, you see, melody is easy.\n\n[END PART 1]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117488#t=3000.0,3060.0"}]}]},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - pims0091_QueenM_02.mp3"]},"duration":193.0449,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/117/489/small/queen_photoshop.jpg?1651085542","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-peabody.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/117/489/original/pims0091_QueenM_02.mp3?1624270969","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":193.0449,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489/transcript/38492","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["QueenM_2_OHMS_20220609 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489/transcript/38492/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"KEN OSOWSKI: You showed me a little bit, in the other room you have, on the wall\nyou have some recognition from President Clinton.\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: Yes. It was just, at the fiftieth celebration, class awards from\nthe president, governor, council members, Howard University, my church, the\nmayor. City Council people. He just sent me their congratulations.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: This is for the fiftieth anniversary of Howard?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: And then I would just get them all. I have some in there that came\nfrom my twenty-fifth, fortieth anniversary at the church award. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489#t=0.0,60.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489/transcript/38492/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Certificates. I\ntold them don't send me anymore because I don't have any room to put them on the wall.\n\nBut as I said when I first spoke to you, I'm very lucky in my life and in my\nfield of music because there are very few people who can say what I can say.\nThere is nothing that I wanted to do in music in my life that I haven't done.\nAnd very few people can say that. They say I wish. I can't say that. I always\nwanted to have something written, played by an orchestra, always wanted to have\na choir sing with a symphony orchestra.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489#t=60.0,120.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489/transcript/38492/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And one thing I didn't tell you about. I had written music that is published and\nthat is used in all music in Methodist churches. It's in a book called Songs of\nZion. I helped put that book together in Pennsylvania, along with some other\nwell known black musicians. And we put that book together, and I have three\ncompositions in that book that we use now in Methodist church on Sunday. Songs\nof Zion is what it's called.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Well, I think maybe we can wrap it up unless there's anything else\nyou want to add?\n\nMORRIS QUEEN: No I just thought of that. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489#t=120.0,180.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489/transcript/38492/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I didn't want to leave that out.\n\nKEN OSOWSKI: Okay. Well this has been fantastic. Thank you so much.\n\n[END OF INTERVIEW]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44167/file/117489#t=180.0,240.0"}]}]}]}