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Richard Milburn

{{short description|Composer and musician}}

{{for-multi|the Attorney General of Indiana|Richard M. Milburn|the American Civil War cannon|Whistling Dick (cannon)}}

File:Listen to the Mocking Bird cover.png, published in 1855, credits the melody to Richard Milburn.{{r|NYT}}]]

Richard Milburn, known as Whistling Dick, was an African-American musician in Philadelphia. He was a great guitarist and whistler and composed bird song themes including the tune Listen to the Mocking Bird which, when arranged with lyrics by Septimus Winner, became one of the most successful ballads of the 19th century, selling over twenty million copies of sheet music.{{r|RB}} Milburn made $5 for this while the finished work went on to make over $100,000.{{r|MCH}}

Milburn worked in his father's barber shop in Lombard Street in Philadelphia.{{r|RB}} He also gave public performances of his bird whistling tunes which were organised by the Library Company of Philadelphia for the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas.{{r|MCH}}

References

{{reflist |refs=

{{citation |page=227 |date=1975-01-01 |title=Adventures with a Texas Naturalist |isbn=978-0-292-70311-7 |author=Roy Bedichek|publisher=University of Texas Press }}

{{citation |title=Negro Musicians and their Music |author=Maud Cuney Hare |publisher=The Associated Publishers |year=1936 |chapter=3 |url=https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/cuney-hare/musicians/musicians.html}}

{{citation |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/listen-to-the-mockingbird/ |title=Listen to the Mockingbird |author=Ted Widmer |date=5 November 2013 |newspaper=New York Times}}

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Further reading

  • Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. W.W. Norton & Co. Illustrated edition, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0393329216}}

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Category:American male composers

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