Carl Rossini Diton and the Racial Politics of Musical Labor

This article analyzes the autobiographical writings of Carl Rossini Diton, an African American composer, baritone, pianist, and conductor, to illuminate the racial politics of musical labor in the early-twentieth-century United States. Diton remade conventional autobiographical forms as venues in which to theorize and make culturally legible the figure of the Black classical musician. Detailing the demands of Jim Crow-era musical culture, he revealed the material and affective labor underlying Black musical life. I aim not only to restore Diton to the historical narrative, but also to show how his writings excavate the collective practices which enabled musical communities to flourish.