He was the first Black composer to have his music published. His band was among the first to achieve a nationwide reputation and tour extensively. His name is Francis Johnson, also known as Frank Johnson. Johnson was born free on June 16, 1792 in Philadelphia, PA. Little is known of his early life, but it is believed that he received training from an Irish-keyed bugle soloist by the name of Richard Willis. By his 15th birthday, Johnson had mastered the flute, piccolo, violin, bugle and piano. As an African American, Johnson faced racial discrimination, despite the fact that he was born free in a relatively progressive northern city. Johnson was playing in Philadelphia taverns and was soon hired as a fiddler at a predominantly White social venue called the Exchange Coffee House.
It was at the Exchange Coffee House where he developed his musical skills as well as his ability to entertain an audience and keep up with popular tastes. He learned to play the bugle, keyed bugle, cornet, and various other instruments. His fans delighted at the breadth of his repertoire and his highly danceable revamps of older songs. In 1810, when Johnson was 18, George Willig, a Philadelphia-based music publisher, heard him play at the Exchange Coffee House, and asked him to write some original music. The result was “Bingham’s Cotillion,” a piece named after William Bingham, the former owner of the coffee house building. This was the first musical composition published by a Black American. That same year, a new instrument called the keyed bugle arrived in Philadelphia.
Johnson took part in military activities around 1815. He led the official band of the Philadelphia State Fencibles, which was a band contracted by the units of the militia, in their military excursions and dance functions. They dressed in eye-popping military uniforms, toured the country marching and drilling for audiences caught up in the martial spirit that followed the War of 1812. He was sought after by the leading dance masters of his day, including Victor Guillou and A. Bonnafon, both of whom had French connections. Johnson’s band gained some national recognition when it became associated with all-White militia units. By 1818, the 26-year-old Francis Johnson had become a leading dance band conductor for Philadelphia’s high society.
In 1819, Johnson married Helen Appo, (sister of his bandmate William Appo) a Society Hill seamstress who became a successful costumer, milliner and tailor. This may not have been his first marriage. When he wasn’t playing military or society events—or practicing or composing—he would give lessons in their house. One student recalled that Johnson’s music room was filled with instruments, with thousands of compositions on the shelves and, in one corner, “an armed composing chair, with pen and inkhorn ready, and some gallopades and waltzes half finished”. In 1820, Johnson gave the family of Benjamin Rush, a well-known physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, a manuscript of nearly 100 original cotillions.
After several years of practice, Johnson was the nation’s foremost master of the keyed bugle. This was the instrument that Johnson would be known to play worldwide. He had developed a technique of singing through the horn while playing it. The invention of the keyed bugle revolutionized performance on brass instruments. It was the first widely available brass instrument in the soprano register capable of playing an entire scale. After several years of practice, Johnson was the nation’s foremost master of the keyed bugle and developed a technique of singing through the horn while playing it. When he performed his composition “Philadelphia Fireman’s Quadrille,” audiences were astonished to hear his bugle cry out, “Fire!”
Johnson usually supplied music for the annual birthday celebrations of George Washington and also composed much of the music for an event in honor of the visiting Charles Dickens. He participated in events involving President Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay at Saratoga Springs. Johnson’s career really took off in 1824 when he composed the majority of the music for the welcoming celebration of General Lafayette who was a Revolutionary War hero who traveled the U.S. in celebration of his great achievement. Despite his compositional works, most of Johnson’s fame was gained through his band’s recognition by wealthy White society. During the 1820s, Johnson’s band performed at the city’s most popular dance venues at schools, private parties, and balls.
Francis Johnson formed relationships with several prominent military regiments like the "Washington Guards Company Three Band" (later named the Washington Greys) and "The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry" who hired Johnson’s ensemble. Besides Johnson’s own compositions, the band’s repertoire ranged from European composers such as Mozart and Rossini to American popular songs. Johnson's all-Black band had a unique way of playing that delighted audiences. They didn't quite know what to call it in the 1820s and ‘30s. Seventy years later his syncopation would become known as the art of "jazzing". Johnson's reputation in Philadelphia grew and won him national praise through this relationship and his participation in musical events with these groups.
Combining African-American rhythms with the popular music of the day, Johnson's band soared in popularity and spawned a host of imitators among bandleaders of both races. Constantly in demand, Johnson expanded his band and reshaped its sound to fit each occasion, be it a ball for the local White aristocracy or a sacred music concert for Philadelphia's free Black community. Frank Johnson's reputation grew at the same time that racial tensions, residential segregation, and discrimination were also on the rise in Philadelphia. Johnson explored all the musical forms of his day, including Mozart’s concertos, Irish jigs and Black sacred music. He wrote a series of works in the Spanish-Andalusian style, composed military marches and led a military band of free Black musicians.
Even through that adversity, he was able to make a very comfortable living as a professional musician and gain international fame at a time when such a livelihood was unheard of for any American musician, regardless of race. To expand his musical knowledge—and, no doubt, to seek adventure—Johnson decided to go to Europe. In the fall of 1837, Johnson left James Hemenway and Edward Augustus in charge of the band in Philadelphia as he took four members on his first European trip. Johnson’s band became the first African American musicians to travel to Europe. No one had any idea how Europeans would respond to Black American musicians. While in Europe, they also studied different styles, enhanced their music library, and continued to play concerts.
The band also had the pleasure of playing at the Buckingham Palace, and one of their audience members was Victoria right around the time that she was crowned Queen of England. After playing for the Queen, she presented him with a silver bugle. Their repertoire ranged from Mozart and Rossini to popular American songs; the band switched from brass to strings and even sang. After a stint in Paris and a summit with Austrian composer Johann Strauss in London, Johnson returned to the U.S in 1838. They introduced Americans to Europe's two latest musical crazes, the waltzes of Johan Strauss and promenade concerts.
Johnson’s band toured throughout the United States including Detroit, Ann Arbor, Louisville, and Cleveland, as well as parts of Canada. They began giving Promenade concerts fashioned after the French style. Regardless of there renowned success, they were still refused entry into some states, such as Missouri. The presence of free Blacks was illegal in Missouri. When his band visited St. Louis, the city government had him arrested and and charged with being “Free Negros within the State of Missouri without a license.” At the time of Johnson’s visit to Detroit, Michigan’s state constitution excluded Blacks from most rights of citizenship. His presence in Pittsburgh resulted in violence.
Although he was extremely successful in the White community, Johnson maintained a presence within the Black community as well. He would conduct pieces by Haydn and Handel at local Black churches. One of his most memorable musical performances occurred in 1841 when he collaborated with Morris Brown, Jr., one of the leading Black ministers of the era, to perform Haydn’s Creation. He showed racial pride when he composed the “Recognition March on the Independence of Haiti” in response to the Haitian Revolution, celebrating the first Black independent republic in the world. The same with “"The Grave of the Slave," based on a Sarah Forten poem published in The Liberator, emphasized issues of racial discrimination in response to the abolitionist movement in America.
Johnson incorporated White musicians into his band, leading to some of the first interracial musical performances in the United States. At the end of his life Johnson became very ill and could no longer perform as frequently, but instead he composed more music. Cultural ambassador, master arranger and musical pioneer, Frank Johnson died in 1844 after a sustained illness at age 52. His death drew one of the largest crowds of mourners ever seen in Philadelphia. To this day, Johnson is recognized by some researchers as the forefather of ragtime and jazz. Johnson was one of the most prolific early American composers (with well over two hundred published pieces), and the first African American to publish sheet music.