Thomas P. Fenner

Thomas Putnam Fenner (November 22, 1829 – October 15, 1912) was an American music educator, choral conductor, voice teacher, and collector and arranger of African American folk songs. A multi-instrumentalist and tenor, Fenner was a military band musician during the American Civil War in the Union Army. After the war, he co-founded the Providence Academy and Musical Institute in Rhode Island in 1859 where he taught into the early 1870s. In June 1872 he was hired by former Union Army general and educator Samuel C. Armstrong as the first director of the music program at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University), a college for African Americans established in 1868.

With Armstrong, Fenner co-founded the Hampton Singers and led the group as its first director for three years. This ensemble was known for its performances of spirituals and toured widely in the Northern part of the United States. These concerts were profitable and brought in desperately needed finances to the Hampton Institute, funds which prevented the closure of the school during its early years. During his time at Hampton, Fenner collected African American folk songs with the intent in having them published so that this music would not be lost. This resulted in one of the earliest publications of spirituals and plantation songs, Cabin and Plantation Songs: As Sung by the Hampton Students, which was first published in 1874.

After leaving the Hampton Institute in 1875, Fenner taught music at Temple Grove Seminary (now Skidmore College) in Saratoga, New York. He ended his career teaching voice on the faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston where he retired in 1897. He returned to Hampton, Virginia in 1898, and lived there until his death in 1912.

Early life and military career Thomas Putnam Fenner was born on November 22, 1829, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was named after his ancestor, Major Thomas Fenner, who is also the namesake of the Thomas Fenner House historic site in Cranston, Rhode Island. In his late teenage years he served in the United States Cavalry during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He married Sabra H. Dyer in 1851. and was responsible for stabilizing the school's finances overall so that it could remain open. Lori Shipley stated, Not only did the tours of the Jubilee Singers and the Hampton Singers provide funds to keep their respective schools active, but these schools were responsible for producing black teachers for black schools. If the choirs had not brought in enough funds to help keep the normal schools open, there would have been few teachers for black schools and the educational system for black students at the time might have been in jeopardy.

In working with the Hampton Singers, Fenner along with Armstrong realized that the art of African American spirituals and plantation songs was in danger of being lost as it was not written down, and many former slaves were reluctant to continue singing these songs. Believing that they had cultural value and deserved to be preserved, Fenner began to systematically collect African American songs with the intent of publishing them. However, he struggled to find a way to notate these songs in an authentic way, as the authentic performance practices of these songs often involved improvisation in the harmonies and were never performed exactly the same way twice. The songs he collected, along with his colleagues Bessie Cleaveland and Frederic G. Rathbun, were published in the anthology Cabin and Plantation Songs: As Sung by the Hampton Students. It was first published in 1874, and was later reprinted in 1891 and 1901 in an expanded version which added many spirituals and other African American songs originally collected by African American song collector Robert Hannibal Hamilton. Hamilton, a former slave, was one of the original singers in the Hampton Singers and went on to become the first black music teacher at the Hampton Institute.

Later life In 1875 Fenner left the Hampton Institute to join the faculty of Charles F. Dowd's Temple Grove Seminary in Saratoga, New York. After teaching there for five years, he joined the voice faculty of the New England Conservatory where he taught until his retirement in 1897.

Fenner returned to Hampton, Virginia after the death of his wife in 1898. He lived there until his death in Hampton on October 15, 1912, at the age of 82.