Tenor Roland Hayes

Roland Hayes
"Gi Me Yo Han"
Holograph manuscript
Music Division
Copyright deposit, 1959 (156.7)

Roland Hayes, born in Curryville, Georgia, in 1887, was the principal African American tenor performing classical music during the first half of the twentieth century. Primarily a recitalist rather than an operatic tenor, Hayes sang both the great European repertory and African American spirituals. Hayes also served as an arranger and showed keen interest in spirituals and African folk songs including this arrangement for "Gi Me Yo Han."