The idealization of art and music provides relief from the novel’s melodramatic tendencies and the tragic mullatta-like aspects it contains. As stated by the millionaire friend, “Music is a universal art anybody’s music belongs to everybody you can’t limit it to race or country” (144). As readers, we are deeply in tune with the narrator’s musical endeavors it is the kind of outlet he finds from “all the little tragedies of life” (3). Johnson uses music to create a world that sees past one’s race, ethnicity, class, and gender. The power of art, and more specifically, the power of music are evidenced by the narrator’s musical talent and success. Ragtime music is rooted in African rhythms while Mendelssohn’s piece comes from classical European traditions, and the narrator’s successful combination of both black and white music earns him a “round of generous applause” (119). This is evidenced by the narrator’s successful performance of his “ragtime transcription of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March” (118). low art, dichotomous musical relationships co-exist harmoniously in the novel. Whether it is the black and white keys of the piano, classical vs.

To understand the power of music, this essay analyzes the role of music in Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, In The Autobiography, the narrator is able to marry the two halves of his musical identity in a way that he is unable to do with his racial identity. The Power of Music in The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man

The ex colored man