During the early twentieth century, as some European composers both heard about America and visited the country themselves, they were immediately captured by the beauty of Black spirituals. The influence of the spirituals subsequently appeared in many of these composers’ musical creations, and some of the composers also wrote and spoke passionately about the importance of Black folk music. The earliest European composers whose works demonstrated major influences from the spirituals were Antonin Dvorák, Frederick Delius, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.