Category: Daily Dispatch

Is Juneteenth poised to become the next Mardi Gras/St. Patrick’s Day/Cinco de Mayo? Well, at least it’s not a drinking holiday yet.

While I venture to guess it’s still all fairly new to most white folks (I was probably ahead of the curve, thanks to Ralph Ellison’s novel, “Juneteenth,” finally published in full, posthumously, in 1999), I can’t say its wider dissemination is altogether a bad thing. For classical music lovers, especially, there has been so much to discover – and yes, to celebrate – as the result of sweeping cultural changes and broader awareness over the past few years, and by no means restricted to June 19.

Some may roll their eyes at all the “over-exposure” of Florence Price, but come on, admit it, isn’t it a little invigorating to hear some American music other than the same old Gershwin and Copland? In the interest of full disclosure, I offer this as someone for whom Copland is probably one of my favorite composers. So much Black classical music, if it was known at all, was almost never heard, unless it was on that one, scrappily-played, often out-of-print and hard-to-find recording. For how many years was I hungry to hear the complete symphonies of William Grant Still? Now they’re getting played – in concert, no less!

For those of you tiring of George Walker’s “Lyric for Strings” (and how could you?), look at it as a corrective. At some point, the pendulum will swing back, and ideally this belated inundation of Black music will lead to the best of it taking its place in the active repertoire. It can’t happen unless people know it’s out there and are exposed to it.

I look forward to the day that we’ll be past the point of anyone grousing about quotas or “woke” or any of that nonsense. People are ridiculous creatures. It’s easy to deride and it’s tempting to mock – believe me, I can be as cynical as anyone, and in all things – but really, there are many sincere concert programmers out there who are just trying to do the best that they can. For anyone who happens merely to be paying lip-service to the zeitgeist, I’m sure there are many more who want to do the right thing.

For those for whom the holiday has always meant something (June 19 is the date in 1865 on which the federal enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation guaranteed freedom to enslaved peoples in all Confederate states following the Civil War), I can imagine how, after a while, it could all get to be a little much for them, too. The more popular it becomes, the more corporate or Disneyfied it risks becoming. How long before Juneteenth is ruined by the Man?

Anyway, celebrate responsibly, everyone, and remember – keep the Juneteenth in Juneteenth!

Florence Price, “Juba” from the Symphony No. 1

George Walker, “Lyric for Strings”

William Grant Still, “Serenade”

Adolphus Hailstork, “Celebration!” (composed for the U.S. Bicentennial)