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Tag: Afro-American Symphony

William Grant Still Birthday Celebration

Today is the birthday of William Grant Still, the so-called “Dean of Afro-American composers.”

Still, who lived from 1895 to 1978, emerged from unlikely circumstances – born in Woodville, Mississippi, and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas – to become a major force in American music. Having abandoned a career in medicine for studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory in Boston, Still was a “first” in many regards.

His Symphony No. 1, the “Afro-American Symphony,” was the first written by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra (the New York Philharmonic). He was the first to have been allowed the opportunity to conduct a major orchestra (the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at the Hollywood Bowl). His opera, “Troubled Island,” became the first to be produced by a major company (the New York City Opera). Another of his operas, “A Bayou Legend,” was the first to be performed on national television (as recently as 1981). His works were performed internationally by the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, and the Tokyo Philharmonic.

Perhaps the least likely pupil of Edgard Varèse, Still incorporated jazz and blues elements into his concert music. He cut his teeth writing arrangements for Paul Whiteman, W.C. Handy, and Artie Shaw. According to Eubie Blake, one of Still’s improvisations in the pit band during Blake’s revue “Shuffle Along” became the basis for Gershwin’s hit tune “I Got Rhythm.” Still didn’t appear to be bitter about the appropriation (which Blake conceded was probably inadvertent). In fact, Still and Gershwin remained on amicable terms and made it a point to attend performances of one another’s music.

I’m sure Gershwin would have been only too happy to have composed the second movement of Still’s Symphony No. 2, “Song of a New Race”:

Still’s Symphony No. 1 (the first of five) – better known as the “Afro-American Symphony” – is a personal favorite, as fresh and difficult to resist as Dvořák’s “American” String Quartet. For me, the first recording, with Karl Krueger conducting, is still the best.

I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s7o8UfKsV0
II. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSQUrW8eBhU
III. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzzddBmiFow
IV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu_qzX5K39g

It was only fairly recently that I learned of (and acquired) this recording of Still’s “Lenox Avenue,” with the composer conducting:

It’s been issued as a limited edition compact disc on the Kritzerland label.

http://www.kritzerland.com/still.htm

Still waters run deep. Happy birthday, William Grant Still!

May 11, 2020
William Grant Still’s Enduring Symphony

Still’s waters run deep.

As someone with an insatiable appetite for American symphonies composed during the first half of the 20th century, I try not to miss a performance or even a radio broadcast of music by Roy Harris, William Schuman, or Aaron Copland. But for as much as I adore these composers, the American symphonies that delight me the most, off the top of my head, are Charles Ives’ 2nd, Howard Hanson’s 2nd (the “Romantic”), and William Grant Still’s 1st (the “Afro-American”). I never get tired of listening to these, and they move me like few others.

I am only too happy to include Still’s symphony, then, as a kind of capstone to my four-part survey of the landmark Black Composer Series – newly reissued (after 40 years!) as a 10-CD boxed set by Sony Classical – this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord.”

The “Afro-American Symphony,” composed in 1930, is informed by African-American spirituals, the blues, and syncopated banjo-like riffs. Indeed, a banjo actually turns up in the work’s third movement.

To me, the symphony has always been a kind of “portrait of the artist as a young man.” (Still was born in Woodville, Mississippi, and grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas.) In this respect, it puts me in the mind somewhat of Virgil Thomson “Symphony on a Hymn Tune,” which similarly draws on hymns and folk songs of his boyhood in Kansas City, Missouri.

But Still’s music comes across as more personal, more sincere, and certainly less self-consciously “modernist.” It goes straight to my heart and then gets in my head so that it literally disturbs my sleep. It’s one of the great American symphonies. The concert suites from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” remain popular, but some enterprising music director should give the “Afro-American Symphony” a shot, because I know audiences will love it.

There is a solid Gershwin connection. Still quotes the melody of “I Got Rhythm” in the third movement of his symphony. And for good reason. It’s actually his! According to Eubie Blake, Gershwin was in the audience during one of Still’s performances in the pit band for Blake’s revue “Shuffle Along.” Still’s improvisation became the basis for Gershwin’s hit tune. (Blake was quick to add that the appropriation was probably inadvertent.)

The “Afro-American Symphony” is now the best-known piece in the Black Composers Series, which originally appeared on vinyl between 1974 and 1978. But at the time of the recording’s original release that was by no means definitively the case. The only previous recording of the work, made by Karl Krueger and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, was available only through mail-order subscription. Exposure to this gem of a symphony, then, was comparatively limited.

Thankfully, there have been a number of recordings since, but for me none match the commitment and loving attention to detail of the performance in this set, with Paul Freeman conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Also included on tonight’s program will be “Markings,” by Ulysses Kay, composed in 1966 to the memory of Dag Hammerskjöld, secretary general of the United Nations. Called “the greatest statesman of our century” by John F. Kennedy, Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash in Zambia en route to ceasefire negotiations during the Congo Crisis of 1961. Hammarskjöld was awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize.

We’ll conclude on an “up” note, with the lively “Danse Nègre” from the “African Suite” of 1898, by Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

I hope you’ll join me for the grand finale of my month-long survey of highlights from CBS Records’ forward-looking Black Composers Series – “Black to the Future, Part IV” – this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

#BlackHistoryMonth

PHOTO: William Grant Still at the Hollywood Bowl

February 24, 2019
William Grant Still American Composer

They say that still waters run deep.

William Grant Still, the so-called “Dean of Afro-American Composers,” composed a lot of attractive music, much of it informed by the black experience. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear Still’s delightful Symphony No. 2, subtitled “Song of a New Race,” and a more serious work fueled by racial considerations, “And They Lynched Him on a Tree,” for double-choir, narrator and orchestra.

Still, who lived from 1895-1978, emerged from unlikely circumstances – born in Woodville, Mississippi; raised in Little Rock, Arkansas – to become a major force in American music. Having abandoned a career in medicine for studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied with George Whitefield Chadwick, Still was a “first” in many respects.

His Symphony No. 1, the “Afro-American Symphony,” was the first written by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra (the New York Philharmonic). He was the first to be given the opportunity to conduct a major orchestra (the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at the Hollywood Bowl). His opera, “Troubled Island,” became the first to be produced by a major company (the New York City Opera). Another of his operas, “A Bayou Legend,” was the first to be performed on national television (as late as 1981). His works were performed internationally by the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, and the Tokyo Philharmonic.

Perhaps the least likely pupil of Edgard Varèse, he incorporated jazz and blues elements into his concert music. He cut his teeth writing arrangements for Paul Whiteman, W.C. Handy and Artie Shaw. According to Eubie Blake, one of Still’s improvisations in the pit band during Blake’s revue “Shuffle Along” became the basis for Gershwin’s hit tune “I Got Rhythm.” Still didn’t appear to be bitter about the appropriation (which Blake conceded was probably inadvertent), and in fact Still and Gershwin were on friendly terms and made it a point to attend performances of one another’s music.

Pay particular attention to the second movement of Still’s Symphony No. 2, first performed in 1936 by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and see if you agree that Gershwin would have killed to have composed its second movement.

We’ll follow that with a very different piece, Still’s choral ballad “And They Lynched Him on a Tree,” composed in 1940. The libretto is by the poet Katherine G.C. Biddle, the niece of Charlotte Mason, the so-called “Godmother of the Harlem Renaissance.” The work calls for a contralto soloist, as the mother of the victim, a “white chorus” to depict the mob, a “black chorus” to discover the lynching, a narrator, and a small orchestra. The composition is almost exactly contemporary with Abel Meeropol’s “Strange Fruit.” It was given its first performance by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Artur Rodzinski.

There will be just a few minutes left at the end of the show, during which we’ll decompress with Still’s miniature “Summerland.”

I hope you’ll join me for “Still Runs Deep” – an hour of music by William Grant Still – this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

February 22, 2016
William Grant Still Still the One

He’s Still the one.

Today is the birthday of William Grant Still (1895-1978), the so-called “Dean of Afro-American Composers.” Still emerged from unlikely circumstances (born in Woodville, Mississippi; raised in Little Rock, Arkansas) to become a major force in American music.

Having abandoned a career in medicine for studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory in Boston (where he studied with George Whitefield Chadwick), Still was a “first” in many ways.

His was the first symphony written by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra (the Eastman-Rochester). He was the first to be given the opportunity to conduct a major orchestra (the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at the Hollywood Bowl). His opera, “Troubled Island,” became the first to be produced by a major company (the New York City Opera). Another of his operas, “A Bayou Legend,” was the first to be performed on national television (as late as 1981).

Any of these would be significant in and of themselves, but it just so happens that Still was a damn fine composer. Perhaps the least likely pupil of Edgard Varèse, he incorporated jazz and blues elements into his concert music, which also frequently reflected the African and African-American experiences.

He cut his teeth writing arrangements for Paul Whiteman, W.C. Handy and Artie Shaw. According to Eubie Blake, one of Still’s improvisations in the pit band during Blake’s revue “Shuffle Along” became the basis for Gershwin’s hit tune “I Got Rhythm.” Still didn’t appear to be bitter about it, and in fact the two composers were on friendly terms and made it a point to attend performances of one another’s music.

Still quotes the melody in the third movement of his Symphony No. 1, otherwise known as the “Afro-American Symphony.” In fact, it had always been his intention to do so, before Gershwin popularized it. (Blake went on to say the swipe was probably inadvertent, but Still had definitely gotten there first.)

I’ve always been fond of the symphony, from the very first time I heard it. To me, it is every bit as much of a portrait of an artist as a young man as Virgil Thomson’s “Symphony on a Hymn Tune.” It’s a beautiful and wistful piece, built on lovely daydreams and uptempo, banjo-like riffs. This is the kind of music that Dvořák would have loved.

Here it is, in a pioneering recording by Karl Krueger and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, after all these years, still my favorite:

Mov’t I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s7o8UfKsV0
Mov’t II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSQUrW8eBhU
Mov’t III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEeaLvX82Lw
Mov’t IV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu_qzX5K39g

And just to prove it was no accident, here’s the second movement of his Symphony No. 2, “Song of a New Race,” with Neeme Järvi and the Detroit Symphony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaHe5hvWu6w

Now tell me Gershwin wouldn’t have killed to write that!

Happy birthday, William Grant Still.

May 11, 2015

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