Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Black Composers Series

Black Composers Rediscovered Black History Month

Throughout the month of February, to coincide with Black History Month, I’ve been reaching into the archive for relevant material from “The Lost Chord,” originally broadcast over WWFM – The Classical Network.

My four-part survey, “Black to the Future,” celebrates the compact disc reissue – after 40 years – of Columbia Records’ landmark Black Composers Series. These visionary recordings, made under the direction of conductor Paul Freeman (pictured), were originally released on vinyl between 1974 and 1978. Now collected into a 10-CD box set by Sony Classical, they provide a rare overview of 200 years-worth of neglected music, from a time when most of it was essentially unknown. Indeed, there are still plenty of fascinating discoveries to be savored.

The third installment includes a Romantic violin concerto by Cuban composer José Silvestre de los Dolores White y Lafitte (José White, for short), a cello sonata written for Janos Starker by David Baker, and “Eight Miniatures for Small Orchestra” by Panamanian composer Roque Cordero.

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-february-17-black-future-part-iii

If you missed it, here’s Part One, with music by Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Olly Wilson, and Fela Sowande:

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-february-3-black-future

And Part Two, with works by George Walker and José Maurício Nunes Garcia:

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-black-future-part-ii

Follow the links, click “listen,” and enjoy.

February 20, 2021
Black Composers Series Reissue Celebrated

During Black History Month, I thought it would be good time to share some archived episodes I put together for “The Lost Chord,” on WWFM – The Classical Network, to celebrate the reissue – after 40 years – of Columbia Records’ Black Composers Series.

The series was the brainchild of conductor Paul Freeman, who drew from 200 years-worth of neglected repertoire written by composers of color. The performances were released on nine LPs. Trying to collect them over the decades has been like panning for gold for us classical music prospectors.

Astonishingly, the boxed set of ten CDs, now including a bonus disc of spiritual arrangements, was simply dropped on the market with zero advertising, not even on the Sony Classical website. News was circulated strictly through word of mouth and thanks to bloggers and broadcasters like myself. For me, it was totally unexpected, and the adrenaline surged, when I spotted it on the shelf at Princeton Record Exchange.

Thankfully, in the decades since the project was first undertaken, a handful of the composers have entered the fringes of the concert repertoire, but there are still a number of fascinating discoveries to be savored.

George Walker’s “Lyric for Strings” (not included in the set) has found particular success recently, and deservedly so. Part Two of my “Lost Chord” broadcasts devoted to the subject (the second of a four-part series) includes Walker’s Trombone Concerto and a Requiem Mass from 1816 by the Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia. Walker, not incidentally, was the first African-American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

I am linking webcasts of the individual segments on Saturdays throughout February. Follow the links, click “listen,” and enjoy.

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-black-future-part-ii

If you missed it, here’s Part One, with music by Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Olly Wilson, and Fela Sowande:

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-february-3-black-future

February 13, 2021
Adolphus Hailstork MLK Tribute on WWFM

I’ve been a fan of Adolphus Hailstork since the 1980s. That’s when I first heard “Done Made My Vow,” as part of a concert broadcast over the radio.

“Done Made My Vow” (1985), often described as a gospel oratorio, was inspired in part by speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. So uplifting was the marriage of words and music, I hoped for years that it would be recorded. Then one day I stumbled across a copy in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gift shop.

On the eve of MLK Day, I hope you’ll join me for this extraordinary piece, scored for speaker, chorus and orchestra. It’s my featured highlight this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord.”

Hailstork has been part of the fabric of American music since at least the 1970s. Born in Rochester, New York, in 1941, he earned his BA from Howard University, his MA from the Manhattan School of Music – where his teachers included with Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond – and his doctorate from Michigan State, where his studied with H. Owen Reed. Then he was off, like so many of his great American forebears, to study at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger. Hailstork is now composer-in-residence at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

He is perhaps best known for his choral music, though it was the wistful slow movement of his Symphony No. 1, composed for a summer music festival in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, that next caught my ear.

His brief but boisterous curtain-raiser “Celebration!” was included in Paul Freeman’s legendary “Black Composers Series,” recorded for Columbia Records back in the 1970s. Freeman remained a champion of Hailstork’s work for the rest of his career. I particularly recommend his recording of “Sonata da Chiesa,” a multi-movement work for string orchestra, inspired by Hailstork’s impressions as a boy chorister singing at the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany.

As preamble to the oratorio, we’ll also enjoy his rhythmically exciting “Variations for Trumpet” (1981).

The music is hale, but the sentiments are King. I hope you’ll join me for “Done Made My Vow.” That’s “All Hail Hailstork,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

“Sonata da Chiesa” (1992):

Symphony No. 1 (1988): Mov’t II, Lento ma non troppo:

“Motherless Child” (2002):

“Celebration!” (1974):

January 19, 2020
Black Composers Series on WWFM

It’s music by the so-called “Dean of Afro-American composers” tonight on “The Lost Chord.”

William Grant Still’s “Afro-American Symphony” (1930) will be heard alongside Ulysses Kay’s “Markings” (1966), an elegy for secretary general of the United Nations Dag Hammerskjöld, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s lively “Danse Nègre” from the “African Suite” (1898).

I hope you’ll join me for the grand conclusion of my month-long survey of highlights from the landmark Black Composers Series of 1974-1978, newly reissued in a handsome 10-CD boxed set, thanks to Sony Classical, on “Black to the Future, Part IV,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network.

But if you find the siren song of Oscar is simply too strong to resist, you can always catch the show later in the week as a webcast, along with previous installments from the series, at wwfm.org.

PHOTOS (clockwise from left): William Grant Still, Ulysses Kay, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

February 24, 2019
José White’s Lost Chord

His name is as romantic as his music. Tune in tonight to enjoy the Violin Concerto in F-sharp minor from 1864 by José Silvestre de los Dolores White y Lafitte (a.k.a. José White). A cello sonata from 1973 by David Baker and some orchestral miniatures from 1948 by Roque Cordero round out this week’s installment of “The Lost Chord,” the third of four parts devoted to highlights from the compact disc reissue of CBS Records’ visionary Black Composers Series. Join me for “Black to the Future, Part III,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 18, 2019

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS