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Tag: William Grant Still

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
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
William Grant Still & Black Composers in NJ

It’s a banner day for William Grant Still in the Trenton-Princeton area.

As I posted only a short while ago, Still’s “Afro-American Symphony” will be the featured highlight on “The Lost Chord,” tonight at 10:00 on WWFM The Classical Network and wwfm.org, as I conclude my month-long survey of highlights from the reissued Black Composers Series on Sony Classical.

Another of Still’s symphonies – the much less frequently heard (read NEVER) Symphony No. 4, subtitled “Autochthonous” – will be performed by the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey at Trenton’s Patriots Theater at the War Memorial this afternoon at 4:00. The concert will also include the recently rediscovered Violin Concerto No. 1 by Florence Price and, as an added bonus, Adolphus Hailstork’s “Celebration.”

My preview of this exciting program is in the current edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo. I know I posted about it earlier in the week, but I thought it would be helpful to mention it again, not least because the last time I failed to notice that I didn’t include a link until about five hours after! So here it is again.

https://princetoninfo.com/african-american-composers-shine-in-trenton/

The so-called “Dean of Afro-American composers,” Still lived from 1895 to 1978. He was a “first” in many ways. His was the first symphony 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). His works were performed internationally by the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, and the Tokyo Philharmonic.

Similarly, Florence Price, who lived from 1887 to 1953, was the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have her music performed by a major orchestra (the Chicago Symphony). Her violin concerto was among a stash of manuscripts rescued from her dilapidated summer home as recently as 2009. This afternoon’s performance by the Capital Philharmonic will be the work’s East Coast premiere, and possibly only the second time it has ever been heard in public.

This is the rare concert that is more than just a concert.

Tickets are still available through the orchestra’s website, capitalphilharmonic.org.

February 24, 2019
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
Price & Still Overcoming Barriers in Trenton

American composers have always had it tough. And in the golden age of American classical music, composers of color had it especially bad.

Two of them will be featured on an ambitious program to be performed by the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey at Trenton’s Patriots Theater at the War Memorial this Sunday at 4 p.m. Daniel Spalding will conduct Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with Samuel Thompson the soloist, and William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 4 “Autochthonous.”

Both Price and Still were limited in some respects because of the color barrier. Even so, it’s amazing – and inspiring – to learn just how far they were able to make it in an era well before the Civil Rights Movement strove in earnest to level the playing field.

Find out more about them, including the story of the miraculous recovery of Price’s concerto from her semi-collapsed house, as recently as 2009 – and the definition of “autochthonous” – in my article in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out yesterday. I got so busy, I forgot to let everyone know!

https://princetoninfo.com/african-american-composers-shine-in-trenton/

BONUS: Tune in to hear Daniel Spalding chat about the concert with David Osenberg this afternoon at 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 21, 2019

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