(2nd part in a series – the whole symphony will be played throughout the month)

William Grant Still was the first African-American to conduct a symphony orchestra as well as the first to have his symphonic music and operas played by a major orchestra. It’s no wonder he’s known as “the Dean” of African-American Composers.

Back when I was in college (music conservatory), a major component of American music history was finding a true American voice, distinct from European Art Music. Some composers simply copied the European style. Dvorak was convinced the American voice would come from the melodies of the Native Americans. Then there’s Copland‘s very popular “American” sound and style of composition (might Daugherty, whom we heard yesterday, be the next Copland?) And of course, there are the composers like Gershwin who adopted African-American styles as their own.

So where does that leave William Grant Still? His first symphony, “Afro-American”, is in four movements, and has more character than the Second New England School, all the richness of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony”, far more depth than any of Copland’s popular works, and can claim the African-American heritage better than Gershwin can. Everybody should know this music.

You might mistake this first movement for something by Gershwin. The main theme uses a twelve-bar-blues pattern.

William Grant Still was the first African-American to conduct a symphony orchestra as well as the first to have his symphonic music and operas played by a major orchestra. It’s no wonder he’s known as “the Dean” of African-American Composers.

American music history deals a lot with American composers’ search for a “true American voice”, distinct from European Art Music. Some composers simply copied the European style. Dvorak was convinced the American voice would come from the melodies of the Native Americans. Then there’s Copland‘s very popular “American” sound and style of composition (might Daugherty, be the next Copland?) And of course, there are the composers like Gershwin who adopted African-American styles as their own.

So where does that leave William Grant Still? His first symphony, “Afro-American”, is in four movements, and has more character than the Second New England School, all the richness of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony“, far more depth than any of Copland’s popular works, and can claim the African-American heritage better than Gershwin can. Everybody should know this music.

Here’s the third movement of the symphony, which might be one of the only orchestral compositions featuring the banjo!

Today is the birthday of Rosa Parks, a civil rights hero who needs no introduction.

You might need an introduction, however, to Michael Daugherty. He is one of the best living American composers today. I’m particularly fond of him because his music isn’t pretentious OR corny. The line between pretentious and corny is very thin – it’s hard to not be one or the other. His pieces often follow a story of some sort, such as Superman, UFOs, or American landmarks.

Rather than blab on, I will quote Daugherty’s own website regarding his composition, Rosa Parks Boulevard.

“Rosa Parks Boulevard pays tribute to the woman who, in 1955, helped set in motion the modern civil rights movement by her refusal to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1957, she moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she has lived ever since. One of the many honors bestowed upon Rosa Parks is a downtown Detroit boulevard bearing her name. 

In the fall of 1999, I had the pleasure of attending a Sunday church service with Parks…. {She}viewed the words spoken by African-American preachers as a source of strength. Preachers also inspired African-American poet James Weldon Johnson. In the preface to God’s Trombones, his 1927 volume of poetry, Johnson describes how the preacher ‘strode the pulpit up and down in what was actually a very rhythmic dance, and he brought into play the full gamut of his wonderful voice, a voice-what shall I say? Not of an organ or a trumpet, but rather of a trombone, the instrument possessing above all others the power to express the wide and varied range of emotions encompassed by the human voice – and with greater amplitude’…. 

Rosa Parks Boulevard features the trombone section, echoing the voices of generations of African-American preachers in Detroit and across the country. Fragments of the melody Oh Freedom are played in musical canons by the trombones, which I associate with the preacher. I also introduce a musical motive, which I associate with Parks, first heard in the woodwinds and vibraphone. These lyrical sections alternate with a turbulent bus ride, evoked by atonal polyrhythms in the trumpets, horns and non-pitched percussion. The recurrence of ominous beating in the bass drum reminds us that while progress was made in civil rights in the twentieth century, there is still much to be done in the twenty-first century.”