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1 Many people do not realize just how influential African-Americans have been to the growth of America and the culture of the United States. The United States is known as the melting pot of America because of the blend of cultures. Not only do cultures blend, but one culture influences the growth of another. As African-Americans moved more and more into the country, via slavery and trying to find a new life, the lives of the people living in America gradually changed. Through all kinds of mediums, such as music, the culture of AfricanAmericans began to show up more and more in the lives of average Americans. Over the generations, the view of other cultures has changed. Composers like Scott Joplin and William Grant Still emerged at a time where they were not considered equal. Jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were treated completely different than white musicians just because of the color of their skin. Throughout this paper, the lives and times of influential African-Americans will be brought into light. The discussion of composers and musicians throughout this paper focuses on their music and how the environment around them and the time influenced certain characteristics of their writing. The African-Americans discussed, Scott Joplin, William Grant Still, and Florence Beatrice Price, all lived in a time much different from the equality presented to Americans today. Known as the “King of ragtime writers,” Scott Joplin is an African-American composer who grew popularity through his famous ragtime pieces for piano. In his lifetime, Joplin never felt like he received the recognition he deserved. Known to comment that he would not see recognition till after his death, Joplin almost predicted his rise in popularity that would occur nearly a quarter century after his death. His popularity grew to unprecedented acclaim between 2 the 1940s and the 1970s as sort of a Joplin revival took hold. Joplin’s music flourished long after his death. Though not known exactly, it is believed that Joplin was born within a year of the date November 24, 1868 to Florence Givens and Giles Joplin in what would later be called Linden, Texas. While his mother was born a free woman in Kentucky in 1841, Giles was born into slavery in North Carolina around 1842. By 1880, Giles was working as a common laborer in Texarkana with and six children, Scott Joplin being the second oldest (Berlin 3-6). All the children were musical in some way due to Giles teaching them the violin and/or singing. Joplin’s parents could be a large part of the reason for his musical talents due to his fathers violin skills. Also, his mothers singing and banjo-playing could have contributed a large amount, later influencing the specific style used in accompaniments in his works. (Gammond 28). In the mid80’s, Giles left the family to go live with another women, though still remaining in close contact with the family, Some say that because of this, Joplin became more eager to travel and no longer be stuck in one place (Berlin 7). In the following years, Florence took on the new role as bread-winner, raising her children and supporting the household doing domestic work. Joplin was an ambitious, serious young man who constantly talked about his bright future. While doing work in some wealthy homes of neighbors, Florence Joplin was able to arrange for Scott to play on the pianos, further developing his love fir music. Around 1881, Florence had raised up enough money to purchase a piano for the home. Joplin had the opportunity to study with several local music teachers, including a German musician by the name of Julius Weiss. Weiss was so impressed with Joplin’s potential that he gave him lessons for free, exposing him to European art and music. He saw 3 Joplin as a grand performer and wanted to hone in on his talents and skills. Weiss is known as being one of the most influential teachers for Joplin because he taught him to think of music not just as entertainment, but as an art in and of itself (Berlin 7). Joplin was an all around musician due to his experience working with various instruments, like the bugle in a local band, the banjo, and the family guitar in his earlier years (Gammond 29). His musical career began as the leader of a vocal quartet at age 16, which comprised of his brothers and other neighborhood boys. He also played piano in local dance halls and taught the guitar and mandolin (Berlin 7). These first years as a musician would turn out to influence the rest of his musical career. Though it was believed that from here on, Joplin traveled around on his own, performing in various venues throughout Texas and Louisiana as a pianist, it is not certain. It is certain though that he witnessed many great musicians playing in a syncopated, “banjo-based style” that he later formed into his own style of ragtime. While traveling around, it is believed that he would spend hours playing at saloons and brothels, especially when no one cared about his age, and even would play well into the night at small get-togethers long after the bars had closed for the night. Around 1885, it is believed that he made his way to St. Louis, which had become a major cultural melting pot since it’s earlier years as a trading post (Gammond 29-30). The time of his arrival in St. Louis is often questioned, however, due to the uncertainty of his travels. It is know that Joplin arrived in St. Louis and was impacted greatly by the environment around him. Music in St. Louis was growing to be a thriving industry. One of the only recorded events during his time as a traveling performer takes place in 4 Texarkana. In the summer of 1891, he is listed a performer in the Texarkana Minstrels at their premiere at Ghio’s Opera House. “Black-faced Minstrelsy” at the time was an invention of white performers to make fun of African-American’s by painting their faces and acting out stereotypes of the time in short skits. African-American’s began taking up the position as performers in order to make money, which made the scenes all the more amusing to the white population of the time. The event Joplin was involved in became a disgrace to African-American’s because the group unknowingly performed for a benefit for a monument to be erected for Jefferson Davis, the President of the Southern Confederacy (Berlin 9-11). This event is one of the only definite events that show Joplin in one place. In 1885, however, there were reports of Joplin making appearances at saloons and other venues, performing for small crowds as entertainment (Gammond 30). It is often questioned that if in 1885 he arrived in St. Louis, why would he have returned to Texarkana in 1891? At times, it is only guess work to try and record dates or places of Joplin in his earlier years. It is, however, very clear that as he traveled, his music was influenced by the musicians and people he came in contact with. By 1893, he had managed to travel all around the south and even attended the World Fair in Chicago, performing as a pianist and on the bugle in a small orchestra (Gammond 44). At the end of the fair, he found himself landing right back in the south in Sedalia, Missouri (Berlin 12). Sedalia became a springboard for the rest of Joplin’s career. Due to the environment of the town, a place where music flourished and race did not matter as much in comparison to other southern cities, Joplin was able to perform as musician in the local orchestra and as a solo pianist. His compositional skills also began to grow in his short stint in Sedalia, which is often 5 referred to as the home of Scott Joplin (Berlin 23). Joplin’s first publications, Please Say You Will and A Picture of Her Face, which had music and lyrics by him, were not his best effort or his best style. Polite, parlor-songs, these pieces were mature and professional, which gained him respect and favor with the often disdainful and rude white population (Berlin 27). From then on, Joplin composed music that would continuously gain him a strong reputation as a musician and composer. Joplin often took it upon himself to guide many of the younger pianists in Sedalia, having a strong dedication to education due to his study with Weiss in his younger years (Berlin 29-20). At the time, everyone was learning and composing rags, but due to his cultural experiences and absorbed knowledge over the years, Joplin excelled above the rest. By 1897, he had a clear idea in his mind of the music he wanted to create, blending together the musical styles and primitive music he had heard in his travels. It was then that he composed his most famous rag piece, Maple Leaf Rag (Gammond 60). Knowing this piece would eventually earn him the label of “the King of ragtime,” he sought to publish it as rags were growing in demand. Publishing his piece Original Rags before Maple Leaf Rag, he slowly started to gain fame (Gammond 65). Upon his departure from Sedalia in 1901, Joplin was already on his way to nationwide fame as the composer of the Maple Leaf Rag. During this time, ragtime itself was spreading into the mainstream music of the youths of the day, causing problems with the white musicians of the time, since black, ragtime musicians were more in demand. But in a time where America was searching for a national music style, there was no stopping the accelerated growth of popular music (Berlin 87-9). The wild activity and syncopation created in rags may have scared conservatives, but the form was very familiar. 6 Two larger sections divided into four subsections, the typical ragtime followed the AABBA/CCDD form. Each “strain” featured the usual eight bar phrases grouped into a total of 16 measures per strain, repeated every time they occurred, which created a very symmetrical, square shape to the music, typical of most piano pieces at the time (Nadeau 62). Even in a time of opposition due to the wild style of ragtime, audiences craved the entertainment. The typical performer today attempts to play a rag as fast as possible with the best technique, but this is contrary to what Joplin believed rags should be about. Rags should be about the rhythm and swing of the music. He believed they should be played at a moderate tempo, similar to the tempo of a march, because they rhythms and the swing need to be felt and heard. In common rags, there is major syncopation with the use of 8th notes, 16th notes, and dotted rhythms in the right hand, with seldom appearances of triplets. Ragtime differs from other styles because the syncopation is felt with extra accents on weaker parts of the beats. The mixture of these syncopated patterns and the characteristically disconnected melody, as well as the use of a three or more octave range, add to the ragtime style. Other characteristics, from the call and response feel between the octaves and the left hand supporting and adding to the melody in various ways, all make ragtime a unique style (Nadeau 57-60). Scott Joplin not only wrote rags that followed these guidelines laid out by composers before him, but he also laid down the foundation for future generations of composers by utilizing his experiences in his life and knowledge he had gained. Joplin was a respected and sought after composer because his style differed from those before him as he successfully fused together 7 Afro-American elements with the European style of the time (Charters 178). One of the most apparent elements that most likely is due to Joplin’s study with Weiss in his younger years is the use of the “Scotch snap,” a sixteenth note followed by a dotted eighth note, which appeared in Baroque music. This European musical element is seen throughout not only Joplin’s works, but all rags of the time. The syncopated rhythms presented with the “Scotch snap” made the music more upbeat and jaunty. The thing that makes this element most interesting is that it was frequently used in Afro-American music as well. This supports the idea that ragtime is a synthesis of the various styles presented by both cultures (Nadeau 59). Another element seen in European music that appears in Joplin’s rags is the tonal harmonies, predominately in a major key, that make up the music, as well as the lack of lots of key changes. The non-chord tones and dissonances presented also are used as passing tones and resolve to the typical pitches (Nadeau 61). These European elements blend seamlessly with the use of the pentatonic scale and the mixture of major and minor scales in the melody. The harmonies paired with the major use of tonic chords utilizes a lot of secondary-dominant-seventh chords and diminished-sevenths that match up with the chromatics used in Negro folk songs. The pentatonic emphasis is seen in Joplin’s first successful piece, Maple Leaf Rag, in the third strain (Example 1). The 7th is buried in the texture. Not in the example, but in the music, is the left hand using alternating major and minor thirds, another aspect of Negro folk music (Charters 176). Finally, the use of chromatic chords to set the tension and color between I-V-I resolutions originated with string instruments, such as the ones Joplin learned early in his youth, the banjo and mandolin (Charters 181). These subtle elements blended with the diatonic chords represent 8 Joplin’s experience of fusing his European study of music with his experiences in the south and younger years. Example 1: Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag, mm. 51-54 (Charters 176). To this day, Joplin remains a very influential composer. Though he did not reach the recognition he deserved in his lifetime, he was still one of the most famous. But even back then, musicians were not financially stable. Even at age forty-six, he was a still a grand musician, offering lessons in Harlem to students willing to pay on the violin and piano. He became so depressed and desperate for money at times that he attempted to sell his own music and originals. Even in his time of desperation, he still managed to compose new works. These works, however, were never fully published or performed. Joplin was even too poor for a studio of his own, giving lessons at another musician’s home. He even dappled in making piano rolls of his own pieces as a form of income. Though records are not very clear, it is believed that Joplin suffered from a deteriorating disease known as dementia paralytica, which eventually led to Joplin having major erratic behavior and destroying some of his own pieces (Berlin 234-8). After publishing many piano pieces in his lifetime and even trying his hand in ragtime opera, Joplin died on April 1, 1917 in a mental ward in Manhattan (Berlin 240). Even his death seemed to attract little attention in his lifetime, but today we think of him as one of the most influential piano composers of all time. His compositions were just the mere beginnings of jazz, which laid the 9 foundation for generations after him. Scott Joplin was not the only African-American composer to work his way into an already growing style or genre. Not necessarily known as the father of African-American composition, William Grant Still is often referred to as “the Dean” of African-American composers. Born on May 11, 1895, Still was the first born child of a well-respected family on a country plantation named Piney Woods, partially owned by his father who shared the same name. His parents were delighted to have such a beautiful baby boy within a year after their marriage (Arvey 11). Still’s father was a strong man who grew up knowing controversy in the small town of Woodville, but remained ambitious and respectful in everything he did. Having graduated from Alcorn A&M College in Lorman, Mississippi, the elder Still was a fine musician on the cornet and a solid mathematician. He went on to teach music and math at various schools and even at his alma mater before becoming principal of a small school in Gloster, Mississippi. Within a year of being married and giving birth to his son, the elder Still became suddenly ill. Some believe it was not a natural cause, while others believe it to have been typhoid fever or malaria. Either way, many believed it to be a curse placed upon him by a lower class African-American because they disagreed with him acting as if he was better than the others. At the age of merely twenty-four and having so much potential in life, William Grant Still, Sr. died, leaving his newlywed wife and newborn son behind. According to the younger Still’s wife, he always seemed to have an emptiness that plagued him, most likely due to the absence of his father, whom everyone spoke so highly of (Arvey 10-2). 10 Still’s mother, Carrie Fambro Still, was born onto a plantation before her mother was freed from slavery. Even at the beginning of her life, Carrie did not know poverty. Being blood related to the owners of the plantation, Carrie and her mother were able to live in the main house, unlike the rest of the slaves. She did not know exactly what it was like to live in filthy conditions, and even their life on the plantation was only brief before they were freed. Stories told of her as a young child include her beating up other children for speaking rudely to her, as well as her shouting that she would not “take anything from anybody.” As a very outspoken child, she grew up into a very determined woman. She was ambitious and intelligent, putting her above her classmates. Her scholastic records outshined all those around her, which led to her attending Atlanta University. She showed musical talent as well by accompanying choral groups on the organ and performing solos at various events. This eventually led to her taking up teaching as a career, which is how she ended up meeting the elder Still (Arvey 8-10). After the death of her husband, she decided it would be best to raise “Billy” elsewhere, moving to Little Rock, Arkansas with her mother and sister (Arvey 13). Never being a servile woman, Still’s mother moved up the ranks at her institutes of education, gaining respect of all around her, including the white population. Due to her high reputation, Still’s youth was far from the stereotyped youth of the colored boys at the time. He grew up as an American boy, as all other white children would of his generation (Arvey 15-7). In the entire time that Still resided in Little Rock, interracial association was common. Even after 1903, when blacks were no longer allowed to sit with whites on the streetcar, racially mixed neighborhoods still were thought of as fine places to live. Still’s rearing up to his graduation in 1911 seemed to coincide with the 11 changes in Little Rock from a racially flexible town to a rigidly segregated one (Gatewood 23-4). Growing up witnessing acts of cruelty towards his race, Still would be effected by his childhood for the rest of his life. Though around a lot of actual Negro villages in the south at times while his mother taught in the back country, Still learned most about African-American folk songs through his grandmother, Annie Fambro. A strong-willed woman like her daughter. Still’s grandma taught him all about the history of his culture and where he came from (Gatewood 32). Like his grandma, his mother remained an influential figure in his life with her strong feelings for racial uplifting and the hope of something better. Still led a very cultured youth; living in a home full of literature, musical instruments, and never being allowed to act less than pristine. He lived a very different life from his counterparts in the same town. But wealth was not the factor that kept his family in a status above the rest. The black community in Little Rock was much like the white community, with a built in upper, middle, and lower class. Still and his family lived amongst the upper-class, even though they did not move into town with money, nor did they gain a tremendous amount of wealth over the years. The high ranking black society did not look upon mere money as a sign of prestige. Due to the way the Still’s carried themselves and what they believed and achieved, they were invited into the upper-class community with open arms (Gatewood 28). In 1911, Still graduated from Mifflin W. Gibbs high school as the valedictorian. The school being mainly a college prep school, with emphasis in literature, mathematics, and the arts, encouraged Still to continue his education at a higher level. Coming from what was known as the 12 best public school in the state, Still attended Wilberforce University in Ohio for a little while. During this time, his stepfather, Charles Shepperson shared his love of opera, introducing Still to a brand new genre and new style of music (Gatewood 27-31). Upon leaving Wilberforce after a brief period of study, Still left and married his wife, Grace Bundy the same year. Moving to play in a few bands in Memphis and working for W.C. Handy, writing a few arrangements for the group, Still soon began study at Oberlin University. After joining the Navy for a year, and returning to Oberlin briefly, Still was drawn to New York to work for W.C. Handy (Gatewood 28). It was no mere coincidence that Still’s move to New York coincided with the beginnings of the Harlem Renaissance (1914-1934). Drawn by the ideals of the various authors of the time, Still moved to New York to perform on oboe, cello, and arrange popular music for various groups (Murchison 47). Harlem at the time was perceived as a representation of black racial growth and freedom. African-American’s were able to find expression in performing arts, even though it was perceived mostly as a literary movement. The literature merely fueled the growth of the other arts (Murchison 43-5). Still ended up being engrossed in the middle of the renaissance in the art of music. While working for Pace Recording Company, Still got the opportunity to play oboe in the Harlem orchestra, which was a large display of the growth of black music. In 1924, he returned to orchestration and arranging (Murchison 47). Still was not only geographically in the right place at the right time for the Harlem Renaissance, he also associated himself with prominent authors of the time, like Langston Hughes, who he eventually used as a librettist for his opera in 1930 called Troubled Island (Murchison 48). 13 Still believed that the black performers could combat the “Negro” myths by playing sophisticated music while at the same time utilizing black vernacular traditions. While studying with Edgar Varese, Still gained an interest in “ultramodern” music, which focused on almost atonal harmonies. After experimenting with combining atonal harmonies with traditional African-American music, like the 8-bar blues, Still decided that the Negro idiom lost its identity within the atonal harmonies. In his piece, Darker America, composed in 1924 for orchestra, he utilizes the Negro spirituals while adding modern dissonance to the harmonies. Using the pentatonic scale and the “blues scale,” used previously by Scott Joplin in an almost identical manner with syncopation and the tonic, subdominant, and dominant harmonies, Still tried to show the serious side of spirituals as a representation of African-American’s triumphing over sorrow with prayer and hope (Murchison 55-7). In 1925, Still decided to write some racial music, hoping to raise awareness of the growth of the African-American artist and style. Composing the jazz piece Levee Land for chamber orchestra and solo soprano, Still changed up his way of writing by making the vocal line do something unconventional. Instead of having a smooth melodic line in the vocal part, Still used the vocal line as almost another instrument, not in a narrative form. With repeated words to mimic the constant tone of in instrument, the piece was his first attempt at writing a new racial jazz piece (Murchison 58). Completely occupied with the ideals of educating people about African-American music, Still composed the first African-American symphony, deciding he wanted black music in the highest of musical art forms. Using the Blues idiom, Still composed the Afro-American Symphony in 1930. The first theme itself features the lowered 3rd and 7th scale 14 degrees. Example 2 shows the first trumpet part in the first movement, featuring the first theme. The use of syncopation in the phrase as well as the flat 7th and 3rd are very apparent. The formal structure of the piece fits a modified sonata form while using the twelve bar blues. The melodic falling contour and the call and response characteristic used throughout the piece is representative of the African-American music Still would have heard from his grandmother. In 1937, Still composed almost an identical piece, Symphony in G Minor, which he deemed a continuation of the Afro-American Symphony. Immediately in the first theme presented, the piece utilizes material presented in the previous symphony. Still wanted to further represent the changes in African-American life and culture that had occurred since the first composition was published (Murchison 60-1). Example 2: Still, Afro-American Symphony, movement, theme 1 Due to his vast amount of compositions and arrangements during the Harlem Renaissance, William Grant Still was considered an expert on African-American music, new and old. Writing articles and speeches, Still sought to promote the music and educate those on the facts about African-American music. He wanted to get rid of the stereotype that was slowly fading about the nonintellectual black population. Though he highly valued spirituals as the 15 origin of his music, people should not believe that to be the extent of African-American music. African-American music was the music being composed around him and combined with the traditional harmonies of European music. Even though he faced a lot of prejudice in his life, Still never publicly addressed racism as an obstacle he had to face as a composer (Murchison 65-7). Throughout all the racism, he remained optimistic that things would change and his music would not be thought of as anything less than the best. He hoped to ease prejudice by showing the positives and educating the white population about black culture (Murchison 69-70). Living during a time of immense change, Still survived what many people would never dream of even dealing with for a day. Decades of prejudice and racism followed by years of recognition and awards, the years leading up to his death were anything but uneventful. Universities granted him honorary diplomas and organizations wanted him as their president, but after three years of spending life in a nursing home after a series of strokes and heart attacks, William Grant Still died on December 3, 1978, at the ripe old age of 83 (Arvey 183-6). In his lifetime, Still composed and performed in a way only true musicians could. Around the same time of William Grant Still, women were gaining ground in music. At end of the 19th century, even women composers in Europe were being ignored by historians. It was believed that women lacked the intellect necessary to produce noteworthy piece of music. Women began to take a place in music history though in America with the publishing of a composition in the late 1890’s by Mrs. H.H.A. Beach. This composition may have been one of the factors that led to many women beginning testing their skills in composition. As women were becoming slowly more accepted into the workforce, books were even published about the 16 accomplishments of many African-American women in order to encourage personal growth (Walker-Hill 21-2). A composer who blended African-American style with European style, Scott Joplin, premiered his opera Treemonisha in 1910. This opera about a black heroine was important to African-American women of the time because it illustrated the significance of women in the progress of the African-American race, inspiring women to step forward and express themselves musically (Walker-Hill 25). One such woman was Florence Beatrice Price. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1887, seven years before the birth of William Grant Still, Price eventually became the first black woman composer to gain international recognition (Green 31). Price’s father, John Henry Smith, was a free-born dentist who had a very large practice with many wealthy black and whites as his patients. Not only was he a prominent dentist, he also was a successful inventor, artist and novelist (Walker-Hill 25). Her mother was a soprano and concert pianist from Indianapolis, Indiana, who became an elementary school music teacher (Green 31). Like William Grant Still, Price led a cultured lifestyle full of literature, musical instruments, and even oil paintings due to her father’s hobbies. Price exhibited musical talent on the piano and in singing at an early age under the instruction of her mother. Throughout the rest of her childhood, Price continued to study piano diligently. In 1903, she graduated as valedictorian from Capitol High School, which would later be moved and renamed Mifflin W. Gibbs, which is where Still would eventually attend. She was then sent to Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music to double major in piano and organ, and then also study composition with Benjamin Cutter and George Chadwick. Price graduated with high honors from the Conservatory in 1907 and moved back to Little Rock to begin a career in teaching (Green 32). 17 Eventually teaching at Shorter College and marrying an attorney, Thomas J. Price, she entered several compositions into contests and won various awards and prizes for them, already gaining fame amongst the musical community (Walker-Hill 26). In 1927, a brutal hanging on the corner of a nice black neighborhood of a man believed of assaulting a white woman in Little Rock forced the Price’s and other prominent black families to move to Chicago, away from the cruel prejudice of the south. Taking advantage of the opportunities presented to her in Chicago, Price continued performing, composing, and teaching. She began publishing her works in 1928, beginning with four piano pieces. Continuing her teaching, she even taught the future composer Margaret Bonds because of a friendship she had with Bonds’ mother (Green 32-3). Furthering her education, Price went back to study at the Chicago Musical College, Chicago Teacher’s College, the University of Chicago, Central YMCA College, and the American Conservatory of Music (Walker-Hill 26). In 1933, Price premiered her first symphony, Symphony in E minor, conducted by Frederick Stock, marking her first success as the first African-American woman composer to write a symphony. In 1940, she followed it with the premiere of Symphony No. 3 in C Minor. From here on out, her reputation as a composer and an educator flourished. Price wrote in genres ranging from symphonies and chamber groups to art songs (Green 34). Her style fit that of a conservative writer, or comparative to the late-Romantic style. Price’s style differed from Still’s and Joplin’s because it contained more subtle resemblances to folk songs. She did not use exact melodies or fragments from folk songs in her compositions. Price relied on subtle black idioms, such as melodic falling thirds and the cakewalk and juba rhythms to make her style unique. She 18 believed that her music was not meant to reflect Negro music traditionally, as many other composers did before and after her. In some ways, she went the opposite route. In her 3rd symphony, the 3rd movement is called “Scherzo,” which translates to prank or joke. The movement is sort of a virtuosic parody of the long-winded European music, which many critics and musicians thought African-American’s were incapable of composing. This act of composition shows her affection for the European style she studied and trained in, while at the same time showing her humorous side (Walker-Hill 25-7). In 1941, Price published and premiered her most famous art song, Songs to a Dark Virgin. With the text of a poem by Langston Hughes, it was said that this song had the “greatest immediate successes ever won by an American song.” The piece is written in a modified strophic form. Strophic means that each stanza had the same music to accompany the text. Each stanza has the same thematic material to begin with, but by the 2nd or 3rd strophe, Price varies the rhythmic of melodic treatment of the material. Each strophe also varies in length, some being eleven measures while another is nine. The melody stays simplistic in nature, as do the harmonies. The piece takes on a typical A A‘ A“ form with providing enough contrast to create variety without straying to far from the original material. The accompaniment sets the character of the piece. The broken chord pattern in an ostinato-like pattern reflects the meaning of the text. Example 3 shows a few measures of these broken chords. The consistency and repetition of the accompaniment add to the emotion portrayed through the vocal line. At the beginning of each stanza, the poet is reflective, comparing himself through different analogies. As the singer crescendos and ascends in pitch, the accompaniment follows, creating the climax of each 19 phrases. As the excitement fades, the accompaniment slows down as well as a resolution. Sometimes with her more unconventional chord progressions, Price would get a rich harmonious sound. Unlike others of the time, she uses these chords in a more subtle fashion to hint towards the African-American idiom (Green 35-6). Price’s writing has a lot emotion and suspense, similar to that of old spirituals. Example 3: Price, Songs to the Dark Virgin, mm. 3-4, 7 Even after becoming a widow in 1942, Price still taught and composed. One of her symphonies was even performed on television in February of 1953. In mid-summer of 1953, after a brief illness, Florence Beatrice Price died, leaving behind two daughters. Even though Price lived during the beginnings of a new era, while changes were occurring all around her, her style still remained conservative. Due to beginning her study earlier in life in comparison to 20 composers like Still, she was less influenced in her style by the changes happening around her. Even without changing her style to fit the changing influences, her music was still popular and impacted so many lives (Jackson 40-3). After death, and sometimes even more so than in life, composers often get the recognition they deserve. Like Scot Joplin, Price gets more recognition now for being the first African-American woman to compose a symphony and have it performed than she did for being a talented performer or composer while she was alive. With a full life of composition, there are a lot of aspects that could be researched and discussed. In many ways, people may never know exactly who this talented women was. Through all the controversy African-American’s faced in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, I find it remarkable that these composers found such great success. Even though they all grew up in a relatively culture household, they still would have found great prejudice due to their race. What is even more remarkable is that they all came from the south, and even from the Deep South, which was even more cruel to the black population. Interesting enough, two for the composers, William Grant Still and Florence Beatrice Price, within the same city of Little Rock, Arkansas. The city itself definitely seemed to be preparing the students for a successful life. The town, as I understand through various readings, was a bit of a cultural centerpiece for the south. It would only make sense to me that some great composers grew up there. It is a bit humorous to me that Price and Still ended up attending the same high school, though renamed and separated by a few year. I believe that even though they all published works around the same time, they were influenced by each other. It is obvious that Joplin’s works, published before the others, were influential to Price and Still because he seemed to lay the 21 foundation for combining black idiom with classical style. Composers after him were able to successfully build upon his foundation of combing the two idioms while creating their own style and adding variety to African-American music. All living during a time of change and new growth, the composers of the early 20th century faced there own problems with different solutions. Scott Joplin grew from a small town boy, following the same stereotype of every other African-American boy in his times, into a prominent character in the formation of ragtime. William Grant Still lived through racism and prejudice to become a key component in the musical aspect of he Harlem Renaissance. Florence Beatrice Price started as a young, talented musician wanting to learn, and turned into the first African-American women to compose a symphony. These composers lived through segregation and brutality. They studied various styles and listened to the music of their ancestors. They traveled the country and heard various styles of music. Each composer took their own feelings towards music and what it should be about to create their own style. Overall, they each had there own impact on the style of African-American music. Whether it was with subtle black music idioms or blatant use of the pentatonic scale, each contributed to the growth of African-American music. Composers decades after them are still studying their works to discover ways to create their own styles. With every new style of music, there is an influence behind it. As the times change, new music begins to arise. Music changes with the world. Works Cited Arvey, Verna. In One lifetime. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 1984. 22 Berlin, Edward A. King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Charters, A.R. Danberg. “Negro Folk Elements in Classic Ragtime,” Ethnomusicology 5 (1961): 174-83. Gammond, Peter. Scott Joplin and the Ragtime Era. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975. Gatewood, Williard B. “The Formative Years of William Grant Still,” in William Grant Still, A Study in Contradictions, by Catherine P. Smith. (London: University of California Press, Ltd, 2000) 21-35. Nadeau, Roland. “The Grace and Beauty of Classic Rags: Structural Elements in a Distinct Musical Genre,” Music Educators Journal 59 (1973): 57-64. Murchison, Gayle. “’Dean of Afro-American Composers’ or ‘Harlem Renaissance Man‘: ’The New Negro’ and the Musical Poetics of William Grant Still,” The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 53 (1994): 42-74. Walker-Hill, Helen. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002. 23 Jackson, Barbara Garvey. “Florence Price, Composer,” The Black Perspective in Music 5 (1977): 30-43.