Download MY CUP RUNNETH OVER by R. Nathaniel Dett

MY CUP RUNNETH OVER by R. Nathaniel Dett; Clipper Erickson, piano
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Works Background:
R. Nathaniel Dett was a pioneering black composer, pianist, and conductor active in the first half
of the twentieth century whose music is typified by the intersection of gospel melodies and
Romantic techniques
o Dett’s experiences with the music of Anton Dvořák while a studying at the Oberlin
Conservatory turned him on to the notion of mixing spirituals and Classical ideas
Dett’s compositional career is sometimes divided into three periods
o 1901-1907; while a student, Dett wrote rudimentary piano pieces, along with
pedagogical pieces for his work as a piano instructor and choir director
o 1908-1929; during this time, Dett composed a great deal of music based on spirituals,
and also published scholarship on African-American music
o 1929-1942; Dett studied with legendary French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger in
1929, which led him to adopt aspects of contemporary European aesthetics
Selected Guided Listening:
Magnolia (1912)
o This is one of the works that helped Dett secure his status as a major American pianistcomposer
 Although it was received as innovative and virtuosic by contemporary reviewers,
Magnolia is structurally simplistic and resembles the music of earlier American
composer-pianist barnstormers, such as Louis Moreau Gottschalk
In the Bottoms (1913)
o The movement “Dance - Juba” was Dett’s most widely performed work during his
lifetime
 Like Magnolia, this work excels in the clarity of its melodic motives and form
Enchantment (1922)
o This is a much more romantic work that Magnolia and In The Bottoms, and features a
tonal language that is highly suggestive of late nineteenth-century European composers
 This work, along with In the Bottoms, is reminiscent of Gabriel Fauré, Erik Satie,
and Richard Strauss’s piano writing
Tropic Winter (1938)
o The latest work on the album, the subtle modernist influence of Dett’s studies with
Nadia Boulanger are clearly evident
 Listen closely for a more varied melodic language that features increased
dissonance in comparison to Dett’s earlier pieces
Suggested Supplemental Listening:
Richard Strauss, Enoch Arden, for piano and narrator (1897)
Erik Satie, Sports et Divertissements (1914)
William Grant Still, Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American” (1930)