Download William Grant Still - Dayton Performing Arts Alliance

Featuring Dr. Everett Jones, piano
Symphony No. 1, Afro-American
Dr. Herbert Woodward Martin, reciter
W ELCOME
One of the joys of the Classical
Connections format is that while we
normally focus on great works by
famous masters, the “CC Treatment”
works just as well on great works
by lesser-known composers. We’ve
proven over the years that there’s
lots of fascinating stuff to learn
about the much-loved warhorses of
the orchestral repertoire. But we’ve
also learned that some of the most
amazing pieces of all are the ones we
didn’t know.
Our December Dayton Daily
News Classical Connections program
is devoted to the music of one of
our best U.S. composers: William
Grant Still. Known in his later years
as “the dean of African-American
composers,” Still opened doors,
shattered stereotypes, and paved the
way for successive generations of
composers who didn’t have to re-fight
Still’s battles simply because he had
already fought them and won.
The three Still works on our
concert all have roots nearby. His
Festive Overture took first prize in
the Cincinnati Symphony’s 1944
contest for an overture to celebrate
the orchestra’s 50th anniversary.
Kaintuck’ was inspired by a train
trip from Cincinnati to Louisville.
And the Afro-American Symphony,
the work that put William Grant
Still on the map, is linked to poems
by Dayton’s own literary son, Paul
Laurence Dunbar. So Still is the
perfect unknown composer for
Daytonians to get to know. And
Classical Connections is the perfect
way to do it.
Classical Connections
Listener’s Guide
Portrait: William Grant Still
with support from
classical 88.1 wdpr and
Neal Gittleman
Music Director
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra
engage. enjoy. emerge!
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Colours Season 2008-2009
Friday, December 5, 2008
Works by William Grant Still
Festive Overture
Kaintuck’, Poem for Piano & Orchestra
Portrait
William
Grant Still
by Neal Gittleman Music Director
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra
Eyes
on the
Prize
William Grant Still personified the
journey of African-Americans in the 20th
century. He was born and raised in the Jim
Crow South. He came north for college
during the Great Migration. He was part
of the Harlem Renaissance. His music
ref lected black Americans’ discovery of their African
roots. He witnessed the struggles of the civil rights
movement and lived to see the dawning of a new—if still
imperfect—era for people of color in the United States.

Still was a man of firsts.
Arranger and musician for the first
all-black Broadway musical. First
African-American composer to
have his works played by major
orchestras. First African-American
to conduct a major orchestra. First
African-American to conduct
an orchestra in the South. First
African-American to compose for
Hollywood. First African-American
to have an opera performed by New
York City Opera.
Above all, Still’s success was
the result of innate musical talent.
He had early training in voice and
violin, then taught himself viola,
cello, oboe, clarinet, and saxophone.
Though his family expected that
his enrollment at Wilberforce
University would lead to medical
school and a place in W.E.B. Dubois’
The combination of Oberlin’s
traditional training plus his
experience performing in theaters
and nightclubs helped Still master
both “serious” and “popular” musical
styles. And although he faced
racial prejudice away from music,
inside the musical world his race
sometimes actually helped.
While working as an arranger
and orchestrator at New York’s Pace
and Handy Music Company, Still
became a student of the avant-garde
French composer Edgard Varèse,
who had specifically sought out a
talented young African-American
to take under his wing. One of
“talented tenth,” music continually
pulled Still from his academic
studies. Though he never completed
his degree, when the opportunity
came to study at the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music, Still
was ready.
Still with W.C. Handy
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University string quartet
Still is seated at far right
Still’s earliest compositions, From
the Land of Dreams—a Varèseish dissonant piece—premiered
in New York in 1925 to a harsh
review from Olin Downes in the
New York Times: “One hoped for
better things from Grant Still…, for
he knows the rollicking and often
entertaining music performed at
negro revues. But Mr. Varèse, Mr.
Still’s teacher, has driven all that out
of him. Is Mr. Still unaware that the
cheapest melody in the revues he
has orchestrated has more reality
and inspiration in it than the curious
noises he manufactured?”
Edgard Varèse
The bad review isn’t a big
deal. Indeed, Still soon disavowed
the piece and its avant-garde
experiments. But the reviewer’s
patronizing and condescending
attitude is striking. And his
message—that a Black composer
like Still would do better sticking to
“rollicking and often entertaining
music” filled with “cheap melody”—
is offensive.
Even if Still was offended, he
soon moved towards a new style that
combined a conservative melodic
idiom with elements of traditional
African-American music—
especially the blues. Still described
the change saying, “The music of
my people is the music I understand
best. It offers the medium through
which I can express myself with
greater clarity and ease. Then too,
I am convinced that the time has
arrived when the Negro composer
must turn from the recording of
Spirituals to the development of the
contributions of his race, and to the
work of elevating them to higher
artistic planes.” In other words, it
was time for works like his AfroAmerican Symphony.
Still’s esthetic stance of the
1930s—forging an amalgam of
classical music and traditional
African-American music—put him
firmly in the “Dvořák Camp”. As
the traditional European empires
began to crumble in the 19th
century, nationalistic composers
came to the fore: Dvořák and
Smetana in Bohemia, Chopin
and Wieniawski in Poland, Grieg
in Norway. In the early 20th
century this movement expanded
as composers and musicologists
collected and recorded their
nations’ indigenous music: Bartók
and Kodály in Hungary, Vaughan
Williams and Holst in Britain, John
and Alan Lomax in the U.S.
William Grant Still was the first African-American
to conduct a major orchestra
The condescension that Still
faced wasn’t unsual. Classical
music has always had a snobbish,
elitist wing that elevated the
serious abstract music of AustroGermanic composers like Mozart
and Beethoven and denigrated
“folkloric” contributions by
composers from other countries.
What makes us cringe today reading
Olin Downes words in the Times is
the combination of elitist snobbery
with racist undertones.
Still’s greatest non-musical gift
was his ability to rise above it all and
go about his business writing music.
That job became much easier with
the success of the Afro-American
Symphony.
Though composed in 1930
and premiered in 1931, Still’s
Symphony No. 1 actually dates
back to 1924, to a sketchbook filled
with more than 400 numbered
musical motives complete with oneword characterizations (“voodoo”,
“lament”, “spiritual”). The
sketchbook contains source material
for a series of compositions which
culminated with the Afro-American
Symphony. It also included a
narrative forward to the symphony,
which explains that Still’s primary
inspiration came from the blues:
“The pathos of their melodic content
bespeaks the anguish of human
hearts and belies the banality of
their lyrics.” (Yes, Still could be a bit
elitist, himself!)
The sketchbook also includes
excerpts from four poems by Paul
Laurence Dunbar that Still used
as epigraphs for the movements
of the symphony. Although Still
didn’t intend the poems to be used
in performance, I can’t resist asking
Dayton’s resident Dunbar scholar
Dr. Herbert Woodward Martin to
recite each poem in its entirety
to introduce Still’s rousing,
inspiring music.
Dr. Herbert Woodward
Martin
Dr. Everett Jones,
Piano
Today African-Americans are
integral to classical music, appearing
as performers, composers, and
audience members. They—and all
of us who love classical music—owe
a great debt of gratitude to William
Grant Still for his gifts, his works,
and his perseverance.
A S TAT E A GE NC Y
T H AT S UP P OR T S P UBL IC
P ROGR A MS IN T HE A R T S
concert tickets: daytonphilharmonic.com or (888) 228-3630
A r o un d
The Wo r l d
Who Got Rhythm?
George Gershwin, of course.
Girl Crazy. Premiered in New York City,
October 14, 1930.
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Colours Season 2008-2009
But check out William Grant Still’s
Afro-American Symphony. Third
movement, bar 8.
Premiered in Rochester, New York, 1931.
So Still borrowed from Gershwin.
Or did he?
Eubie Blake said it was Still’s all
along, going back to the 1920s, when Still
could be heard playing the I Got Rhythm
tune on any instrument at hand, often
noodling the motive in the pit before
performances of Shuffle Along. It also
appeared in Still’s orchestration for the
show’s big dance number Rain or Shine.
Gershwin was an aficionado of AfricanAmerican music and would not have
missed the chance to see Shuffle Along.
And Still gave Gershwin orchestration
lessons. (Gershwin was always uncertain
of his ability to handle instruments and
sought out the advice—and teaching—of
skilled orchestrators like Still.)
Blake surmised that Gershwin
might have heard Still’s version of the
melody in the theater or at a lesson, then
dredged it up from his memory while
writing Girl Crazy. Blake told Still that
Gershwin’s tune was exactly the same
as his, but Still only gave him a knowing
look and said, “Yeah? Well, I’ll see
you later.”
In a more litigious era—or in an
era where Still could have expected a
fair shake in court—he might have been
tempted to take action. Instead he took it
in stride.
After all, William Grant Still
knew the truth. He and Gershwin both
got rhythm!
&
Wil l i a m
G r a n t S t il l
Cuban revolution against Spain.
H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine.
Tchaikovsky’s Swan L ake. Gillette
invents the safety razor.
1895
May 11, born in Woodville,
Mississippi to William Grant Still,
Sr. and the former Carrie Fambro,
both teachers.
Robert Peary reaches the
North Pole.
1909
Starts violin lessons, begins
to compose.
Charles Kettering develops
electric self-starter
for automobiles.
1911
Studies at Wilberforce University,
playing on weekends in
Dayton theaters.
James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man. U.S. National
Parks Service established.
1916
Enrolls as a music student at
Oberlin University where he has
his first exposure to
orchestral music.
Prohibition. Total eclipse data
verifies Einstein’s theory
of relativity.
“Black Sox” baseball scandal.
1919
Works in New York as an arranger
at W.C. Handy’s Pace and Handy
Music Company.
KDKA in Pittsburgh goes on the air
as first U.S. radio station.
1921
Ras Tafari becomes Haile Selassie,
Emperor of Ethiopia. Clyde
Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
1930
Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American)
premiered by Howard Hanson in
Rochester, NY.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is
the Night. Stalin begins purges in
Soviet Union.
1934
Moves to Los Angeles to pursue
twin careers in classical and
Hollywood composing.
World War II begins. Hemingway’s
For Whom the Bell Tolls. Reds beat
Tigers in the World Series.
1939
Wins a competition to compose
theme music for the 1939 New York
World’s Fair.
Plays oboe in and composes music
for Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along,
the first all-black Broadway show.
People’s Republic of China formed
under Mao Tse tung. NATO treaty
signed. Apartheid instituted in
South Africa.
1949
Martin Luther King Jr.’s
“I Have a Dream” speech.
1963
Performance of opera Highway 1,
U.S.A. in Miami.
Karol Wojtyla elected
Pope John Paul II.
1978
December 3, dies in Los Angeles
of heart failure.
Still’s opera Troubled Island, with
libretto by Langston Hughes, is the
first opera by an African-American
to be performed by
New York City Opera.