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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.