With this weekend being the last in February, I thought that today I would highlight the impact of African Americans in Music.
What makes "American" Music uniquely American is directly related to the culture and experiences of African Americans. The musical styles imported when they were stolen from their homelands changed through the ardors of slavery and became the foundations for new styles and sounds never before heard.
We first profile Harry Burleigh (1866-1949). Born in Erie, he was able to obtain a scholarship to the National Conservatory if Music in New York through the mother of American composer Edward MacDowell. While at the Conservatory, he played bass in the orchestra, and did odd jobs on the campus to make a little extra money. Here is his arrangement of Elysium:
Burleigh's singing of the old spirituals while working caught the ear of Dvorak, who invited Burleigh to sing for him. Dvorak copied many of these songs, and incorporated the style into his New World Symphony. Burleigh went on to become a great arranger of the old spirituals into a more "classical music" style, keeping them alive.
Next to be featured is William Dawson (1886-1990). As a composer, Dawson began at a young age, and it was early on in his compositional career that his Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano was performed by the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra. Besides chamber music, he is also known for his contributions to both orchestral and choral literature. His best known works are arrangements and variations on spirituals; his Negro Folk Symphony of 1934 garnered a great deal of attention at its world premiere, under the direction of Leopold Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
He was also one of the great educators of the twentieth century. His teaching career began in the Kansas City public school system, which was later followed by a tenure with the Tuskegee Institute from 1931–1956. During this period, it was he who appointed a large number of faculty members that later became well known for their work in the field. Additionally, Dawson also developed the Tuskegee Institute Choir into an internationally renowned ensemble; they were invited to sing at New York City's Radio City Music Hall in 1932 for a week of six daily performances. Here is my favorite Dawson arrangement of a spiritual. I love singing this one. If you listen, you can hear the wheels in wheels turning...
Every generation produces new arrangements of the old songs. This is important, not only because we hear fresh voices and ideas in their interpretations, but more importantly, they keep a vital and necessary part of our history as Americans alive. One of the finest modern Spritual arrangers was Moses Hogan (1957-2003). He passed all too early of a brain tumor, but his arrangements are sung by choirs of all ages and types. Here is one of the most exciting of his arrangements, sung by the Moses Hogan Singers.
In the field of classical music, there have been too few African American composers, or rather, their music is very rarely played. This, I believe, is slowly changing, but I pay tribute to two of the pioneers. William Grant Still (1895-1978) was a composer of "firsts". He was the first African-American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony of his own (his first symphony) performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television. He is often referred to as "the dean" of African-American composers. His most famous work is his Symphony No 1, the "Afro-American Symphony". Here is his Second Symphony, "Song of a New Race".
If being a Black man in the world of classical music is daunting, imagine what it was like for a Black woman. Florence Price (1888-1953) was the first internationally recognized African American female symphonic composer. After graduating from the New England Conservatory, she taught in Arkansas until 1927, where racial tensions, including lynchings, forced her to move to Chicago, where she blossomed as a symphonic composer. She won a Wanamaker Foundation award for her First Symphony. Her Symphony No. 3 was premiered by the WPA Symphony (socialist FDR New Deal program) of Detroit in 1934.
Of course, no retrospective on African American composers would be complete without talking about Jazz. The greatest of them all was Duke Ellington (1899-1974). Not only was he a serious jazz composer, pushing form and style to new vistas, but he was also a serious classical music somposer as well. Here is his suite "The River", premiered in 1971, originally to be scored with dance. Originally scored for his jazz orchestra, here we hear an orchestration by Ron Collier.
To close, it is worth noting that the jazz styles have been interpreted and transformed into today's music, thus solidifying the position of African American composers into the originators of Modern American Popular Music. Here are two versions of Duke's "Caravan". The first, by Duke's orchestra. Check out the valve trombone!:
Now check out how the surf group The Ventures do it. Pay attention to the drummer and the bassist: