![]() It is to him also a land of fanciful and mysterious romance romance tinged with ineffable sorrow. He views it first as a land of peace peace that is partly pastoral in nature and partly spiritual. He beholds in his mind’s eye not the Africa of reality but an Africa mirrored in fancy, and radiantly ideal. “An American Negro has formed a concept of the land of his ancestors based largely on its folklore, and influenced by his contact with American civilization. “The Africa of my imagination” is Still’s succinct description of this work in a letter to its first conductor, George Barrère. No wonder he struggled long and hard-for more than a decade-over Africa, and no wonder the work exudes aesthetic integrity even though Still never traveled to that continent. In attempting to represent matters African-a compelling topic for artists in the 1920s-he now confronted the aesthetic gulf between the exploitative primitivism characteristic of the (white) modernists and the character with which he, as a man of the Harlem Renaissance, wanted to represent the ancestral and cultural African connections of Black Americans. His greater comfort with the expressive freedom gleaned from the modernists, now combined with more sophisticated formal and harmonic control, is evident. 1926-34, “Negroid.” In those years he shook off Varèse’s modernist influence in favor of invoking Black cultural traditions in more obvious ways than he had done previously. Still labeled the second of his periods, c. ![]() The melodic G minor triad outlined at the start recurs in the other works to be heard today the same symbolism assigned to it here might be inferred there. The tutti expression of triumph comes over the opening “American Negro” theme. Still’s program note reflects the seriousness of his purpose: “Darker America is representative of the American Negro, and suggests triumph over sorrows through fervent prayer.” He identifies an opening theme of “the American Negro” in the strings, a “sorrow theme” in the English horn, a theme of “hope” in the muted brass, a prayer “of numbed rather than anguished souls” in the oboe. Composed in 1924 and premiered at Aeolian Hall on November 22, 1926, Eugene Goossens conducting, it was Still’s first extended piece, and the first in which Still was seen as having largely escaped Varèse’s influence. Darker America, the third to be heard on an ICG program, was his first clear success as a composer of concert music. ![]() Two earlier, more “modernist” works ( From the Land of Dreams, February 1925, and Levee Land, January 1926,) left his audiences puzzled rather than pleased. An early period, relatively short-lived, reflected Varese’s influence most directly. This program includes three landmarks in Still’s composing career they represent aspects of the three style periods-variously shaped by his African American identity and his relationship with musical modernism-he later described. Although his connections with Hollywood were brief and occasionally controversial, Still remained in Los Angeles, eventually composing eight operas and a large quantity of orchestral and chamber music. For example: three major works were premiered between April 1930 and October 1931: Africa, the ballet Sahdji, and the now well-known Afro-American Symphony. Long after Still had distanced himself from Varèse’s ultramodernist aesthetic, he reaffirmed his appreciation for his mentor’s teaching and his friendship.īy the time he left New York in 1934 with a Guggenheim fellowship, Still was established as an arranger (on Broadway and in radio) and as a composer. Varèse encouraged his lyric gifts, introduced him to modernist scores, challenged him to experiment with form, programmed his music on International Composers Guild concerts, and saw that he met conductors who would become his champions. That was when he found his way to Edgar Varèse, with whom he studied for about two years while his commercial work continued to grow. Returning to New York, he succeeded Fletcher Henderson as recording director for the short-lived Black Swan label. When the show moved to Boston, Still sought out George Whitefield Chadwick for composition lessons. Handy two years later he became the oboist in the pit orchestra for Sissle and Blake’s groundbreaking Shuffle Along. He came to New York in 1919 to play and arrange for W.C. William Grant Still (1895-1978) grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas he attended Wilberforce College and, more briefly, Oberlin. , performed on Maat Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Written for the concert Revisiting William Grant Still 2īy Catherine Parsons Smith is the author of William Grant Still (Illinois, 2008) William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions (California, 2000) and Making Music in Los Angeles (California, 2007) William Grant Still, Darker America, Africa, Symphony No.
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