Still: In Memoriam / Africa / Symphony No. 1, 'afro-american'

Description

William Grant Still (1895-1978)Symphony No. 1 'Afro-American' (1930)In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy (1943) Africa (1930)The life and career of the African-Americancomposer William Grant Still certainly qualifies as thequintessential American success story. Often referred toas the dean of African-American composers, Still wasborn in Woodville, Mississippi on 11th May, 1895, to afamily of Negro, Indian, Spanish, Irish and Scotch blood.Still's father, the town bandmaster, died when Williamwas three, precipitating a move to Little Rock, Arkansas,where Still's mother was a teacher. There Still had hisfirst musical experience, studying the violin. At hismother's urging he began medical studies but droppedout as music exerted a stronger pull. He initially workedas an arranger for several popular performers includingW.C. Handy, composer of the immortal St Louis Blues,and Artie Shaw, whose hit Frenesi he orchestrated.Music study at Oberlin was interrupted by naval servicein the First World War. After the war Still moved toNew York, working for Handy and playing the oboe inpit orchestras while he studied composition with theconservative George Chadwick and the ultra-modernistEdgar Var?¿se. Still arrived in New York at the perfect time,actively participating in the cultural awakening ofAfrican-Americans in the 1920s, a period known as theHarlem Renaissance. His attention turned to classicalcomposition for good in the late 1920s. A move to LosAngeles in 1930 to arrange for Paul Whiteman expandedhis horizons into film and radio while initiating hiscompositional maturity and most prolific period. Thatyear also saw the creation of his Symphony No. 1 'Afro-American' which has sustained his reputation andremains his most popular and frequently recorded work.Like many African-Americans of his generation,Still achieved many 'firsts': first African-American to havea symphony performed by a major symphony orchestra(1935, New York Philharmonic, Afro-American); first toconduct a major orchestra (1936, Los Angeles Philharmonic);first to conduct an orchestra in the Deep South (1955,New Orleans Philharmonic); first to have an opera producedby a major company (1949, Troubled Island, New YorkCity Opera) and first to have an opera broadcast ontelevision (posthumously in 1981, A Bayou Legend,PBS). Still received many honours including theGuggenheim fellowship, honorary doctorates fromOberlin among others and the key to his home state in1975. He died in Los Angeles on 3rd December, 1978.Still's most distinctive works are nationalistic, usingAfrican-American forms such as the blues, spirituals andjazz in addition to other ethnic American musics. After aflirtation with avant-garde techniques early in his career,Still returned to a neo-romantic idiom with lyricalmelody and traditional harmony. His work retains afreshness that has immediate appeal.Of his nearly 150 works in various media, it was the'Afro-American' Symphony that established Still'sreputati