William Grant Still

Author : Catherine Parsons Smith
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : African American composers
ISBN : 9780252033223

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William Grant Still by Catherine Parsons Smith Pdf

In this compact introduction to the life and work of eminent African American composer William Grant Still (1895-1978), Catherine Parsons Smith tracks the composer's interrelated careers in popular and concert music. Still merged both musical traditions in his work, studying composition with George W. Chadwick at the New England Conservatory, collaborating with Langston Hughes on "Troubled Island," and working as a commercial arranger and composer on Broadway and radio during the Harlem Renaissance. Still also played in the pit band for "Shuffle Along," served as recording director for the first black-owned record label, Black Swan, and arranged music for artists such as Sophie Tucker, Paul Whiteman, and Artie Shaw. Best known for his "Afro-American Symphony" and other works that drew heavily on black American musical heritage, Still struggled against financial hardship and declining attention to his work, which he attributed to political and racist conspiracies. This "dean of Afro-American composers" created his own, unique version of musical modernism, influencing commercial music, symphonic music, and opera in the process."

Author : Michael J. Dabrishus,Carolyn Quin,Judith A. Still
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 1996-08-20
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780313036446

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William Grant Still by Michael J. Dabrishus,Carolyn Quin,Judith A. Still Pdf

Presenting the life and professional career of The Dean of Afro-American Composers, this is the first comprehensive book on the writings by and about Still, the compositions with manuscript sources, the performances of Still's works, and the reviews of those performances. It includes a touching personal reminiscence by his daughter Judith Anne. The full resources of the extensive collection known as The William Grant Still and Verna Arvey Papers at the University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, give this book the distinction of being the first one about Still that utilizes diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and family papers to provide information on his works and performances. Still performed, composed, and arranged in the commercial music field before he began to write orchestral works and opera. He is called the Dean of Afro-American Composers because of his pioneering efforts on behalf of American music and his achievements as an African American. Still was the first African American to write a symphony that was performed by a major symphony orchestra in the United States, the first to conduct a major symphony orchestra, the first to conduct a major symphony in the Deep South, the first to direct a white radio orchestra, the first to have an opera produced by a major company, and the first to have an opera televised over a national network. His career tells an important story about the development of an American style of music.

Author : Catherine Reef
Publisher : Morgan Reynolds Publishing
Page : 122 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : STANFORD:36105114342103

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William Grant Still by Catherine Reef Pdf

Traces the life of the African American classical composer.

Author : Beverly Soll
Publisher : University of Arkansas Press
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2005-01-01
Category : Music
ISBN : 1557287899

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I Dream a World by Beverly Soll Pdf

William Grant Still (1895-1978) dreamed of a world in which his eight operas--for him the ultimate form of musical expression--would be heard in the major opera houses in the United States, devoting most of his career toward the pursuit of this goal. The first part of I Dream a World creates a context for Still's operas and explores commonalities among them, including structural elements and musical characteristics. The second part traces the research, composition, and perform-ances of the operas as a way of documenting the history of the composer and his contributions to American opera. Although I Dream a World is not intentionally biographical, it is very pers-onal. It is more than the story of William Grant Still's love of operatic music, of the libretti that reflect his own life and philosophy, and of the world he dreamed through his work. It opens a window on Still the man as well as on Still the composer that offers important insights into the social milieu of this pioneering figure.

Author : William Grant Still
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Composers
ISBN : STANFORD:36105028934730

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William Grant Still by William Grant Still Pdf

Author : William Grant Still
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : African Americans
ISBN : STANFORD:36105111075144

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The William Grant Still Reader by William Grant Still Pdf

Author : Judith Anne Still
Publisher : Master Player Library
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015063266467

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William Grant Still by Judith Anne Still Pdf

A series of published and unpublished essays about the 'Dean of Afro-American composers, ' his racial attitudes and his artistic, spiritual and cultural beliefs, written by the composer's daughter.

Author : Judith Anne Still
Publisher : Master Player Library
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Music
ISBN : 1877873012

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William Grant Still and the Fusion of Cultures in American Music by Judith Anne Still Pdf

Author : William Grant Still,Judith Anne Still
Publisher : The Master-Player Library
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : African American composers
ISBN : 1877873276

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My Life, My Words by William Grant Still,Judith Anne Still Pdf

The autobiography of American Master composer, William Grant Still (1895-1978), with additional material by Judith Anne Still (the composer's daughter).

Author : Joseph Horowitz
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2021-11-23
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780393881257

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Dvorak's Prophecy: And the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music by Joseph Horowitz Pdf

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 A provocative interpretation of why classical music in America "stayed white"—how it got to be that way and what can be done about it. In 1893 the composer Antonín Dvorák prophesied a “great and noble school” of American classical music based on the “negro melodies” he had excitedly discovered since arriving in the United States a year before. But while Black music would foster popular genres known the world over, it never gained a foothold in the concert hall. Black composers found few opportunities to have their works performed, and white composers mainly rejected Dvorák’s lead. Joseph Horowitz ranges throughout American cultural history, from Frederick Douglass and Huckleberry Finn to George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and the work of Ralph Ellison, searching for explanations. Challenging the standard narrative for American classical music fashioned by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, he looks back to literary figures—Emerson, Melville, and Twain—to ponder how American music can connect with a “usable past.” The result is a new paradigm that makes room for Black composers, including Harry Burleigh, Nathaniel Dett, William Levi Dawson, and Florence Price, while giving increased prominence to Charles Ives and George Gershwin. Dvorák’s Prophecy arrives in the midst of an important conversation about race in America—a conversation that is taking place in music schools and concert halls as well as capitols and boardrooms. As George Shirley writes in his foreword to the book, “We have been left unprepared for the current cultural moment. [Joseph Horowitz] explains how we got there [and] proposes a bigger world of American classical music than what we have known before. It is more diverse and more equitable. And it is more truthful.”

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 108 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 1986*
Category : African American musicians
ISBN : OCLC:19585785

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William Grant Still by Anonim Pdf

Author : Naomi Andre,Karen M. Bryan,Eric Saylor
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2012-03-01
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780252093890

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Blackness in Opera by Naomi Andre,Karen M. Bryan,Eric Saylor Pdf

Blackness in Opera critically examines the intersections of race and music in the multifaceted genre of opera. A diverse cross-section of scholars places well-known operas (Porgy and Bess, Aida, Treemonisha) alongside lesser-known works such as Frederick Delius's Koanga, William Grant Still's Blue Steel, and Clarence Cameron White's Ouanga! to reveal a new historical context for re-imagining race and blackness in opera. The volume brings a wide-ranging, theoretically informed, interdisciplinary approach to questions about how blackness has been represented in these operas, issues surrounding characterization of blacks, interpretation of racialized roles by blacks and whites, controversies over race in the theatre and the use of blackface, and extensions of blackness along the spectrum from grand opera to musical theatre and film. In addition to essays by scholars, the book also features reflections by renowned American tenor George Shirley. Contributors are Naomi André, Melinda Boyd, Gwynne Kuhner Brown, Karen M. Bryan, Melissa J. de Graaf, Christopher R. Gauthier, Jennifer McFarlane-Harris, Gayle Murchison, Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., Eric Saylor, Sarah Schmalenberger, Ann Sears, George Shirley, and Jonathan O. Wipplinger.

Author : Judith Anne Still,Daniel William Headlee
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2019-04
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1645705595

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The Big Finish by Judith Anne Still,Daniel William Headlee Pdf

This book is, hands down, the most uncharacteristic and often astounding autobiography ever presented to the public. Judith Anne Still brought the incredible works of her parents, William Grant Still and Verna Arvey to the public long after their works had been relegated to the intellectual cinder pit created by racism, professional jealousy and plagiarism. Once the Still/Arvey intellectual property was a part of history and widely-noticed, it would seem that the resurrection of the legacy had been a matter of course. Was it? Not on your life. All the resources of creation and the afterlife were brought to bear to send Judith Anne Still on a 40-year-journey to the "Big Finish". There is nothing that is traditional, earthly or mundane in this journey into the larger purposes of the here and the hereafter. No one will read this book without being deeply affected on many levels for a long time afterward. THE BIG FINISH changes morality into a cosmic question with challenging answers.

Author : Brendan Slocumb
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2022-02-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780593315439

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The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb Pdf

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! • Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise—undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music world—when a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather’s heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world. “I loved The Violin Conspiracy for exactly the same reasons I loved The Queen’s Gambit: a surprising, beautifully rendered underdog hero I cared about deeply and a fascinating, cutthroat world I knew nothing about—in this case, classical music.” —Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music. When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he's lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.

Author : Robert Bartlett Haas
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 1972
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015007898391

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William Grant Still and the Fusion of Cultures in American Music by Robert Bartlett Haas Pdf