Symphony No.2 in G minor "Song of a New Race" - William Grant Still
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
- Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi.
I - Slowly - Faster - Slower - Tempo I: 0:00
II - Slowly, with deep expression - Much faster - Slower - Tempo I - (attacca): 9:56
III - Moderately fast: 18:18
IV - Moderately slow - Faster - Tempo I: 22:01
Still's Symphony No.2 was composed between 1936-7, being premiered on December 10 of 1937, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. As the first one, it was very well-received. Contemporary reviewers found it "of absorbing interest, unmistakably racial in thematic materials and rhythms, and triumphantly articulate in expressions of moods, ranging from the exuberance of jazz to brooding wistfulness."
At the beginning of the 20th decade, the black cultural movement known as "Harlem Renaissance" had been born, right when Still came to New York. Its objective was show that the black race had a rich culture, which would soon prove to the United States and the entire world. Still was an active member of this movement, influencing him in his music throughout his life. In 1924, he began to work on a trilogy of works that describe the Afro-American reality: The symphonic poem "Africa" represents its roots, the Afro-American Symphony the life of blacks in America, and Symphony No.2 "Song of a New Race" the vision of an integrated society.
The first movement is structured in a modified sonata form. It begins with a slow introduction with chiming celesta over string and winds, presenting a pastoral pentatonic melody, leading seamlessly to the main allegro. A blues main theme is presented, derived from the opening material. It is briefly developed before a more lyrical second theme is presented, full of a noble spirit. The development is more dynamic and energetic, culminating in a strong climax. An inverted recapitulation, with the second theme before the main one. A powerful and assertive coda ends the movement.
The second movement is written in ternary form. It opens with a sweet and peaceful main theme, which grows until reaching a short-lived climax. The violin takes it in a glowing solo, before the orchestra continues unfolding this material in a deeply expressive and romantic manner. The middle section begins as a rhythmic and decided second theme appears, rising in a climax that directly lead us to the recapitulation of the main theme. After a peaceful passage, a dynamic transition leads us directly to the next part.
The third movement is a short scherzo in monothematic form. It begins with a graceful main theme in a cakewalk rhythm, presented by oboe and then passed on strings. The music here is infused with the influence of American ragtime as well. The material is then developed in the form of symphonic jazz. Energetic figurations week the momentum and take the music forward. A bright coda ends the movement with vivaciousness.
The fourth movement is very freely written, not following standard structures. It opens with a sudden outburst, followed by the exposition of a main theme derived from the first movement blues one. As it is developed in the form of fluid, continuous variations, it becomes more classical, perhaps to indicate the possible integration of black music in the patrimony of the white race. The music becomes more rhythmic and lively, leading to a solemn recapitulation of the westernized blues theme. A powerful and majestic coda ends the whole work.
Picture: “The 99 Series/Part Three" (2014) by the Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh.
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Sources: bit.ly/3k0ha3H and bit.ly/3XvfyfW
To check the score: bit.ly/3xvbMbX - เพลง
![🔴 [TRỰC TIẾP] Tứ Xuyên (Trung Quốc) VS U20 Thái Lan | Cúp VTV9 - Bình Điền 2024 | JET STUDIO](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bguJ41PcW0c/mqdefault.jpg)
W.G. Still will never find the credit he deserves . He was an American genius. What more can we say.
Never? why?
@Lunar Orbit The fact alone we have recordings of these pieces and faithful uploaders is wonderful!
There should absolutely be no reason why William Grant Still’s music is not standard repertoire among American orchestras. His music evokes American attitudes, scenery, and culture like no other.
Just try, for your own enjoyment, road-tripping through the Midwest, or alternatively viewing a few of Grant Wood’s paintings, with Still’s music playing in the background and watch as the scenery springs forth with renewed life.
I really feel this. Still's music often evokes the ideals of the American landscape to me. Not just the skyscraper canyons of our cities, but the open spaces, humble towns, sweeping fields and farmlands, etc. It's really beautiful.
Dr. Still is a very underappreciated and remarkable American composer. All of his compositions have a warm, tender, graceful, melodic quality that is very appealing. He uses folk, African-American spirituals, blues, and jazz elements and motifs and brings them to fruition in a very integrated and novel manner. His musical style is unique to Still alone. He has quickly become a favorite classical composer of mine. This year the Chicago Symphony will be performing "In Memorian," a piece Still composed to honor the African-Americans who served in the Civil War. A great piece- elegant, tender, melodic, placid, memorable.
It astounds me that Copland is regarded to a higher caliber than Still. The fourth movement of his first symphony is stunning. His orchestration of strings is so rich, but light? So good. And when he uses winds for atmosphere *chefs kiss*
There a so many underappreciated composers whose music I have discovered by good people osting on youtube and it is more than about time for their music is heard in live concerts.
Everything Still wrote just FEELS American. More so than even Bernstein or Gershwin, who were themselves heavy influences on American sound.
Yes, so true. Still is distinctly American. As you point out, perhaps even more so than other better known composers.
He seems like such a colossus of music to me. Everything I have heard by Still is so lovely.
It doesn't get more American than this. Its serious but fun at the same time. For Me , this is my favorite of Still 5 Symphonies. Then #3. He deserves concert time and air time. Orchestration is spot on for this.
Within 2 minutes of listening (or less) I was astounded at the rich quality of orchestration not to mention the melodic beauty.
Yeees! I was just saying that. The Heavens open their windows to hear it.
Listening to this I get the sense of W.G. Still's immense facility with music...as if it were in his very bones. Like those people who can just tell story after story and keep you interested, and afterwards you kind of marvel at what you've just heard.
So beautiful and verdent and green and yet... seems to hold some sad memories of the past. Anyone else get this?
I have never head American music that sounds like this. The first movement almost seems like modern romantic, but it's different. I really like Still now.
The reason that he isnt more well known is likely because he is black. It's an old story! A beautiful piece which I just discovered this morning! I sat in the car and listened to the entire work! A new composer for me!
Thank you for being realistic ..
I have been appreciating classical music for 30 years now, and I didn't even know William Grant Still until 2015. I have had the same thought - His being black probably has much to do with why he isn't more well known.
I also recently heard this music for the first time.
a local radio station has been playing American composers , in celebration of the 4th of July.
I'd like to see Billy Holiday, John Coltrane , and still ...fill those empty granite pedestals where statues recently stood ....and don't forget teddy muthafukin pendergrass
As much as I don't want to think about all the ideology, it undoubtedly is a huge factor. Probably our greatest American composer (Ellington) is black but in a different genre. If you do simple searches of black classical composers there is an incredible world of original and refreshing music. It's said that the way to find it is using those search parameters, but using them will yield an almost unlimited amount of fantastic music that you likely have never heard before. I wish there was a way to get it more recognition. This piece is lovely and unusual.
Black musicians are very popular. Why would you assume he's not as popular because he's black?
I really like the music… how could I have missed this all the time I spend being on Internet.
I will be playing the 3rd flute/piccolo part in march of 2020.
Maybe the last live music many of us heard since the pandemic. Hope the gig was a blast! ☺️
A powerful work that deserved and still deserves so much more recognition that it has received!!!
Breathtaking!
I’m so excited about the upcoming Noseda-NSO performance at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on May 19 and 20. Will be there.
His music is truly beautiful.
The melodies wow.
I haven't listened to Still in over ten years but this is gorgeous. It opens right up with colors and light and ideas and . . . everything. Just lovely.
masterpiece that makes us feel majestic, with a poetic and folk song part
A remarkable symphony, esp. the last movement, which is outstanding. Like others, I cannot understand why he isn't better known.
Daphene, i am a 68 year old white person. Still's music reflects America. The man a a lot of heat . Like Duke Ellington in his later years. I discovered him in my 30's.
My google messed up my 3rd sentence.
Not sure exactly, but I want Stil, Price, Dawson, and many others to be the standard for many orchestras.
I agree, fabulous. It is not better known because of the simple fact that keeping a piece of music in the classical cannon requires a lot of effort and continuous performance and archival work. That just hasn't been done to as great an extent to even the most skillful and successful of black and women composers, to everyone's loss.
Canceled by white supremacy, of course.
This is lovely music, a rich composition I came across while recently reading about the late creative progressive music professor, composer, pianist & educator Dr. Michael J. Shott with whom I had the great fortune of taking a 20th Century Techniques class at N.A.U. in Flagstaff in the 1980's. My gratitude to Dr. Shott is not adequately put into words. Words are limited, and thankfully, music expresses more than words can. This music is exquisite, expansively progressive, reaching far beyond what I imagine were influences of the mainstream establishment strictures that existed when Still wrote it. Dr. Michael Shott as a human being was "top shelf". I'm not surprised that his spirit lives on, still leading me today, to discover outstanding compositions such as this.
This is a very fine well worded tribute. I'm happy for you and your appreciation of your great teacher. I'm sure your human qualities have been enhanced by this person and that you're making a greater difference in others as a result.
The buildup at 15:24 and payoff at 15:33 is phenomenal.
The last movement is truly memorable.
Kinda like old Disney movies. Simply beautifull.
“
Often referred to as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers," Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera.[5][6] He is known primarily for his first symphony, Afro-American Symphony (1930),[7] which was, until 1950, the most widely performed symphony composed by an American.[citation needed] Still was able to become a leading figure in the field of American classical music as the first African-American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, have an opera performed by a major opera company, and have an opera performed on national television.[8] Still and Arvey's papers are currently held by the University of Arkansas.[5]
Life
Edit
William Grant Still Jr. was born on May 11, 1895, in Woodville, Mississippi.[1]: 15 He was the son of two teachers, Carrie Lena (née Fambro) Shepperson (1872-1927)[9][10] and William Grant Still Sr.[1]: 5 (1871-1895). His father was a partner in a grocery store and performed as a local bandleader.[1]: 5 William Grant Still Sr. died when his infant son was three months old.[1]: 5
Still's mother moved with him to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she taught high school English.[1]: 6 She met and in 1904[9] married Charles B. Shepperson, who nurtured his stepson William's musical interests by taking him to operettas and buying Red Seal recordings of classical music, which the boy greatly enjoyed.[1]: 6 The two attended a number of performances by musicians on tour.[citation needed][11] His maternal grandmother Anne Fambro[9] sang African-American spirituals to him.[12]: 6, 12
William Grant Still Residence at 1262 South Victoria Avenue, Los Angeles, in 2012
Still started violin lessons in Little Rock at the age of 15. He taught himself to play the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, double bass, cello and viola, and showed a great interest in music.[13] At 16 years old, he graduated as class valedictorian from M. W. Gibbs High School in Little Rock in 1911.[12]: 3 “
Thank you.
@@Dylonely42 you’re welcome
This is a fantastic recording! Thank you for sharing the beautiful genius of WG Still.
Warm and melodic with contemporary overtones. Beautiful music beautifully performed. This performance does justice to a unique voice.
“Still arranged music for films such as Pennies from Heaven, starring Bing Crosby and Madge Evans, and Lost Horizon, starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt and Sam Jaffe,[9] the latter of which, he arranged the music of Dimitri Tiomkin. Still was also hired to arrange music for the 1943 film Stormy Weather, but left because "Twentieth-Century Fox 'degraded colored people.'"[9]
With 1939 World's Fair in New York City, Still composed Song of a City for the exhibit "Democracity,"[23] which played continuously during the fair's run. [23] Despite writing music for the fair, he was unable attend the fair without police protection except on "Negro Day" .[24]
In 1949, his opera Troubled Island about Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti, was performed by the New York City Opera a decade after its original composition.[9] It was the first opera by an American to be performed by the company[25] and the first by an African American to be performed by a major company.[6] Still was, however, upset by the negative reviews it received.[9] Still was also the first African American to conduct a major orchestra in the Deep South, doing so in1955 where he conducted the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra .[6] Still's works were performed internationally by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Orchestra.[citation needed]
Three years after his death, A Bayou Legend became the first opera by an African-American composer to be performed on national television.[26]”
“Career
Edit
William Grant Still
In 1916, Still worked in Memphis for W.C. Handy's band.[9] He then joined the United States Navy to serve in World War I in 1918, and eventually moved to Harlem after the war, where he continued to work for Handy.[9] During this time, Still was involved with many cultural figures of the Harlem Renaissance including the likes of Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Arna Bontemps, and Countee Cullen.[5]
He recorded with Fletcher Henderson's Dance Orchestra in 1921,[16]: 85 and later played in the pit orchestra for Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's musical, Shuffle Along[1]: 4 and another pit with Sophie Tucker, Artie Shaw, and Paul Whiteman.[17] Under Henderson, he joined Henry Pace's Pace Phonograph Company, known as Black Swan Records.[18] Later in the 1920s, Still served as the arranger of "Yamekraw," a "Negro Rhapsody," composed by the Harlem stride pianist James P. Johnson.[19]
In the 1930s, Still worked as an arranger of popular music, composing works for popular NBC Radio broadcasts like Willard Robison's Deep River Hour and Paul Whiteman's Old Gold Show.[17]
Still's first major orchestral composition, Symphony No. 1 "Afro-American", was performed in 1931 by the Rochester Philharmonic, conducted by Howard Hanson.[9] It was the first time the complete score of a work by an African American was performed by a major orchestra.[9] By the end of World War II, the piece had been performed in orchestras located in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, and London.[9] During this time, the symphony was arguably the most popular of any composed by an American so far.[20] As a result of a close professional relationship with Hanson; many of Still's compositions were performed for the first time in Rochester.[9]
In 1934, Still moved to Los Angeles after receiving his first Guggenheim Fellowship,[21] allowing him to start work on the first of his nine operas, Blue Steel.[22] Two years later, Still conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, the first African American to conduct a major American orchestra in a performance of his own works.[6][17]”
“William Grant Still Jr. (May 11, 1895- December 3, 1978) was an American composer of nearly two hundred works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, over thirty choral works, art songs, chamber music, and solo works. Born in Mississippi and growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas,[1] Still attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music[2][3] as a student of George Whitefield Chadwick and then Edgard Varèse.[4] Because of his close association and collaboration with prominent African-American literary and cultural figures, Still is considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grant_Still
TY for posting. I didn't know now much music he wrote.
That last note gave me the chills
💫🙌🎶💫
What a moving piece, heard on radio for first time today really excited to learn more about him.
15:33 beautiful release of harmonic tension, which only lasts briefly before at 15:47 the piece is again catapulted into harmonic tension and a feeling of uncertain ground..."wuthering heights" so to speak. For that brief ~15 second period, it oddly makes me think of the golden age of Hollywood stardom.
I'm not sure why this piece, and so many other works by WGS, aren't a standard part of most American symphonies' repertoire.
In my opinion, it is due to the attack of the serialist school and the most "avant-garde" composers of the time, which with their influence, dismissed the music composed before the second wold war
Maybe, but their music hasn't really taken hold in concert halls. Certainly no U.S. orchestra artistic administrator is thinking to him/herself: "Can't play William Grant Still; Milton Babbit wouldn't have approved." By this point it's just orchestras playing what people know, rather than what they will like.
@@markovelikonja5399 An orchestra can introduce music that is not new and still not well known. I remember hearing a symphony that Brahms wrote and being surprised as it was the liveliest music of the night. Surprising since it was by the guy who wrote the most famous lullaby.
@@CharlotteFairchild What symphony of Brahms is not well known?
@@CharlotteFairchild What symphony of Brahms is not well known?
epic piece
This is sooooo lovely!
breathtaking. unreal
Gracias
Still 's Second Symphony combines a long late 19th century Romantic line, prefigures an uplifting Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical song with Negro )in its day) spirituals int an enticing listenable sound unique to his composing, It is a very hopeful piece written in the depths of the Depression accompanied by terrifying racial hatred. Jerome Sadow
9:56
He certainly was as talented as many of the white American composers at that time but we were, and still are, a racist country struggling to remove the stain of slavery that poisoned our history for four hundred years.
1:08
Delish.
Clearly by the title , Still was a Race Man .
This is for my music teacher lol so
hey what instruments are in this
A full orchestra as follows: 3 flutes (3rd doubling the piccolo)-2-EH-4-2; 4-3-3-1; timpani, percussion, celesta, harp and strings.
Eautyful simph.great melodic fell a goog way to wake up
Ahead of his time.
More interwar global moral optimism about to be blown out of the water....
cheeks
I like the piece, but some of these quotes from Still are regressive af
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grant_Still