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.
@@fgb3126 A lot of people don't want to face the truth, but American history tells the story. William Grant Still was a Black man. And the United States, from its founding, has been a white nationalist country. There is prejudice and discrimination, and a certain segment of the American people believe that Black composers get undue attention because of their race. I had to read through a whole thread of such comments in a classical music group regarding Florence Price, about how "mediocre" she was, and that she was being noticed "only because of her race and gender." Price, like Still, was certainly no modernist pathfinder, but she wrote beautiful, well-orchestrated symphonies that made use of African-American folk materials. She is certainly deserving of the current attention she is getting, as is Still.
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.
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!
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.
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.
I heard this on the radio today.... It's one of the best pieces of orchestral music I've had the pleasure to listen too. I can't wait to get home from work, throw this one with some decent headphones and enjoy the ride. I'll have to check out some more of his work.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Listening to the beginning is as if I'm listening to something Gershwin might have written if he had been an 'actual' composer. Of course Gershwin was a composer, but I think you know what I mean.
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.
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!
@@fgb3126 A lot of people don't want to face the truth, but American history tells the story. William Grant Still was a Black man. And the United States, from its founding, has been a white nationalist country. There is prejudice and discrimination, and a certain segment of the American people believe that Black composers get undue attention because of their race. I had to read through a whole thread of such comments in a classical music group regarding Florence Price, about how "mediocre" she was, and that she was being noticed "only because of her race and gender." Price, like Still, was certainly no modernist pathfinder, but she wrote beautiful, well-orchestrated symphonies that made use of African-American folk materials. She is certainly deserving of the current attention she is getting, as is Still.
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.
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 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! ☺️
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.
His music is truly beautiful.
The melodies wow.
I heard this on the radio today....
It's one of the best pieces of orchestral music I've had the pleasure to listen too. I can't wait to get home from work, throw this one with some decent headphones and enjoy the ride. I'll have to check out some more of his work.
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.
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.
A powerful work that deserved and still deserves so much more recognition that it has received!!!
I really like the music… how could I have missed this all the time I spend being on Internet.
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.
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.
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.
Warm and melodic with contemporary overtones. Beautiful music beautifully performed. This performance does justice to a unique voice.
This is a fantastic recording! Thank you for sharing the beautiful genius of WG Still.
masterpiece that makes us feel majestic, with a poetic and folk song part
TY for posting. I didn't know now much music he wrote.
The buildup at 15:24 and payoff at 15:33 is phenomenal.
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.
The last movement is truly memorable.
That last note gave me the chills
💫🙌🎶💫
This is sooooo lovely!
Kinda like old Disney movies. Simply beautifull.
epic piece
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.
breathtaking. unreal
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?
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
1:08
Listening to the beginning is as if I'm listening to something Gershwin might have written if he had been an 'actual' composer. Of course Gershwin was a composer, but I think you know what I mean.
Lovely piece here. Can you please remove the ads in this video? They really ruin the intent & flow of the song.
@@Highpowered-qs7cl My channel is not monetized and I have no control over these ads. TH-cam puts them and they pocket the money for themselves.
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.
Delish.
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....
I like the piece, but some of these quotes from Still are regressive af
cheeks
Gracias