Sunday Serendipity

What I love about doing these Sunday posts are the new discoveries I make for my own education. I had never heard of William Grant Still but when I listened to todays selection I heard bit and pieces of Gershwin and Copeland. I had to look up the dates on this symphony and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess to see which came first. This piece did by 4 years so Gershwin obviously had this piece playing in the back of his mind as he composed.

Enjoy, Jack

From Wiki

Often referred to as “the Dean” of African-American composers, Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera. Still is known most for his first symphony, the “Afro-American”, which was until the 1950s the most widely performed symphony composed by an American.
Born in Mississippi, he grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and was a student of George Whitefield Chadwick and later Edgard Varèse.
Of note, Still was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony (his 1st Symphony) performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television.
Due to his close association and collaboration with prominent Afro-American literary and cultural figures such as Alain Locke and Langston Hughes, William Grant Still is considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance movement.

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23 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. jack, thanks for introducing us to maestro Still.  here’s a collaboration of note also from wiki:

    Troubled Island is an American opera in three acts composed by William Grant Still, with a libretto begun by poet Langston Hughes and completed by Verna Arvey. She married the composer following their collaboration.

    Set in Haiti in 1791, Troubled Island portrays Jean Jacques Dessalines (1758–1806) and the corruption of his leadership in the Haitian revolution. He declared himself as emperor of an independent Haiti but was assassinated by opponents. The opera premiered at the New York City Opera on March 31, 1949, notably making it the first grand opera composed by an African American to be produced by a major company.

    […]
    The premiere performance was greeted with 22 curtain calls. Critical reaction to the work ranged from mixed-to-negative. Time Magazine said, “Composer Still’s music, sometimes lusciously scored, sometimes naively melodic, often had more prettiness than power. In all, Troubled Island had more of the souffle of operetta than the soup bone of opera.” John Briggs of the New York Post opined, “one was never sure one was hearing a first-rate performance of an inferior work or a second-rate performance of a good one,” while Miles Kastendieck, writing for both the New York Journal-American and the Christian Science Monitor, said of Still’s music: “the result is a mixture of styles signifying talent and a feel for opera but achieving little more than a suggestion of it.”
    Years later, Judith Still, the daughter of Still and Arvey, said that the New York critics intentionally panned Troubled Island due to racism. “Howard Taubmann (a critic and friend of Still) came to my father and said ‘Billy, because I’m your friend I think that I should tell you this – the critics have had a meeting to decide what to do about your opera. They think the colored boy has gone far enough and they have voted to pan your opera.’ And that was it. In those days, critics had that kind of influence.”
    Following its premiere, New York City Opera staged two additional presentations, on April 1 and May 1 of 1949. To date, New York City Opera has never revived the work in full; however, a 60th-anniversary concert production of excerpts was presented by the company in March 2009 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The opera has not been seen widely outside these two productions until October 19, 2013 when the South Shore Opera Company of Chicago presented the opera in full with a black cast, black chorus and black conductor. The opera was held at the Paul Robeson Theatre of the South Shore Cultural Center

  2. bet the bedbugs was the real reason

    NYTimes:

    WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Saturday that he would no longer hold next year’s Group of 7 meeting at his luxury golf club near Miami, a swift reversal after two days of intense criticism over awarding his family company a major diplomatic event.
    “I thought I was doing something very good for our country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 leaders,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, before again promoting the resort’s amenities. “But, as usual, the hostile media & Democrat partners went CRAZY!”
    Mr. Trump added: “Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020.”

    [continues]

  4. Jack

    Thank you for this one.  I vaguely remembered Still from when I researching early African American composers for an article on Langston Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance, Porgy & Bess, a TV show special from the 60s and the song Smile.  It was nice to have a refresher course in those beautiful sounds.

     

  7. Today we are seeing another attack on the drought that is on the D.C. region, Maryland, Virginia and D.C., along with Delaware.  A bit of Tropical Storm Nestor is going through and it brings water.  Quite late for the farmers, but refreshing for all. 
     
    Someone, to be fired shortly, got to SFB about how stupid it is to bring the G7 to his failed resort and convinced him to not do it.  I suspect that the low intelligence narcissist is feeling failure, once again.  That stench of being a laughing stock is sinking in and mixing in the horse apple pudding that is his brain.  But this time there is no daddy to save him. 

  8. Good Hokey western movie,  Kirk Douglas‘ first western, Virginia Mayo, Walter Brennan. 1951
    ”Along the Great Divide”

  9. Pat
    responding to your question from the last thread. Just listening to music and sharing. Saturday night music is always different from Sunday morning music. After all if you had a good Saturday night you don’t want to irritate the Sunday morning hangover.
    Jack

  11. The Don and Mick Show   — kind of stupid but that’s even above their paygrade

  12. Criticisms of contemporary American media almost invariably imply that the average American voter is too stupid to vote.

    Profit-driven media isn’t going to improve  while the average American continues to be dumbed-down.

    Hey, new emojis on the iphone! 

  13. Never once have i blamed the media or any such group of entities for our current political hell.
    Those whom i blame:
     
    -My dumb vicious neighbors

    -some of my terribly-undereducated family-members

    -vicious born-again Christians and Evangelicals

    -hyperbolic, unforgiving liberals

    -a few trolls and skunks, here. 

    -Mr. Crawford, but he’s expressed contrition so i forgive him (not that i have that authority)

    …and on.  Basically, i blame you.

  15. Oh, and women that don’t support other women, or worse- attack them.  You ladies could rule the world if you’d support each other.  It would probably be a better world, too.
    Oh, well.  

  16. Bink

    Do you remember the media onslaught that happened when Madeleine Albright quoted herself in support of Hillary with “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women”.  It was a joke that got a laugh from the group around her, but the media coverage made it look as if she recommending bumping off all the other candidates.

    That list of stupidity you created doesn’t get any better or brighter if the media that surrounds them doesn’t provide accurate coverage.  Are they too stupid to vote?  No.  Are they often made more ignorant and incapable of an informed vote?  Yes.

     

     

  17. dog, via telepathy: “i want to go outside”

    human: opens door

    dog, via telepathy: “No, i want to go outside WITH YOU”

    lazy human: closes door

  18. yeah, i “hear you”, Jamie, media just give people what they want, so if you click on Kim Kardashian’s butt, you get more articles on Kim Kardashian’s butt.  If NYT runs an HRC-email article that gets a lot if clicks, they post another one.  
     
    When people demand better through their actual choices, rather than expressed preferences, they’ll get better.  Let neither of us hold our breath.
     
    That said, Trump’s criminal reign has inspired a lot of well-written, revealing journalism- so much that i have a hard time keeping up- one just has to dig for it, and no, none of it will work its way down to Average Joe and Jane.

    ok, enough outta me.  

  19. Bink – probably tomorrow I will show you exactly that communication in a video on YouTube Channel Buena Ventura Life.  Nasty windy and wet and Gale has to go to shore.  So human does what is necessary. 

  20. Well, this is a needed improvement.  Dallas county voters can vote at any polling place.  
    No more hunting for a new location or trying to get home to vote in your precinct.
    Once, I had to go to three places to vote.  They moved the original polling place.  There was a sign in the door to go elsewhere.   Then, they had two ballots; a separate polling place for the other part of the ballot. 
     

  22. Wow, i can sure kill a thread.

    Here’s a new one that could have been released 40 years ago, has a Carly Simon with an indie-twist vibe.

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