Author: whskyjack

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.

Sunday Serendipity

A big change in the weather the last couple of days and this morning the frost was on the pumpkin. So fall is here.

I hope you enjoy the musical selection for today, Jack

L’autunno (Autumn). by Antonio Vivalde

From Le quattro stagioni ( The Four Seasons ) a group of four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives musical expression to a season of the year. They were written around 1716–1717

All 4 can be listened to here

More information from Wikipedia

Each concerti was accompanied with a sonnet that described the music. Here is the translation for Autumn.

Celebrates the peasant, with songs and dances,
The pleasure of a bountiful harvest.
And fired up by Bacchus’ liquor,
many end their revelry in sleep.

Adagio molto
Everyone is made to forget their cares and to sing and dance
By the air which is tempered with pleasure
And (by) the season that invites so many, many
Out of their sweetest slumber to fine enjoyment

Allegro
The hunters emerge at the new dawn,
And with horns and dogs and guns depart upon their hunting
The beast flees and they follow its trail;
Terrified and tired of the great noise
Of guns and dogs, the beast, wounded, threatens
Languidly to flee, but harried, dies.