Publisher: WGSM. Over his career, Still wrote over 150 compositions, including operas, ballets, symphonies, chamber works, choral pieces, and solo vocal works. William Grant Still was the first African-American to rise to prominence as a composer of classical concert music. Duke Ellington , a renowned jazz artist, began to reflect the "New Negro" in his music, particularly in the jazz suite Black, Brown, and Beige . The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is funded by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. Close to graduation, Still dropped out of Wilberforce to pursue a career as a musician but later studied music … Mr. Still’s Romance for E-flat alto saxophone and piano (commissioned by Sigurd Rascher in 1954) was the last of only four original works that he composed for solo instrument and piano. This opening theme expands into the first of two main themes of the movement, and it returns various times throughout the first, second, and third movements. Phantom Chapel; Fairy Knoll; Appears On. William Grant Still Bells, pieces (2) for piano . He wrote jazz arrangements for Artie Shaw, Paul Whiteman and W.C. Dark HorsemenII. Read Full Biography. Price: $10.60 This amazing piece by Wynton Marsalis was co-commissioned and premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic, ... William Grant Still also grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and also had a strong friendship with Langston Hughes. William Grant Still, the most prominent African-American art music composer of the time, was greatly influenced by the concept of the "New Negro," a theme frequently evident in his concert works. He once wrote that melodies can appear “suddenly, for no apparent reason” while a composer contemplates nature, or even life itself. I Chicago Sinfonietta; Paul Freeman, Conductor Symphony No. Still titled this movement ‘Longing’ in his notebook. William Grant Still, (born May 11, 1895, Woodville, Mississippi, U.S.—died December 3, 1978, Los Angeles, California), American composer and conductor and the first African American to conduct a professional symphony orchestra in the United States. The left video is actually a selection of an aria from Still’s second opera Bayou Legend to give a sense of his operatic style. Listen to Animato by William Grant Still. He continued his music education at Oberlin University. Year Title / Performer Label / Catalog # AllMusic Rating; 1993 William Grant Still Jr. (May 11, 1895 – December 3, 1978) was an American composer of nearly 200 works, including five symphonies, four ballets, eight operas, over thirty choral works, plus art songs, chamber music and works for solo instruments. Still was in attendance.” From the unpublished letters of William Grant Still to Theodore Simmons (Public Domain) —– Grief by LeRoy V. Brant. Composed in 1930, William Grant Still’s Symphony No. Share on facebook; twitter; tumblr; Parts/Movements. of Symphony No.1), Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, for flute & piano, Song of a City (also know as Rising Tide; Victory Tide), for chorus & orchestra, Songs of Separation, song cycle for voice & piano, Symphony No. 1, nicknamed the “Afro- American Symphony,” represented in the composer’s words “the Negro of days not far removed from the Civil War.” Still weaves musical ideas from jazz, spirituals, and This Recordings and repeat productions of Troubled Island are rare, but the opera is significant both for Still and historically for several reasons. Instrumentation: 1-0-1-0; 0-2(cornets)-1-0; drums, cymbs., trian., block., pno., str.. 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