# Classical Composers Who did Versions of Negro Spirituals



## regenmusic

Listening to Michael Tippets 
TIPPETT Five Negro Spirituals (1939-41)





Anyone know any others?


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## elgar's ghost

Gershwin in _Porgy & Bess_, presumably?


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## QuietGuy

Would you count Copland's Old American Songs Sets I and II?


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## elgar's ghost

^
^ 

Don't know about actual spirituals - early minstrel* songs, maybe?

(* eggshell-treading time - I haven't a clue if there is a more PC way of describing them)


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## Balthazar

Frederic Rzewski's _North American Ballads_ is a set of four solo piano pieces based on traditional songs. The third, "_Down by the Riverside,_" was originally a spiritual -- I don't know about the others. Here it is played by Paul Jacobs:






About the _Ballads_, AllMusic writes:

_This four-movement set makes virtuoso display pieces from protest songs, mostly from the labor movement. The songs are presented in complex polyphonic textures, often with clashing modern harmonies. The folk songs, in short, are not prettified, but possess a strength meant to suggest the power of union solidarity. The first movement, "Dreadful Memories, " comes from the 1931 Kentucky coal mine strikes, where it was sung by Aunt Molly Jackson. "Which Side are you on?" also comes from the same Kentucky tradition: It was sung by Mrs. Florence Reese in "Harlan County, U.S.A, " a filmed documentary of a later coal strike. "Down by the Riverside, " an old popular tune, has been used as a protest song with various new words in various different contexts; here Rzewski fits it out with some of the most amazing harmonies. Finally, in a compositional tour de force Rzewski concludes with "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues." This was inspired by the dramatic film "Norma Rae, " about union organizing in a Southern Cotton mill. It imitates the memorable sound effect used in the film to portray the remarkable din of the machinery in the mill, usually covering all but a few scraps of tune. _


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## Il_Penseroso

Frederick Delius loved spiritual songs. He had records by the old negro spiritual band The Fisk Jubilee Singers in his house (If I'm not mistaken). He lived for more than a whole year in Florida (to manage an orange garden as for business) and learned many things from the spiritual songs as well as the plantation songs which later became featured in his music such as the Florida Suite and Appalachia Variations.


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## Ukko

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot appears, transmogrified, in Dvorak's 9th


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## Genoveva

There are several American spirituals in Sir Michael Tippet's oratorio, 'A Child of Our Time'.


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## Nate Miller

This summer I performed a set of spirituals for tenor voice and guitar by William Grant Still. He is an American 20th composer, but he is often regarded as the Dean of African American composers. William Grant Still arranged these spirituals late in his career at the request of the Guggenheim Foundation

they are published as two sets and are not often performed. 

apparently I played a Pennsylvania premier of these works

the guitar part is transcribed from the piano, but it is has a heavy influence of Gospel piano style. We had lots of fun performing these. The best place to find them is on the website for William Grant Still's music.


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## Orfeo

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Negro Melodies (24 preludes for pianoforte).


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## Pat Fairlea

Don't forget Percy Grainger. Amongst other songs, his arrangements of Shallow Brown and of A Dollar and a Half are very fine.


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## Pugg

Nate Miller said:


> This summer I performed a set of spirituals for tenor voice and guitar by William Grant Still. He is an American 20th composer, but he is often regarded as the Dean of African American composers. William Grant Still arranged these spirituals late in his career at the request of the Guggenheim Foundation
> 
> they are published as two sets and are not often performed.
> 
> apparently I played a Pennsylvania premier of these works
> 
> the guitar part is transcribed from the piano, but it is has a heavy influence of Gospel piano style. We had lots of fun performing these. The best place to find them is on the website for William Grant Still's music.


Thanks for sharing this info.


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## clavichorder

-sorry, account was hacked.


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## Sina

Bernd Alois Zimmermann's concerto for trumpet & chamber orchestra "Nobody knows the trouble I see" (1954)
_"Bernd Alois Zimmermann named his Concerto for trumpet and orchestra after the well-known spiritual 'Nobody knows'. The work is a statement against racial hatred and discrimination, but from a purely musical aspect also incredibly stirring with its combination of different musical styles. For example the frequently quoted spiritual melody serves as a pentatonic cantus firmus in a chorale prelude, and the orchestra is augmented by a jazz formation with percussion, guitar, piano and Hammond organ. The twelve-tone concerto is loosened up with the interjected off-beats, swing elements and jazzy solo interludes to create one of the most rewarding unions between jazz and classical music."_
http://www.warnerclassics.com/shop/3251677,5099967859023/alison-balsom-seraph

And some of Leonardo Balada's works including:
Symphony No. 5 "American" (2003) in 3 movements. _"This symphony evolves from a dramatic-abstract first movement to a meditative Negro-spiritual inspired second and concludes with an uplifting square-dance."_
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.557749
Cello Concerto No. 2 "New Orleans" (2001). _"Virtuoso concerto in two movements, the first a meditative "Negro spiritual", the second brilliant and jazzy, all in a contemporary language."_
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.557049
Ebony Fantasies, for chorus & orchestra (2003) _"Although the cantata Ebony Fantasies is freely taken from four negro spirituals, it is not a simple exercise of harmonizing popular melodies but an original, creative composition with its own striking individuality."_
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.557343


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