# William Grant Still



## Mirror Image

WILLIAM GRANT STILL
















"With humble thanks to God, the Source of Inspiration." Such is the inscription to be found on the scores of the works of William Grant Still, sometimes called "The Dean of African-American Composers" and one of America's most versatile musicians.

Still was but three months old when his father, the town bandmaster, died. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Little Rock, AK. Still has written movingly of the influence his mother and grandmother had in forming his character and instilling in him a love for the arts. In addition, his new stepfather was a big music fan, and encouraged his stepson's interest by taking him to operettas and buying him recordings. Still's education continued at Wilberforce University, which he entered at age sixteen, and at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied theory and composition. He also had studies with George W. Chadwick and Edgard Varèse, all the while supporting himself by playing in orchestras and bands.

After a stint in the U.S. Navy in 1918, Still did arrangements for W. C. Handy and Paul Whiteman, played oboe in the famous Noble Sissle-Eubie Blake revue Shuffle Along, and began a decades-long association with radio, arranging and producing programs for the Mutual and Columbia networks. His early compositions were fairly dissonant and complex (perhaps under Varèse's influence); he made a major breakthrough when he took Chadwick's advice and started incorporating elements of African American and popular musical styles into his works. His first big hit, and his best-known work to this day, is his first symphony, the "Afro-American," which was given its premiere in Rochester, NY, in 1931, and was soon performed all over the world.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1934, Still turned his attention to film, providing the scores for movies like Lost Horizon and the original Pennies from Heaven. Later he also scored a number of television shows, including Perry Mason and Gunsmoke. Guggenheim and Rosenwald Fellowships allowed him to produce large-scale works like the ballet Lenox Avenue (1937) and the operas Blue Steel (1935) and Troubled Island (1938). The last-named work -- with a libretto by Langston Hughes and based on the life of Dessalines, the first Emperor of Haiti and one of the major figures in Haiti's independence -- was premiered by the New York City Opera in 1949 and was very well received.

Still continued to write politically and racially conscious works throughout his life, such as the narrated work And They Lynched Him On A Tree (1940) and In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died For Democracy (1944). In the 1950s, he turned to writing children's works, such as The American Scene (1957), a set of five suites for young people based on geographic regions of the United States.

In 1981, Still's opera A Bayou Legend was the first by an African-American composer to be performed on national television. He was also the first African American to conduct a major U.S. orchestra (when he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a Hollywood Bowl concert of his own music), and the first African-American composer to have his works performed by major American orchestras and opera companies.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

A truly great composer that is very underrated. I find there is so much spirit and heart to his music and you can hear all kinds great music in his compositions from blues to jazz and back to classical. He took lessons from another great American composer George Chadwick, who was apart of a very important group of composers in New England.

Has anyone heard Still's music? Any fans out there?


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## starry

Why isn't just the name of a composer instead of 'American composer corner' with flags around it?


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## Mirror Image

starry said:


> Why isn't just the name of a composer instead of 'American composer corner' with flags around it?


Because it's apart of a series I'm doing on American composers. I'm American and it seems American composers get the shaft. Thanks.


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## Weston

I have bought a number of mp3's of individual pieces and they are fantastic! I really love this composer's work. I don't have any CD's, but of the pieces I have, I really like the Africa Suite for piano and the Prince and the Mermaid Suite for string quartet. I think it's cool to write for a string quartet without writing a quartet -- so to speak.


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## Mirror Image

Weston said:


> I have bought a number of mp3's of individual pieces and they are fantastic! I really love this composer's work. I don't have any CD's, but of the pieces I have, I really like the Africa Suite for piano and the Prince and the Mermaid Suite for string quartet. I think it's cool to write for a string quartet without writing a quartet -- so to speak.


Well he's really a great composer I think. I'm going to be digging more into his work as the days go by.


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## BuddhaBandit

Still's work is pure cheese! It takes the rich African American musical tradition and turns it into a medicine show. The energy and fervor of blues and gospel is lost when you add syrupy strings and full orchestra. Still is the music version of Hameau de la Reine.


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## Mirror Image

BuddhaBandit said:


> Still's work is pure cheese! It takes the rich African American musical tradition and turns it into a medicine show. The energy and fervor of blues and gospel is lost when you add syrupy strings and full orchestra. Still is the music version of Hameau de la Reine.


Nah....Still's a great composer. He did something different with music and I'm grateful for his contributions.


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## BuddhaBandit

Mirror Image said:


> Nah....Still's a great composer. He did something different with music and I'm grateful for his contributions.


That's great. If you enjoy him, then don't let my opinion get in the way. I can certainly appreciate his historical significance- he was the first* African American to be a major force (as a composer and conductor) in a formerly white man's music.

*I consider Scott Joplin to be a jazz composer, so he is not included in this statement.


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## starry

Mirror Image said:


> Because it's apart of a series I'm doing on American composers. I'm American and it seems American composers get the shaft. Thanks.


They don't get the shaft at all. Their works are recorded and even performed probably alot more than many composers in others countries where there isn't the money or a big enough market for that. In all countries there aren't enough concerts to cater for modern classical. Classical music in general survives now through recordings rather than concert performance anyway, and I know that several hundred American composers have been recorded for disc or radio over the years.

I would do an Earthling Composer Corner in response but I can't be bothered.


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## Mirror Image

starry said:


> They don't get the shaft at all. Their works are recorded and even performed probably alot more than many composers in others countries where there isn't the money or a big enough market for that. In all countries there aren't enough concerts to cater for modern classical. Classical music in general survives now through recordings rather than concert performance anyway, and I know that several hundred American composers have been recorded for disc or radio over the years.
> 
> I would do an Earthling Composer Corner in response but I can't be bothered.


Do you have a problem with this series I'm promoting? American composers have a very distinct sound just like composers do from Italy, England, France, Germany, Russia, etc. I'm proud to be an American and I'm going to continue promoting these underrated American composers, because for too long Copland, Ives, and Barber have got all the attention, not that they don't warrant it, of course, but I'm just the messenger spreading the word about composers from my country that aren't talked about that much on this forum and quite frankly I don't see anything remotely wrong with doing so.

If you have a comment regarding William Grant Still, then that's cool, but if you don't and you have a problem with me and what I'm doing here, then message me directly, otherwise, I believe this thread has deviated too much. Let's get back to the music.

Thanks.


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## Mirror Image

I listened to a piece by Still for the first time today called "In Memoriam" and it's such a beautiful, honest piece of music. That "American" sound is in full throttle in this piece, not that there's anything wrong with that, because he was an American composer after all.

There's nothing cheesy (BuddhaBandit's bad choice of word) about Still's music. It's full of emotion and musical honesty, which as a devoted classical listener is all you could ask for. Pure melancholy.


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## Romantic Geek

I heard his "Lyric" Quartet. What an awesome piece. I need to listen to more of him!


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## leroy

Just read about him in "The Rest Is Noise" so I looked this one up






Pretty nice!


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