# African composers



## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

can anyone name some
View attachment 2639
African -American or other brown skin composers?


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

william grant still


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Chevalier de Saint-George
Duke Ellington


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_composers_of_African_descent

William Grant Still, Duke Ellington (as mentioned), Scott Joplin stand out for me. But above all Samuel Coleridge Taylor.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Scott Joplin
Gerald Wilson
W.C. Handy

There is a chapter about this in the book, The Rest Is Noise. Many black composers were never able
to realize their potential due to the racist policies of the day. The persistent composers like Ellington
created their own opportunities in Harlem.

Two others I forgot to mention:

Oliver Nelson
Anthony Braxton


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

will.i.am ssssssss


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

starthrower said:


> Gerald Wilson


i don't know if the request was about jazz composers, but if we are considering also him or Ellington there are also Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, Andrew Hill, Charles Mingus, Herbie Nichols, Billy Strayhorn, Tadd Dameron, Horace Silver, Booker Little, Eric Dolphy and many others


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

It's impossible to exclude jazz when speaking of African American composers. This is the art form that developed as a result of the segregated societies of the early 20th century.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Adolphus Hailstork. I haven't heard anything by him but with a name like that he's just GOT to be great, right?


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

there's a famous modern guitar piece that was written in the fifties by an african (not american) composer but i can't remember his name...


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Are there CLASSICAL composers from Africa? There have to be some...


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Kevin Volans obviously.


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## Rasa (Apr 23, 2009)

Lil' Wayne


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## Praeludium (Oct 9, 2011)

Julius Eastman !


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Art Rock said:


> But above all Samuel Coleridge Taylor.


First name _I_ thought of. (His place of origin was Sierra Leone, I believe.)


Art Rock said:


> Scott Joplin


Second name I thought of.

People who are only familiar with his Ragtime piano output should consider that he wrote a surviving opera [Treemonisha], a 'lost opera' [A Guest of Honor] and a mostly-lost ballet [The Rag-Time Dance].


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

Tapkaara said:


> Are there CLASSICAL composers from Africa? There have to be some...


I hadn't heard of Art Rock's suggestion, Kevin Volans, but there's also Maurice Ohana, who was born in Morocco:

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ohana*

His music is difficult, though--microtonal, and very hard for me to comprehend (or recommend).

Naxos has a CD of some of the pieces he wrote for ten-string guitar, but be aware.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Fsharpmajor said:


> I hadn't heard of Art Rock's suggestion, Kevin Volans, but there's also Maurice Ohana, who was born in Morocco:
> 
> *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ohana*
> 
> His music is difficult, though--microtonal, and very hard for me to comprehend (or recommend).


Ohana is the composer that i was saying, thank you. And Tiento was the guitar piece i had in mind


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