William Grant Still,
Historic Composer and Arranger

LOS ANGELES MUSIC WEEK
2002 POSTHUMOUS HONOREE
 
 

An Outstanding Arkansas Composer
BY MARY D. HUDGINS, Hot Springs

HONORING -THE 70TH BIRTHDAY OF WILLIAM GRANT STILL (1), OUTSTANDING AMERICAN
composer, a number of 1965 musicals were scheduled throughout the United States and even in Europe. Among
groups lauding Dr. Still's fifty years of significant contributions to the musical scene were: Abilene Philharmonic
Association, Albuquerque Civic Symphony, Amherst Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Eastman School of Music,
Goldman Band, Indianapolis Symphony, University of Miami Symphony, National Gallery Orchestra, Rochester
Civic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic of London, Bureau of Music of Los Angeles and the Tucson Symphony. There
was also a testimonial banquet given in his honor by the Los Angeles League of Allied Arts in the new Music Center
of that city.

Dr. Still is virtually a native of Little Rock; and was graduated at the age of 16 as valedictorian of the 1912 class of
Dunbar High School. He is frequently heralded as "the dean of Negro composers." Throughout the years he has
contributed rich and varied scores to musical America. His operas, symphonies, ballets, and other compositions have
won critical acclaim. Nor has he scorned writing for multiple combinations of smaller instrumental groups, as well as
for chorus and solo singers.
___________________
      1. Special thanks are due Miss Clara B. Kennan, Little Rock, author of "Native of Little Rock Is Widely
Celebrated Negro Composer," Arkansas Gazette, Aug. 5, 1951, who furnished the present author with much of the
material used in this article. Additional material is from Who's Who in America; John Trasher Howard, Our
American Music (New York, 1946); Langston Hughes, Famous Negro Music Makers (New York, 1955).

Please visit the Friends of William Grant Still Website for future events.

For more information, http://peace.saumag.edu/swark/articles/ahq/african_americans/still/wg-still308.html

 Google Search: William Grant Still Arts Center
 

Cover photo of William Grant Still and  granddaughter Celeste, c. 1971; Symphony
No. 3 (Sunday Symphony)  (24:10);  Cambria  1060 (1996)
 

A Closer Look at the Inimitably Multitalented Composer, William Grant Still

William Grant Still was born in Woodville,  Mississippi on May 11, 1895.  He was the son of  two teachers,
Carrie Lena Still and William Grant Still.  Young William was only three months old when his father died.
  Carrie Still then took him to Little Rock, Arkansas, where they lived with her mother and where she taught
 school.   During William's childhood, Carrie married Charles B. Shepperson, a postal clerk who bought many
phonograph records, especially of opera.   William took violing lessons and showed a great interest in music.
In an article in  Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, No. 4 (Winter 1965), p. 308, Mary D. Hudgins writes:
Still is virtually a native of Little Rock and was graduated at the age of 16 as valedictorian of the 1912 class of Dunbar
High School.  Still studied medicine at Wilberforce University at his mother's insistence, but he eventually dropped out.
        By that time his primary instrument has become the oboe.  Still then attended Oberlin Conservatory, where he
studied music for two years.
 

Aaron Myers is a contributor to Africana Encyclopedia.  He characterizes William Grant Still as an American composer whose
musical works included African American themes and spanned jazz, popular, opera and classical genres.  Still is the first Afro-American
to conduct a major symphony in the United States of America in 1936 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
Still's Afro-American Symphony has been recorded by the Detroit  Symphony Orchestra, under Neeme Jarvi, Conductor, on Chandos 9154 (1993).
Michael Fleming writes in the liner notes:

       His musical training was twofold, embracing the European tradition at Oberlin College, and the African-American in his work with
W. C.  Handy in New York.  He earned his living playing the oboe in the pit band for the musical  Shuffle Along.  While the show was
on tour in Boston, he took some composition lessons from George Chadwick; later, the avant-garde composer Edgar Varese took him on as a
composition pupil.  Still's studies with the composer George Chadwick took place at the New England Conservatory of Music, beginning in
1921.  A scholarship enabled him to study composition with Edgar Varese in New York City.  He also received a Guggenheim fellowship and a
Rosenwald fellowship.

Still became a classical composer while working in the record business.  He held a variety of positions with Black Swan Records, a label owned
by African Americans.  Myers adds that in the late 1920s, Still turned to  composing classical music.  He  created over 150 musical works
        including a series of five symphonies, four ballets, and nine operas.

Dominique-Rene de Lerma, Professor of Music at Lawrence University, comments on Still's Afro-American Symphony in Africana Encyclopedia:
A contemporary of Work and Dawson, William Grant Still based his first symphony, the Afro-American Symphony (1930), on the blues and
       his experience as a jazz arranger.  Michael Fleming quotes the composer:  "I knew I wanted to write a symphony; I knew that it had to be an American
        work; and I wanted to demonstrate how the blues, so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to the highest musical level."
 

                      As to Still's symphonic debut, these liner notes explain the significance of his first performance of his  Afro-American Symphony:

       Howard Hanson [1896-1981], who conducted the premiere with the Rochester Philharmonic in 1931, was a noted exponent of contemporary
       American music.  Once he had paved he way, others moved quickly to take up Still's cause: the New York Philharmonic gave the New York
       premiere of the symphony in 1935 at Carnegie Hall.  It was considered the Song of a New Race.  For several years after his successful debut as a
symphonist , Still continued to be regarded as primarily an arranger.  Michael Fleming has also written the liner notes for Still's  Symphony No. 2
in G Minor  (Song of a New Race)  (29:22).  It was recorded by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Jarvi, Conductor, on Chandos 9226
(1993).  Fleming recounts:  "Yet he persisted, and on 10 December 1937, Leopold Stokowski conducted the Symphony in G Minor with the
        Philadelphia Orchestra.   The composer provided subtitles for the four movements of the symphony:  Yearnings, Sorrow, Humor  and  Aspiration."

Symphony No. 2  (Song of a New Race) (29:22);
       Detroit Symphony Orchestra;  Neeme Jarvi,
 Conductor;  Chandos 9226 (1993)
 

William Grant Still moved to Los Angeles about 1934 and began composing film music.  It was there he met his second wife, Verney Arvey,
a journalist and pianist whom he married in 1939.  He began writing piano works specifically for her use in concert.  In 1936 Still composed the music
for the ballet , "Lenox Avenue,"  for which Arvey wrote the script.  It had been commissioned by CBS Radio.   Other collaborations followed.
 
 

According to U.S. Opera, the composer's operas include  Blue Steel, Troubled Island, A Bayou Legend, A Southern Interlude, Costaso, Mota, The Pillar,
Minette Fontaine  and  Highway 1, U.S.A.   Most of the librettos were written by his wife, including,  "Troubled Island" which  featured a text by Langston
Hughes,  drawn from his play,  "The Drums of Haiti."  This play was performed by the New York City Opera Company.    Both Still's instrumental and vocal
works are available on numerous recordings.

____________

                      A Man of Many Noteworthy Firsts

William Grant Still died of heart failure in Los Angeles on Dec. 3, 1978.  Verna Arvey Still wrote
his biography,  "In One Lifetime."  It was published in 1984 by the University of Arkansas Fayetteville Press. 
His wife, Verna Avery, continued to promote her late husband's musical and historical achievments through
Still's music publishing company, Willan Grant Still Music.  After her  demise in 1987, their daughter,
Judith Anne Still, continues to carry the torch. She is, among other talents, an author, recently
publishing her father's biography entitled, "Little David Had No Fear,"  ISBN 1-877873-03-9.  
She lists the historical and musical firsts that her father is famous for, among which are included:

William Grant Still was the first Afro-American...

To write a major symphonic work performed by a major American orchestra,

To conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States, as well as in the Deep South,

To conduct a major American network radio orchestra,

To have an opera produced by a major American company, and

To have an opera televised over a national network in the United States (after his death)
 

William Grant Still also broadened the scope of classical music when he...

Became the first composer to incorporate a folk instrument in a serious orchestral work
when he included the banjo in his work, "The Afro-American Symphony."

Became the first composer to orchestrate the popular Broadway dance number, "The Charleston,"

Challenged the European tradition of classical music by creating serious music that
recognized the diversity of cultures
in the world, and particularly, in American life, and

Pioneered in using unusual instruments, such as vibraphones and a railroad hammer, in his works.

Click here for additional William Grant Still Links to visit.
 

 

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