William Grant Still : a study in contradictions

Author(s)

• Smith, Catherine Parsons

Bibliographic Information

William Grant Still : a study in contradictions

Catherine Parsons Smith ; with contributed essays by Gayle Murchison and Willard B. Gatewood ; chronology by Carolyn L. Quin ; and contemporary sources from the 1930s, Verna Arvey ... [et al.]

（Music of the African diaspora, 2）

University of California Press, c2000

• : cloth
• : pbk

Note

Includes bibliographical references (p.341-343) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: cloth ISBN 9780520215429

Description

During the 1930s and 1940s William Grant Still was known as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers". He worked as an arranger for early radio, on Broadway, and in Hollywood; major symphony orchestras performed his concert works; and an opera, written in collaboration with Langston Hughes, was produced by the New York City Opera. Despite these successes the composer's name gradually faded into obscurity. This text brings William Grant Still out of the archives and examines his place in America's musical heritage. Still's profound musical creativity and cultural awareness have been obscured by the controversies that dogged much of his personal and professional life.

Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780520215436

Description

During the 1930s and 1940s William Grant Still (1895-1978) was known as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers." He worked as an arranger for early radio, on Broadway, and in Hollywood; major symphony orchestras performed his concert works; and an opera, written in collaboration with Langston Hughes, was produced by the New York City Opera. Despite these successes the composer's name gradually faded into obscurity. This book brings William Grant Still out of the archives and examines his place in America's musical heritage. It also provides a revealing window into our recent cultural past. Until now Still's profound musical creativity and cultural awareness have been obscured by the controversies that dogged much of his personal and professional life. New topics explored by Catherine Parsons Smith and her contributors include the genesis of the Afro American Symphony, Still's best-known work; his troubled years in film and opera; and his outspoken anticommunism.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction A Brief Chronology Carolyn L. Quin Contributed Essays The Formative Years of William Grant Still:Little Rock, Arkansas, 1895-1911 Willard B. Gatewood "Dean of Afro-American Composers" or "Harlem Renaissance Man": The New Negro and the Musical Poetics of William Grant Still Gayle Murchison Toward a Biography Finding His Voice: William Grant Still in Los Angeles An Unknown "New Negro" The Afro-American Symphony and Its Scherzo "they, Verna and Billy" "Harlem Renaissance Man" Revisited:The Politics of Race and Class in Still's Late Career Sources Personal Notes William Grant Still William Grant Still and Irving Schwerke:Documents from a Long-Distance Friendship Edited by Wayne D. Shirley William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions Harold Bruce Forsythe Plan for a Biography of Still Harold Bruce Forsythe William Grant Still Verna Arvey Major Sources on Still Note on Recordings Index Contents

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA54815817
• ISBN:
  • 0520215427
  • 0520215435
• LCCN: 99043232
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Berkeley, Calif.
• Pages/Volumes: xvi, 368 p.
• Size: 24 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : ML410.S855
  • DC21 : 780/.92
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Still, William Grant, 1895- -- Criticism and interpretation
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA36042287