Notes for: August 9, 2022
William Grant Still had a groundbreaking musical career. Born in Mississippi and reared in Little Rock, Arkansas, he was classically trained, studying composition at Oberlin, with George Whitfield Chadwick at the New England Conservatory, and with the avant-garde French composer Edgard Varèse. But he also worked as an arranger for the bandleader Paul Whitman and the blues composer W.C. Handy, played in Broadway pit orchestras, and arranged music for films. His extensive oeuvre – which included five symphonies, nine operas, four ballets, and more than 30 choral works – reflects all these influences.
Still’s career was a collection of “firsts,” including the first African American to have a complete score of his work performed by a major orchestra (Still’s blues-inspired Afro-American Symphony, performed by the Rochester Symphony in 1931); the first opera by an African American to be performed by a major opera company (The Troubled Island with a libretto by Langston Hughes, performed by the New York City Opera in 1949); and the first African American to conduct a major orchestra in the Deep South (the New Orleans Philharmonic, 1955).
Still’s Folk Suite No. 2 shows another of his musical interests: traditional spirituals and folk songs. Still’s wife, the pianist Verna Arvey, wrote the following notes on the Suite’s four songs:
El Zapatero (California). From the days of the Spanish occupation of the state of California comes this little song. It tells the story of a shoemaker who made a pair of shoes to order, but forgot to include the rounded buck-bill toe which his customer had requested. He is scolded for his omission.
Mol’e (Peru). This plaintive song, strongly reminiscent of the present-day music said to be derived from the ancient Inca, has to do with a tree called “the false pepper tree.” From its red berries the Indians today brew a fermented drink.
Mom’zelle Zizi (Louisiana). Quite different in character is this memorable Creole melody, strongly influenced by the music of the Frenchmen who settled in Louisiana. Just as the races blended to produce a new and distinct group of people, so did the music assume the character of the New World without relinquishing any of its Gallic charm.
Peruvian Melody (Incan). In contrast to the previous Peruvian song (Mol’e) this one is a lively tune customarily played on flutes. The typical Andean flute is end-blown and is called a quena, perhaps the best-known and most often played instrument in modern enactments of ancient ceremonials.