#ClassicsaDay #BlackLiveMatter Week 5

The Classics a Day team unanimously decided to make #BlackLivesMatter the theme for July. Classical music isn't immune to systemic racism. It's an art form that, like painting, sculpture, literature, or poetry, is a powerful form of expression for many voices. But some voices are heard more often than others.

If you'd like to learn more about composers of color, I recommend Music by Black Composers as a starting point.

06/29/20 Chanda Dancy (1978 - ) Centrifuge, or the Powers that Separate Us

Dancy writes: In society, our “centrifuge” uses the powers of fear, lies and hate to force people of a united country to separate, leaving the heavy burdened – the poor, the sick, the pariahs – to the bottom of the “great experiment”, crying out in anguish and calling for “Riot!”

06/30/20 Jessie Montgomery (1981 -) Banner

About this work the composer writes: I’ve made an attempt to answer the question: “What does an anthem for the 21st century sound like in today’s multicultural environment?”

07/31/20 Rosephanye Powell (1962 - ) Still I rise

As a composer, Powell specializes in choral music and art song. She's also a leading authority on the music of William Grant Still.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackLivesMatter Week 4

The Classics a Day team unanimously decided to make #BlackLivesMatter the theme for July. Classical music isn't immune to systemic racism. It's an art form that, like painting, sculpture, literature, or poetry, is a powerful form of expression for many voices. But some voices are heard more often than others.

If you'd like to learn more about composers of color, I recommend Music by Black Composers as a starting point.

Here are my posts for the fourth week of #ClassicsaDay #BlackLivesMatter

07/20/20 Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940 - ) Fourth of July

This aria comes from Moore's 1985 opera Frederick Douglass. The text is a setting of Douglass' own Fourth of July speech delivered in 1852.

07/21/20 Irene Britton Smith (1907-1999) Sonata for Violin and Pian

Smith composed this work while studying with Vittorio Giannini at Julliard. Originally, it was an assignment for a composition class in larger forms.

07/22/20 R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) - 8 Bible Vignettes

Dett wrote "We have this wonderful store of folk music—the melodies of an enslaved people ... But this store will be of no value unless our musical architects take the rough timber of Negro themes and fashion from it music which will prove that we, too, have national feelings and characteristics."

07/23/20 Daniel Kidane - Foreign Tongues for string quartet

Kidane is a British composer of color. He wrote, "[Classical music organizations] should promote diversity. By doing so they will make classical music meaningful for all and sow interest among future generations."

07/24/20 Philippa Schuyler (1931-1967) - Five Little Pieces

Schuyler was a child prodigy billed as "The Shirley Temple of American Negros." She was also a talented composer, author and journalist. She died in a helicopter crash in South Vietnam while covering the war.

07/25/20 Derrick Spiva Jr. (1982 - ) Anthems of a Crowd

Spiva modeled his choral work on isicathamiya, a traditional Zulu call-and-response and blends it with Hindustani drones and Ewe music from Ghana.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackLivesMatter Week 3

The Classics a Day team unanimously decided to make #BlackLivesMatter the theme for July. Classical music isn't immune to systemic racism. It's an art form that, like painting, sculpture, literature, or poetry, is a powerful form of expression for many voices. But some voices are heard more often than others.

If you'd like to learn more about composers of color, I recommend Music by Black Composers as a starting point.

06/13/20 Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) - Montgomery Variations

Bonds, as a classical pianist and composer, struggled against systemic racism. The variations were inspired by the March on Montgomery.

06/14/20 Ulysses Kay (1917-1995) Six Dances for Orhestra

Kay's work was also titled "American Dances." The dances draw from a variety of immigrant cultural traditions and feature a waltz, round dance, schottische, promenade, polka, and galop.

06/15/20 William L. Dawson (1899-1990) - King Jesus is A-Listening

Dawson composed original works, but he's best remembered for his arrangements of African-American spirituals. This is one of his most-performed arrangements.

06/16/20 Florence Price (1887-1953) Mississippi River Suite

Price's 1934 suite blends traces of spirituals, New Orleans jazz, popular songs to evoke the African-American experience along the river.

06/17/20 George Walker (1922-2018) Sonata No. 1 for piano

Walker wrote four piano sonatas. This 1953 work is cast in traditional forms but uses folk elements to create something unique.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackLivesMatter Week 2

The Classics a Day team unanimously decided to make #BlackLivesMatter the theme for July. Classical music isn't immune to systemic racism. It's an art form that, like painting, sculpture, literature, or poetry, is a powerful form of expression for many voices. But some voices are heard more often than others.

If you'd like to learn more about composers of color, I recommend Music by Black Composers as a starting point.

06/06/20 Clarence Cameron White (1880-1960) Levee Dance

White was one of the foremost violinists of his generation, with career opportunities limited by race. Many of his works draw on African-American traditions.

06/07/20 Charles Lucien Lambert (1828-1896)

Lambert was born in New Orleans, a "free person of color." He enjoyed a successful career as a composer and pianist only after leaving the U.S. in 1854 for France.

06/08/20 Lucien-Léon Guillaume Lambert (1858-1945)

Lucien-Léon was the son of Charles Lambert and born in France. He had a successful career in France, Portugal, and Brazil. But not the U.S.

06/09/20 Adolphus Hailstork (1941 - ) Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed

Hailstork's 1978 composition was written in memory of Martin Lurther King, Jr. He called it "a graveside service for a great man."

06/10/20 Anthony R. Green - Fighting Spirit

Green calls himself a composer, performer, and social justice artist. He writes "when our work is blatantly ignored, disrespected, not studied, and not programmed, our voice is all we have."

#ClassicsaDay #BlackLivesMatter Week 1

The Classics a Day team unanimously decided to make #BlackLivesMatter the theme for July. Classical music isn't immune to systemic racism. It's an art form that, like painting, sculpture, literature, or poetry, is a powerful form of expression for many voices. But some voices are heard more often than others.

If you'd like to learn more about composers of color, I recommend Music by Black Composers as a starting point.

06/01/20 Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989) - Afro-American Suite

Moore was born in Virginia, the granddaughter of former slaves. Her work represented the state at Kennedy Center Bicentennial celebration.

06/02/20 William Grant Still (1895-1978) - Africa Symphonic Poem

This work was to be part of a trilogy about the African-American experience. This symphonic poem is the first part, represents their cultural origins in Africa.

07/03/20 J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) - Lift Every Voice and Sing

The words were a poem by his brother James Weldon. J. Rosamond Johnson's composition became the official song of the NAACP, an organization both were active in.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, 
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us