"Africa" Symphonic Poem - William Grant Still
Vložit
- čas přidán 19. 07. 2024
- Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Jeter
I - Land of Peace: 0:00
II - Land of Romance: 12:22
III - Land of Superstition: 19:19
Still's symphonic poem "Africa" had a torturous genesis. Still began to work on it in 1924, envisioning it as the first part of a trilogy of works depicting the African-American experience: "Africa" representing their roots, the Afro-American Symphony the life in America, and Symphony No.2 "Song" of a New Race", a vision of an integrated society.
Still originally wrote the work for chamber orchestra, dedicating it to the French flautist George Barrère, who gave the first performance in 1930. Constantly refining the work, Still re-orchestrated it for full orchestra. Again, Howard Hanson gave the second première on 24th October, 1930, in Rochester, New York. It aroused a sensation, in Still’s words. It had successful German and Parisian performances the following year, further establishing his reputation. Still, however, was not totally satisfied, revising it six times before he, strangely, withdrew the work, leaving it unpublished.
“The Africa of my imagination” is Still’s succinct description of this work in a letter to Barrère. His fuller description:
“An American Negro has formed a concept of the land of his ancestors based largely on its folklore, and influenced by his contact with American civilization. He beholds in his mind’s eye not the Africa of reality but an Africa mirrored in fancy, and radiantly ideal.
I. He views it first as a land of peace; peace that is partly pastoral in nature and partly spiritual.
II. It is to him also a land of fanciful and mysterious romance; romance tinged with ineffable sorrow.
III. Contact with American civilization has not enabled him to completely overcome his inherent superstitious nature. It is that heritage of his forebears binding him irrevocably to the past, and making it possible for him to form the most definite concept of Africa.”
The first movement, Land of Peace, has two themes, depicting the pastoral and spiritual. After opening with the distant tom-toms that announce the work’s geographical focus, the flute intones a modal melody that arches upward from a rising whole step. The accompanying pizzicato seventh chords are in a different key, giving the blues-like melody a polytonal context. The contrasting short motive that follows, played by the oboe and outlining a G-minor triad, is accompanied by dotted chords fashioned from an octatonic scale.
This fragment, which became the opening of Africa‘s first movement, was abandoned, incomplete. When Still returned to it (in 1927), he continued in a strikingly different style. After the opening section, four horns enter with a syncopated, unequivocally tonal melody emphasizing a descending whole step and suggesting a spiritual. Two expansive variations follow, building to the movement’s climactic statement, which begins as a stretching-out of the spiritual melody. The climax breaks off in a short piano cadenza, then dies away with an abbreviated suggestion of the opening.
The second movement, Land of Romance, composed in 1927, reflects sadness, moving to passionate longing at the end. Forms a serenely legato da capo aria, begun by the bassoon. Near the end of the middle section, the orchestra builds to a climax reminiscent of the moment when the sun rises in Debussy’s La Mer-a nod to Europe from across the Mediterranean, as it were.
The final movement, Land of Superstition, begins with a solo for the basses, featuring a deliberately awkward, Varèse-like unresolved rising tritone. It continues with several dances, building excitement to the climactic re-statement of the rising-tritone theme. Although the opening tom-toms from the first movement are never featured again, this movement firmly reinforces the initial African connection.
After the first full orchestral performance, Still reported, “Africa was a sensation.” A year or two later, he commented, “I believe Africa will endure.” That it has been so little heard is the result of a contretemps with a publisher that remained unresolved until well after the composer’s death.
Picture: A painting of an African sunset, title, date and author unknown.
Sources from the naxos booklet: www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs... and this review: americansymphony.org/darker-am... - Hudba
Sergio, thank you for sharing this and all of your postings of Still. For many this will be an introduction to some American symphonic music that has never graced their concert stages. Still's symphonies, operas, ballets, song cycles and chamber works, of which there are more than 150, are jewels and tell a huge part of the American story. This is what Dvorak meant when he said "The future of this country must be founded upon what are called the Negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States." Thank you also John Jeter and the Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra for championing this glorious music.
One of the GREATEST COMPOSERS PERIOD!!!
That ending! Oh man, I've never felt such turmoil as an African. I can't get this image out of my head; on the one hand, an African man is navigating the travails of his life in some village on the west African coast, wondering what the shaman was prophesying. On the other, he climbs atop a hill before the sea, to see the oncoming vessels that would change the fate of his people forever.
Did you come up with that interpretation? Or is it from a source Still used?
@@lamsmenon2073 No its just an image that I had in my head. But it is sort of based on the description that Sergio Canovas gave in the box above. Dr Still is black. He is not African nor has he been to Africa, but this is the Africa of his imagination, as his ancestral land that he fantasised about I suppose in the same way a white American might fantasise about Europe and it's famous romantic cities. It doesn't really have anything particularly African sound that I can discern as an African myself who's lived in several countries and listens to the music of the whole continent, past and present. But considering that Dr Still is a black American who descended from those who were taken from the west coast of Africa, I feel a certain sense of fatalism when I listen to the ending: as if Still is lamenting the future that awaits the Africans who first saw the European ships. That ending leaves me wondering what he meant because he is no doubt a product of the slave trade and that brutal history, and this whole fantasy about his ancestral land seems to end on a dark and ominous note that seems to be aware of that destiny.
@@Minabezerai Your interpretation is really good and it fits with Still's description of the last movement, one of superstition and anxiety (the shaman could have predicted disaster in the future). The image you paint is amazing and fits with the ending. You should publish this analysis somewhere!
@@lamsmenon2073 thanks friend! You're very kind!
Gorgeous orchestration. Brilliant piece.
This is pretty great. My favourite of his so far!
Hauntingly beautiful
Beautiful, underrated composer
... außerordentlich anrührende Werke des afro-amerikanischen Meisters; in allen Aufnahmen glänzend interpretiert; Dank für die Postings...
du bist einer der ersten der es korrekt ausspricht er ist ein african-american komponist und dann kam ich . grüsse aus der schweiz
Beautiful.
This is great music
Brilliant !
I learn something every day. I didn't know this lovely music and I have no idea where Fort Smith is, although it sounds like it is in Indian Country. Nice piece, nice orchestra.
13:17. Magic
It's a very beautiful music. With a big influence of George Gershwin, particularly "Porgy & Bess".
William Grant Still orchestrated for Gershwin!
'Africa' was written several years before 'Porgy and Bess', so the influence is likely to have been the other way round!
The I got rhythm by Gershwin was massively inspired by William still Grant's Symphony 1 3rd movement