Ideas for Black Resources
The revolutionary demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 brought to the fore longstanding issues of systemic racism and white supremacist violence throughout the Western world that demand conversations in all areas of society, including in the realm of music, and of classical music.
Many extraordinary Black composers have been ignored for a whole century, and their music has languished, to the great detriment of classical musicians and listeners around the world. As we right this imbalance, we enrich the classical repertoire with potent music and powerful voices that have been missing from the spotlight for far too long.
There is also an urgent need to end elitism in classical music and to recognize talent in other genres, including jazz, a Black classical music that has not only influenced some of the finest classical composers of the twentieth century, but that also features its own fiercely gifted composers who are at least on a par with classical composers in every way, and furthermore can also improvise. It is time for classical music institutions to recognize the Black genius that has fuelled jazz for over a hundred years, and to dismantle the barriers that keep Western orchestras and concert halls so demographically white. Opening up to fusion with popular styles like rap, and hip hop would also help to remove barriers.
Larry Strachan on Classic 107 (Winnipeg) (1-hour radio program) Larry Strachan, conductor, composer, and founder of Chamber Orchestra Without Borders Inc. co-hosts this engaging, hourlong program featuring the music of Black composers, of whom he emphasizes there are SO many that deserve our attention. Black American composer, conductor, orchestrator and educator T.J. Anderson once observed: “We are invisible.” On this profound episode of The Wide World of Classical Music, Larry renders visible composers Margaret Bonds, George Walker, Errollyn Wallen, Adolphus Hailstork, Olly Wilson, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Co-hosted by Classic 107 Music Director Chris Wolf.
For a taste of Larry’s program click here
This majestic interpretation of Langston Hughes’ poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” was composed by Margaret Allison Bonds, an American composer from Chicago who was also the first Black artist to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (in 1933). Tenor Darryl Taylor and Canadian (CMC) composer Maria Corley perform this critical rendition. (from their Naxos recording “Dreamer: A Portrait of Langston Hughes”)
“I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”
– Langston Hughes, 1921 (age 17)
In an interview with James Hatch, composer Margaret Bonds observed:
I was in this prejudiced university, this terribly prejudiced place…. I was looking in the basement of the Evanston Public Library where they had the poetry. I came in contact with this wonderful poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and I’m sure it helped my feelings of security. Because in that poem he tells how great the black man is. And if I had any misgivings, which I would have to have – here you are in a setup where the restaurants won’t serve you and you’re going to college, you’re sacrificing, trying to get through school – and I know that poem helped save me. (Almon, Margaret. “Margaret Bonds Archives – Margaret Almon”. Retrieved September 16, 2020.)
Paul Rucker, How my mom inspired my approach to the cello (video, 4:02) Black American, multidisciplinary artist, and TED Fellow Paul Rucker has developed his own style of cello. Moving between reflective storytelling and performance, Rucker shares his inspiration – and definitely doesn’t play the same old Bach. Rucker explores issues related to mass incarceration, racially motivated violence and the continued impact of policies that sustain inequity.
Jazz is Black American Classical Music (video, 1:02) Young L.A.-based drummer and musical polymath Mekala Session shares his views on what jazz is and what it can do, informed by Horace Tapscott’s perspective on music’s role in society. He suggests it is Black American classical music that can teach and empower people. “It’s basically what the Black Panthers were trying to do, but a lot less militant,” he says.
Jazz Prodigy Jameal Dean’s ‘Trippy’ Music (video, 2:57) Pianist and producer Jamael Dean is a musician who grew up around the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. Like Mekala Session, he grew up surrounded by music. Session breaks down Jamael Dean’s prowess and gives audiences a look into how the Ark has shaped both their musical trajectories and beliefs. An excerpt of Season 11 Episode 2 of Artbound on PBS.
Canadian Art Song Project: Black Canadian composers of art song (few-minute read) A short article presenting Black Canadian composers of art song, including Dr. Maria Corley, Ted Runcie, David Bontemps, Rich Coburn, David Eastmond, and Corie Rose Soumah, with links to their web-sites.
Black Composers and Artists who Left Their Mark on Classical Music, article by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (few-minute article) An article by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presenting some influential Black musicians and composers who deserve more attention: Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges, 1745-1799), George Bridgetower, Scott Joplin, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Robert Nathaniel Dett, and George Walker. The article also mentions legends Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, and Jessye Norman.
Fatoumata Diawara – Kokoro (music video, 3:43) Fatoumata Diawara is a Malian actress, singer-songwriter and guitarist currently living in France. She has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, and sings primarily in Bambara, the national language of Mali. Below the video for her song, Kokoro, Diaware writes: “Why are we not proud of who we are? We are black Africans, descendants of Sunjata Keita, the emperor of the Mandé people. We have our own culture and civilization, which we must be proud of.”
Jessye Norman, Grammy-winning opera star, dies at age 74 (few-minute article) Article in The Guardian celebrating the life of Georgia-born Jessye Norman, one of the U.S.A.’s most celebrated sopranos, beloved of audiences around the world. The article addresses Norman’s views on the need for more diversity in classical music, which she championed in concrete ways during her life.
Hear Jessye Norman perform Henry Purcell’s “When I am Laid In Earth” from Dido and Aeneas:
‘Classical Music Can Change The Racial Conscience of Society,’ Says One Conductor (audio-clip, 9:51) Audio-clip and written summary by Tonya Mosley and Samantha Raphelson for WBUR, Boston’s NPR News Station, featuring an incisive interview with Black conductor Brandon Keith Brown, who argues that establishment musicians are afraid Black musicians will take over Western classical music if they are allowed more access and treated more fairly.
10 Contemporary Black Composers You Should Know (few-minute article) Article by Audery Seraphin for ArtsBoston with short biographies of several contemporary Black composers, American, and British. Seraphin promotes Johnathan Bailey Holland, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Chanda Dancy, Pamela Z, Jeffrey Mumford, Jessie Montgomery, Daniel Kidane, Henry Threadgill, Damien Sneed, and Anthony R. Green
Juneteenth Special, on From the Top, NPR (audio clip, 1-hour) or watch this compelling excerpt – A Change is Gonna Come, by Sam Cooke, arr. Matt Jones. video, 4:22)
From the Top celebrated Juneteenth 2021 with a special episode highlighting young Black composers and works by Black composers, such as Kevin Olusola, Clifton Williams, Hannah White, Peter Dugan, The Davidson Chorale directed by Phillip Streetman (with soloist Zanaiah Billups), clarinetist Najee Greenlee, composer Ebun Oguntola, and cellist Emma Spence.
