William Grant Still

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William Grant Still (May 11, 1895 – December 3, 1978) was an American composer of more than 150 compositions, including five symphonies and eight operas. Still, who has often been referred to as "the Dean" of African-American composers, he was the first American composer to have an opera performed by the New York City Opera.

He grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and later Edgard Varèse, and was best known for his first symphony, "Afro-American," which was the most popular symphony performed by an American in the 1950s. Of note, Still was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television.

Life

William Grant Still Jr. was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on May 11, 1895. 15 He was the son of two teachers, Carrie Lena Fambro (1872-1977), and William Grant Still Sr. (5184-1885). His father was a partner in a grocery store and served as a local bandleader. 5 William Grant Still Sr. died when his infant son was three months old.

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Despite his father's move to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she taught high school English. 6 Shepperson, a young Charles B. Shepperson, who nourished his stepson William's musical aspirations by taking him to operettas and listening to classical music on Red Seal albums, which the boy adored. 6 The two musicians appeared at a number of shows on tour. Anne Fambro, his maternal grandmother, sang African-American spirituals to him.

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At the age of 15, I started violin lessons in Little Rock. He taught himself how to play the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, double bass, cello, and viola, and exhibited a keen interest in music. He graduated from M. W. Gibbs High School in Little Rock in 1911 as a class valedictorian.

His father wanted him to attend medical school, so he continued his education at Wilberforce University, a historically black college in Ohio. I am now a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He arranged the school band, learned how to play various instruments, and began to compose and conduct orchestrations. He left Wilberforce without graduating.

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He began studying at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music after receiving a small amount of money left to him by his father. Along with a few other small businesses outside of the academy, the school still struggled financially, although the janitor was still working for the school. Still, when Professor Lehmann asked Why he wasn't studying composition, he told him upfront that he couldn't afford to, which led to George Andrews' willingness to teach him composition unsupervised. He also worked privately with French composer Edgard Varèse and American composer George Whitefield Chadwick.

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Still married Grace Bundy, whom he had known when they were both at Wilberforce on October 4, 1915. Gail, June, and Caroline were among their seven siblings who had a son, William III, and three daughters. They separated in 1932 and divorced on February 6, 1939. Verna Arvey, a pianist, married in 1939, and the couple were able to Tijuana for the wedding because interracial marriage was unlawful in California. 2 They had a daughter, Judith Anne, and Duncan, their son. Celeste Headlee, Judith Anne's daughter, is the granddaughter of 2 Still's granddaughter.

His home was named Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #169 on December 1, 1976. It is located at 1262 Victoria Avenue in Los Angeles' Oxford Square.

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Career

Still worked in Memphis, Washington, C., in 1916. Handy's band. In 1918, Robert Welch joined the United States Navy to serve in World War I. After the war, he went to Harlem, where he continued to work for Handy. During his stay in Harlem Stille, he collaborated with other key cultural figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Arna Bontemps, and Countee Cullen, and is considered to be a member of the movement.

He appeared with Fletcher Henderson's Dance Orchestra in 1921, 1985,: 85, and later appeared in Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's musical, Shuffle Along: 4 and other pit orchestras for Sophie Tucker, Artie Shaw, and Paul Whiteman. He joined Henry Pace's Pace Phonograph Company in Henderson (Black Swan). Still served as the arranger of "Yamekraw," a "Negro Rhapsody" (1930), which was composed by Harlem stride pianist James P. Johnson (1930).

Still worked as an arranger of popular music in the 1930s, as well as Willard Robison's Deep River Hour and Paul Whiteman's Old Gold Show, both common NBC Radio broadcasts.

Symphony No. 1 is still Beethoven's first major orchestral work. The Rochester Philharmonic's "Afro-American" was performed in 1931, directed by Howard Hanson. It was the first time a complete score of an African American work was performed by a major orchestra. The work had been performed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, and London by the end of World War II. The symphony was the most popular of any created by an American until 1950. Still had a strong working relationship with Hanson, and many of Still's compositions were performed in Rochester for the first time.

In 1934, the family migrated to Los Angeles. He received his first Guggenheim Fellowship and started work on the first of his nine operas, Blue Steel.

Still conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl in 1936; he was the first African American to conduct a major American orchestra in a performance of his own compositions.

Music for films is also arranged. These included Pennies from Heaven (the 1936 film starring Bing Crosby and Madge Evans) and Lost Horizon (the 1937 film starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, and Sam Jaffe). Dimitri Tiomkin's music was arranged for Lost Horizon. Stormy Weather, a 1943 film, was also hired to arrange the music for the film, but she resigned because "Twentieth-Century Fox 'degraded colored people.'

The 1939 World's Fair in New York City featured Song of a City. The song "Democracy" exhibit carried on throughout the fair. He was unable to attend the parade except on "Negro Day" without police protection, according to Still's granddaughter.

The New York City Opera conducted Troubled Island, about Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti, in 1949. It was the first opera performed by an American company and the first by an African American to be performed by a major company. Despite being dissatisfied with the poor feedback it received, the company was still skeptic.

He conducted the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra in 1955; he was the first African American to conduct a major orchestra in the Deep South. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Orchestra all performed his works internationally.

The opera A Bayou Legend, which was the first national television performance by an African-American composer, was performed in 1981.

Nonetheless, he was still regarded as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers." The University of Arkansas holds both Arvey and Thomas' papers.

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