Exploring the Legacy of William Grant Still
Black Americans are often lauded for their musical talent in contemporary pop culture. The impact and versatility of Black music forms has dominated the world’s music scene for decades. This is especially true for genres such as Hip Hop, R&B, and Pop. However, Black people are not only masters of the music of popular culture, but of the most highly regarded music in existence. This is the case for William Grant Still, an American composer who created music for wide pop media artists and classical artists. This post acts as a brief narrative of his life and accomplishments, as well as anecdotes about his impact from members of the HistoryMakers Digital Archive.
Known as the Dean of African American composers, William Grant Still was born on May 11, 1895, and passed on December 3, 1978. His father, a musician who used to teach music at Alabama A&M University, died while he was a child. As a result, his mother, a schoolteacher, relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas to raise him. Still would overcome this tragedy to become the senior class valedictorian at M.W. Gibbs High School in Little Rock. He enrolled at Wilberforce College in Ohio as a pre-med student when he was 16 years old, but pulled out before graduation to pursue music at the Oberlin Conservatory in 1917 and 1919, following a year in the Navy. It was during his time abroad when he connected with famed bandleader W.C. Handy. Soon after, Still went on the road with him, orchestrating favorites like "St. Louis Blues." This collaboration led to a career of commercial success for Still. HistoryMaker Samuel Floyd addressed this success with the HistoryMakers Digital Archive. As an academic administrator and music museum director he notes Still’s ability to navigate radio and television saying, “William Grant Still is somebody that might be of interest to people. … he's written, he wrote quite a few pieces that were performed on radio and television, and…most people have no idea that …anybody black had anything to do with those songs for commercial radio and television.”
However, the Blues and jazz of his time in the Navy would be far from his sole influence. Still worked with numerous figures in classical music which would help develop his sound. Music instructor and music composer Jeffrey Mumford recounts one of these cultivating relationships, saying, “William Grant Still is a very--important figure in art history and the history of the period. Some people might not know that he studied with a composer named Edgar Varese, who is a, a composer of experimental and very progressive and--(unclear) called advance music, very complex music, a French composer who then came to America, brilliant orchestrator, amazing ears, amazing vision in his music, and Still studied with him.” This study would only act to amplify Still’s already prolific talent, as he began to create large orchestral pieces.
His magnum opus, the "Afro-American" Symphony No. 1, was the first symphony composed by an African American for a major US orchestra. The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra performed it for the first time in 1931. This work, in addition to his many achievements, would earn him the title “Dean of African American Composers.’ However, many scholars shift the narrative to to not isolate him from other American composers, in an effort to convey his genius. This is the case for classical singer and music critic Barbara Wright-Pryor, who says, ‘'Afro-American Symphony' was one of the most famous ones that he composed and it's the one that has the most exposure, but he was a dean of American composers.” In 1936, Still became the first African-American conductor of a large American orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Samuel Floyd also highlighted Still’s operatic pieces, saying, “….He's also written several operas, several have been produced, 'Troubled Island' from about 1941 was one of them. Another one was called 'Blue Steel', another was called '[A] Bayou Legend', set in Mississippi.” Troubled Island was the first opera written by an African American to be presented by a major company, the New York City Opera. Still then became the first African American to direct a large orchestra in the deep south when he took over the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra in 1955.
Still’s music was evocative, culturally relevant, and, above all, diverse in content. Composer Jeffery Mumford says, “Still's music is not in any one style….his longevity is attributable to him being what was required at the time. And what label he had then was soul singer, but he's been a blues singer; he's been a jazz singer; he's been--and William Grant Still's music was whatever it needed to be at the time. He wrote for Hollywood. He wrote for concerts ‘art music.’ He wrote all kinds of music--movies and so...” Yet, many still do not know of Still’s lengthy catalog or legacy. Wright-Pryor understands this marginalization as follows, “He probably has composed more music than a lot of them combined, but for the very reason that the National Association of Negro Musicians [NANM] and Chicago Music Association came into being is the reason that his music is not played and is not prolific around the world. For the same reasons. It's not that it's not good music. It has been pushed aside, Rachel's [Rachel Barton Pine] terminology, it's been marginalized, and it is, the world is denied the beauty of this music of black composers.”
I am of the opinion that the classic African-American composers have been done a severe disservice by this nation. He, along with other composers like William Levi Dawson, and Florence B. Price, set the bar for American composing. Their works should not only be recognized, but lauded for the masterpieces they are.
