Composer: William Levi Dawson, William Grant Still, George Walker
Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Conductor: Kellen Gray
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Linn
Catalogue: CKD699
Release: 2022
Size: 900 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Walker: Lyric for Strings
Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony
02. I. The Bond of Africa
03. II. Hope in the Night
04. III. O, Le’ Me Shine, Shine Like a Morning Star!
Still: Symphony No. 1 ‘Afro-American’
05. I. Longing. Moderato assai
06. II. Sorrow. Adagio
07. III. Humor. Animato
08. IV. Aspiration. Lento, con risoluzione
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra teams up with its Assistant Conductor Kellen Gray to record works by three of the twentieth century’s greatest African American voices. Released to coincide with Black History Month, the two symphonies by William Levi Dawson and William Grant Still proved to be fundamental in the utilization of Afro-American idioms within the symphonic form. Each composer focused on one of the two original staples of African American music: folk and jazz. William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony takes its inspiration from West African folk idioms, American Negro spirituals and early African American folk rhythms and songs from Gullah culture. William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 draws its influence from elements popular in jazz and pre-jazz. Although the latter is the more well-known figure in American music, Dawson was every bit as significant in the timeline of African American music, and his only published symphony is astonishingly mature for a composer’s earliest efforts at symphonic writing. This programme also celebrates the centenary of George Walker’s birth with the inclusion of his Lyric for Strings.