Classical Music Recordings of Black Composers:

a reference guide

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Always a subjective arena, I am providing suggested listening from available Black composer recordings. I recognize that there are many recordings to choose from so I intend to periodically offer additional suggestions in the future. RG

Recommended selections by composer:

Fela Sowande's African Suite is available on several recordings. It is a delightful blend of Nigerian melodies and orchestrations for strings and harp.

A recent recording of piano compositions by "Blind Tom" (Thomas Wiggins Bethune) has been released. It offers an extraordinary glimpse into the capabilities of one born into U.S. slavery and who had evident musical talent.

The MAPS Violin Concerto by Anthony Davis has long been a personal favorite. The final movement can be likened to a duo concertante for violin and percussion.

George Walker's Lyric for Strings is a beautiful composition that should be required listening and performing. Originally written as the second movement of a string quartet it has been rewritten for string orchestra. It deserves the same attention as Samuel Barber's famous Adagio for Strings.

Almost any of the available recordings by Chevalier de Saint-Georges are worthy listening. There are many to choose from including string quartets, violin concertos, sonatas and symphonies.

Danzas De Panama by William Grant Still were recently recorded by the Oregon String Quartet.

Recommended performers:

Natalie Hinderas (Music and Arts 737) collection of piano works by such composers as: Dett, Kay, Still and others.

Imani Winds - wind quintet - a group deserving attention for their amalgam of classical, African heritage and Latino music forms.

RECORDING COLLECTION

The Witness Collection: a recently released (2004) deluxe box set edition of four CDs featuring VocalEssence Ensemble Singers and Chorus. CD series is devoted to Black composers - mostly choral but includes some instrumental works. Clarion Records CLR 9044

CD reissue of the Black Composers Series is now available but only for selected performances by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Paul Freeman. Inquiries should be sent to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

BROADCAST

Classically Black - an NPR radio program with host Roger Cooper, focuses upon the contributions of African-American musicians and composers. Broadcast from Illinois on WILL-FM and distributed to more than 200 public radio stations around the U.S.

HISTORICAL RECORDING OF NOTE

CBS Records' Black Composers Series (recorded on vinyl LPs between 1974 and 1979): This Black Composers Series reissue, by The College Music Society, is an important component of the documentation of Black achievement in western culture. It contains music written by Black composers during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries and, in part, it demonstrates the working out of the Black aesthetic in the western concert music tradition over a two-hundred-year period.

Composers, whose work is presented, include: T.J. Anderson, David Baker, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Roque Cordero, Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia, Adolphus Hailstork, Talib Rasul Hakim, Ulysses Kay, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Hale Smith, Fela Sowande, William Grant Still, George Walker, Jose White, and Olly Wilson.

The works in the Series are performed under the direction of Maestro Paul Freeman by major symphony orchestras of the United States and Europe, and by some of the world's leading concert artists. (Note: Dr. Freeman and many others are currently engaged in efforts to newly record many of the works from the Black Composers Series on compact discs.)

For information regarding orders, click here. 9 LP records + 16 page booklet / $40

For inquiries, send e-mail to: The College Music Society, "cms@music.org" or write to CMS at 202 West Spruce Street, Missoula, MT 59802; or call CMS at (800) 729-0235.

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