Ravinia 2022, Issue 1

R.D. TONES (PRICE); CHRISTINE TURNER (ROUMAIN) beautifully executed, and I let go of whatever it was I had been holding onto. It was the first time I really felt validated as a composer.” FLORENCE PRICE (1887–1953) Nimble Feet from Dances in the Canebrakes (arranged by William Grant Still) Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons, alto saxophone, three horns, three trumpets, two trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings From her youth in Little Rock, AR, through the end of her career in Chicago, Florence Beatrice Smith transcended the limits of race and gender to become one of the most her- alded African American classical musicians of the early 20th century. She graduated high school at age 14 and entered the New England Conservatory—one of the few conservatories in the country that admitted Black students— with dual majors in organ and education. Florence taught music at Shorter College in North Little Rock and was named head of the music department at Clark University in At- lanta before returning to Little Rock to marry attorney Thomas Jewell Price 1912. A steady stream of compositions spread Flor- ence’s reputation well beyond the shores of the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. An opportunity to make her first jour- ney to Europe arose in 1953 when the French government programmed performances of her music and arranged to honor her with an award. Tragically, Price never made the trip: she fell ill on May 24 and died of a cerebral hemorrhage on June 3. Earlier in the year, Price wrote Dances in the Canebrakes , a collection of piano pieces “based on authentic Negro rhythms”—one of her last compositions. Dense, freestanding patches of canes, known as “canebrakes,” dot the landscape throughout the southeastern US. The nutritious and largely fire-resistant plants attract many species of wildlife and serve as fodder for domesticated animals. In the 19th century, the thicket also provided shelter for escaped slaves slowly winding their Florence Price (ca.1933) way toward freedom in the North, symboli- cally a safe boundary between the slaves and their enslavers. This suite offers a behind-the- cane view of African American life through its three dances, each simply structured into three parts, the first and last using the same melody and rhythm, and the second offering contrasting material. Nimble Feet evokes the syncopated rhythms of ragtime or, perhaps, the handclapping and leg-patting of juba. William Grant Still arranged Dances in the Canebrakes for orchestra not long after Price’s death. Their families had known each other in Little Rock, and they remained in cordial con- tact throughout their careers. The Robinson Center, a large public facility in downtown Little Rock, constructed between 1937 and 1939, includes the William Grant Still Grand Ballroom and Florence Price Atrium imme- diately outside its doors. Still, who later lived in New York City and Los Angeles, was widely heralded as the “Dean of African American Composers.” Less well-known is that the Chi- cago Defender proclaimed Price “Dean of Af- rican American Composers of the Midwest.” ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841–1904) Largo from Symphony No. 9 in E minor, B. 178 (“From the New World”) Scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbal, and strings A certain excitement hovered in the air as late-19th-century America struggled to define its distinctivemusical identity. European forms and practices had dominated the “NewWorld” since pre-Revolutionary days. Most promis- ing young musicians received their advanced training in the European musical meccas, un- consciously reinforcing a sense of American inferiority. However, before the close of the century, several zealous individuals devoted themselves to fostering native musical talent. The National Conservatory of Music, a brain- child of Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, was incor- porated by an act of Congress in 1891 to pro- mote musical training in an American idiom. Admission was open to talented musicians, regardless of race or sex. Tuition was free. Wanting a musician of international reputa- tion who demonstrated an interest in ethnic musical expression to lead the school, Thurb- er approached Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Only after persistent negotiations did Mrs. Thurber secure his services. Dvořák arrived with his wife and two of six children on September 26, 1892, and he remained in the United States, excluding a six-month trip to Prague in 1894, until April 16, 1895. Dvořák soon hunted for examples of indige- nous American music. He pored over articles on “Negro music” provided by music critic James Huneker, and a Black conservatory student named Harry T. Burleigh introduced him to spirituals and plantation songs. Dvořák explained the importance of Black music toward the discovery of an American idiom in a New York Herald article “The Real Value of Negro Melodies” (May 21, 1893). This article appeared three days before he com- pleted his Symphony No. 9, subtitled “From the New World.” Long before reaching the United States, Dvořák had become interested in Native American culture. Henry Wadsworth Long- fellow’s The Song of Hiawatha became one of his favorite novels during the 1870s. Mrs. Thurber lured Dvořák to the United States in part with the prospect of composing a Hi- awatha opera, and he met members of the Kickapoo and Iroquois tribes while vacation- ing at the Czech community in Spillville, IA, during the summer of 1893. The opera never materialized, but neither did Dvořák aban- don Hiawatha altogether. Like any skilled craftsman, Dvořák assimi- lated essential characteristics of these ethnic styles into his own musical language. No actual folk melodies appear, but simulations are woven throughout the symphony. Dvořák explained in a New York Herald article, print- ed the day of the symphony’s premiere (De- cember 15, 1893), the significance of the slow movement: “It is different to the classics in this form. It is in reality a study or a sketch for a longer work, either a cantata or an opera which [I propose] writing, and which will be based upon Longfellow’s Hiawatha. ” The lovely Largo melody is given to the En- glish horn, an instrument said to remind the composer of Burleigh’s rich baritone. Dvořák’s original tune achieved folk status as the spir- itual “Goin’ Home,” with words written in 1922 by one of his conservatory students, Wil- liam Arms Fisher. (Many people reverse this chronology, believing the spiritual existed first.) One realizes upon hearing these inner movements a subtle thematic relationship to the first movement. The finale more conspic- uously incorporates earlier themes in order to achieve both unity and completion. DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN (b. 1971) Klap Ur Handz from Rosa Parks Symphony The son of Haitian immigrants, Daniel Ber- nard Roumain (known as “DBR”) was born in Skokie, IL, but the family eventually relocated to Pompano Beach, FL, where widely eclectic musical influences filled his youth with main- stream pop, vibrant Caribbean cultures, rock/ hip-hop guitar, synthesizers, and classical vio- lin. Roumain completed a bachelor’s degree at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and earned both master’s and doctoral de- grees from the University of Michigan, all in music composition. He has taught at The New School in New York City, Dartmouth College, and, since 2016, has served as Institute Profes- sor and Professor of Practice in the School of Music, Dance, and Theater at Arizona State University and founder/director of the DBR Lab. He also occupies leadership positions within several national musical organiza- tions, such as the League of American Or- chestras, Association of Performing Arts Pre- senters, and the Sphinx Organization. Creativity and innovation define Roumain’s artistry, not the restrictive boundaries of style or genre. His recent compositional projects include the short films/multimedia perfor- mance The Just and the Blind (2022) with mu- sic, dance, poetry, and visuals; the soundtrack for the PBS American Masters documentary on dancer/choreographer Alvin Ailey ( Ailey , 2021); i am a white person who _____ Black people (2020) for string quartet, orchestra, and film; 24-Hour Protest Song (2019) for commu- nity participants; the interdisciplinary opera We Shall not Be Moved (2017); and Redemption Songs and Sonatas (2014) for violin and piano in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Bob Marley’s birth. His wide-ranging artistic col- laborators have encompassed spoken-word poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph, jazz vocalist Cas- sandra Wilson, turntable artist DJ Spooky, choreographer Bill T. Jones, pioneering com- poser Philip Glass, tap dancer Savion Glover, and pop music icon Lady Gaga. Roumain composed a series of five string quartets, each honoring a different African American civil rights leader, over a 12-year pe- riod: MalcolmX (1993), Martin Luther King Jr. (2001), Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (2003), Maya Angelou (2004), and Rosa Parks (2005). “Civil rights, for our household,” explained the com- poser, “was global, local, and part of the very fabric of our lives and culture.” Commissioned by the Lark Quartet, String Quartet No. 5 hon- ors the “struggle, survival, and legacy” of Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat on a city bus sparked the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955–56. Parks died on October 24, 2005, in Detroit, MI, while Roumain was composing this score. Its three movements (the order occasionally changes) explore different musical temper- aments. One of Parks’s most familiar quota- tions—“I knew someone had to take the first Daniel Bernard Roumain RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 27