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Black origins in American classical music…

“HARMONY ACROSS BARRIERS”

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William Grant Still &  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

This concert re-introduces beautiful, compelling and inspired music by these two great composers, and shares with you some of their story. They desired to infuse the Black African and Black American identity with solid musical  sources from spirituals, blues and even jazz elements. They also wrote music in a universal manner, thus crossing barriers into a white classical music world.

Juxtaposed with this are works by the great George Gershwin (composer of the controversial opera,  Porgy and Bess) and contemporary English composer, Betty Roe (who set to music a number of the biting and delightful Madam’s Callers  poems by Langston Hughes).

PERFORMED BY:

  MEGUMU KAJINO, violin  GEOFFREY BAKER, viola

JONATHAN MOSER, violin  LUCY STROTHER, cello

BRENDA BONHOMME, soprano        

ROLLIN WILBER, piano

MUSICAL PROGRAM

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WILLIAM GRANT STILL (1895-1978)

LYRIC QUARTETTE for strings (1960)

“Musical portraits of three friends, as follows”:

The Sentimental One   –  The Quiet One  –  The Jovial One

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THREE VISIONS for piano solo (1936)

Dark Horsemen   –  Summerland   –   Radiant Pinnacle

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SONGS OF SEPARATION for voice and piano, after Black poets (1949)

Idolatry (Arna Bontemps)

Poeme (Philippe Thoby Marcelin)

Parted (Paul Lawrence Dunbar)

If You Should Go (Countee Cullen)

A Black Pierrot (Langston Hughes)

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GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)

SUITE FROM PORGY AND BESS (1935) for violin and piano (arranged by Jascha Heifetz) 

Summertime – A Woman Is A Sometime thing

Bess, You is My Woman Now

My Man’s Gone Now (transcribed for viola)

It Ain’t Necessarily So

Tempo di Blues (Picnics Is Alright; There’s a Boat Dat’s Leaving Soon for New York)

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BETTY ROE (born 1930)

Madam and the Census Man

Madam and the Wrong Visitor

Madam and the Minister

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SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR  (1875-1912)

Pieces from TWENTY-FOUR NEGRO MELODIES, op.59 for piano, violin and cello; with viola (1905)

Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?

I Was Way Down A-Yonder

Deep River (transcribed by Maud Powell for violin and piano; arranged for viola)

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

My Lord Delivered Daniel

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THREE FANTASY PIECES for string quartet, op.5

Prelude   –   Humoresque   –   Dance

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READ MORE ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION

LINK TO FULL PRINTED PROGRAM AND NOTES IN A PDF

READ WHAT TWO CHESTNUT HILL COLLEGE MUSIC STUDENTS WERE MOVED TO THINK ABOUT:
commentary#1 — commentary#2

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for information about the entire series

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015 at 7:30 pm  

IVY HALL – International Institute for Culture

6331 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19151

ADMISSION: $25/general

TICKETS: http://fineartmusiccompany.ticketleap.com/harmony-across-barriers-ivy/

INFORMATION: 215-877-9910

SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2015 at 3:00 pm  

THE ETHICAL SOCIETY BUILDING

1906 S. Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103