The Royal Scottish National Orchestra collaborates with its assistant conductor Kellen Gray to record works by three of the greatest African American voices of the twentieth century. The two symphonies by William Levi Dawson and William Grant Still, coinciding with Black History Month, have proven to be fundamental to the use of African American idioms in symphonic form.
Each composer focused on one of the two original foundational elements of African American music: folk and jazz. William Levi Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony draws 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 channels his influence through elements that were popular in jazz and pre-jazz. While the latter is the more recognized figure in American music, Dawson was equally important in the timeline of African American music, and his only published symphony is remarkably mature for a composer's first attempts at symphonic writing. This program also celebrates George Walker's hundredth birthday with a recording of his Lyric for Strings.
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