William Grant Still - Symphony no. 2 (1/4) 1937

[pleximanic]

Classical Blues!

[Iriecarver]

Performance date: 19/05/2012 -

Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK.

[mikswizzle]

He is not a great African American composer.....he is a great composer period, and one of the best. lets get that straight people :)

[MrTyfromdarich]

This is great!!!

[roadman89NE]

yea this stuff is amazing though i wish i could have known about this years ago. funny how i went to a university and never heard anything about it. I went to a junior college and had a black teacher and heard about it. I am from the south ( mississippi) and was wandering what the freshman college music level courses covered elsewhere?

[WorldOfMeco]

I'm confused. I thought that mankinds' origins were in Africa. That makes Black people the oldest race.

[roadman89NE]

@WorldOfMeco assuming black people were origionally the only race in africa....

[adventureman63w]

William Grant Still dedicated this Symphony to Black people in America because we are the new race.

[abdul7591]

This is a very fine symphony by an important American composer. Bartje, is there any chance you could post Jarvi's recording of the 1st symphony? I can only find excerpts of it on YouTube.

[MrRasputin100]

cool

[kmitch672004]

God loves wondrous colors and varieties. We as Americans must embrace all facets of our culture. BEAUTIFUL song!

[babegirl1818]

i remember listening to this song in music class and falling in love with it. sighs.

[TNMEBDCara]

ahhh I love this. I'm taking my laptop to school tomorrow and playing this for a presentation for black history month :D

[bartje11]

Great idea! Thanks for visiting!

[Maestoso28]

it sounds a lot like Debussy.

[callmeBe]

@Maestoso28 You're hearing all the parrallelisms--ie, major thirds (which easily lead into the Lydian mode). Also, the timing is very French and anti German--an avoidance of powerful rhythmic drive into the harmonic cadences. Anyway, great observation . . .

[whack47]

I really like the last minute or so. I'm going to listen to the rest later.