CHAPTER 48
Modern America: Still and Musical Modernism in the United States
OVERVIEW
Chapter 48 turns to African American contributions to musical modernism during the 1920s and
1930s. The music of William Grant Still serves to illustrate his position among the figureheads of
the Harlem Renaissance as well composers in search of a distinctly American musical identity.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the value of music within the creative context of the Harlem Renaissance
2. To recognize the music of William Grant Still as drawing from the African American
experience to establish a uniquely American musical identity
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Have students read Langston Hughes’s poem “The Weary Blues” (from the collection The
Weary Blues [1926]) and discuss the ways in which the author incorporates music
(specifically jazz and blues) into the content and imagery of the poem. Ask students to
compare Hughes’s literary approach to portraying the African American experience with
Still’s musical approach in his Suite for Violin and Piano. How do they both embody the
values of the Harlem Renaissance? How do their approaches differ?
2. Before playing the third movement from Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano, ask students to
form small groups. As they listen, they should consider how the style, spirit, and character
of ragtime, jazz, and blues are captured in the music. After playing the excerpt and
discussing these connections, give the student groups another five to ten minutes to discuss
how Still’s music comments on and/or embodies Augusta Savage’s Gamin. What do Gamin
and Still’s musical commentary reveal about the African American experience from the
perspective of these Harlem Renaissance artists?
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. As the textbook notes, during the 1920s and 1930s, the musical efforts of composers such as
William Grant Still created a dilemma for both the concert music establishment and the
proponents of the Harlem Renaissance. On one hand, incorporating blues and jazz bothered
some conservative critics of the serious concert tradition. In contrast, for supporters of the
Harlem Renaissance, the Eurocentric traditions of the concert hall were not compatible with
the essence of African American artistic expression. How do you explain these conflicting
attitudes? What kind of thinking or underlying agendas are behind these interpretations? Do
you agree with one side or the other? Why or why not?
2. The Harlem Renaissance was not simply an African American movement but an urban
African American movement. How is urban life expressed in Still’s Suite for Violin and
Piano and other artistic creations of the Harlem Renaissance? What is the relationship
between the African American experience (both contemporary and historical) and urban
life? How does this context continue to play out in predominantly African American forms
of music and other kinds of cultural expression?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
Teaching the Harlem Renaissance brings up a challenging question that has been associated with
the movement from its very beginnings: how do African American artists assert and claim their
heritage and racial identity creatively within a movement that recognizes the talent and
intellectual gifts of all people regardless of race or ethnicity? Try posing this question to your
students and begin a dialogue about race, identity, and creativity.
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
William Grant Still: Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American Symphony)
Duke Ellington: Black, Brown, and Beige
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Paul Allen. Deep River: Music and Memory in Harlem Renaissance Thought.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001. A fascinating study of music in the Harlem
Renaissance. Chapter 3 discusses how the intellectual leaders of the Harlem Renaissance
(especially Alain Locke) dealt with the issue of African American musical expression
incorporating European versus native forms and styles.
Smith, Catherine Parsons. William Grant Still. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. An
excellent biography of Still and discussion of his works. Chapter 6 (“Still’s Instrumental
Music”) places the Suite for Violin and Piano within the context of his larger instrumental
output.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Modern America: Still and Musical Modernism in the United States (Chapter 48)
I. The Harlem Renaissance
A. 1920s and 30s literary, artistic, sociological movement highlighting African American
intellectual life
1. call for racial equality, pride in black cultural heritage
2. sparked by The New Negro (1925), edited by Alain Locke
3. Langston Hughes (1902–1967) poet and novelist
a. depicted struggles of working-class blacks
b. frequent visitor of Harlem jazz clubs
c. wrote uniquely African American poetry: imitated rhythms and flow of jazz
4. Apollo Theater, Cotton Club: Harlem jazz clubs
5. growth of black cultural prestige
a. musical traditions fostered: blues, jazz, spirituals
b. less interested in development of modernist art music
B. William Grant Still (1895–1978)
1. African American composer, violinist
2. most important musical voice of Harlem Renaissance
3. Memphis and New York: arranger for radio and musical theater
4. broke numerous racial barriers
a. Afro-American Symphony (1931): first symphony by African American composer
performed by major American orchestra
b. Troubled Island (1949): first African American composer performed in major
opera house
5. Guggenheim Fellowship; honorary degrees
6. film and television scores
7. deliberately moved away from avant-garde
8. music infused with elements of spirituals, blues, and jazz
9. output: four symphonies, orchestral suites, film scores, stage works, operas, chamber
music, vocal music, piano music, choral music
C. Stills’s Suite for Violin and Piano
1. drawn on established genre: modernist neo-Classical trend
2. movements inspired by African American sculptures
a. African Dancer by Richmond Barthé
b. Mother and Child by Sargent Johnson
c. Gamin by Augusta Savage; image of a street-smart kid in Harlem
D. Listening Guide 37: Still, Suite for Violin and Piano, Third Movement (1943)
1. sectional form, opening returns frequently
2. “rhythmically and humorously”
3. bluesy melodies, modal harmonies
4. quick duple meter, flashy syncopated violin line
5. insistent bass pattern, “Harlem stride piano” (chords on offbeats: 2 and 4)
6. call-and-response exchanges between violin and piano
7. violin effects: glissandos, trills, double stops