William Grant Still born - May 11, 1895

On this day in 1895, composer William Grant Still was born in Mississippi.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This
Day History Class, a podcast that brings you a new
slice of history every day. Today is May eleven. The

(00:22):
day was May eleventh. Composer William Grant Still was born
in Woodville, Mississippi. He wrote more than one and fifty compositions,
and he was the first Black American conductor of a
major orchestra. Still it's often referred to as the Dean
of African American composers. When Still was a teenager, he

(00:45):
began studying the violin. His stepfather, Charles Shepherdson, encouraged his
love of music by taking him to recitals and introducing
him to opera on Red Seal records. After graduating from
high school in nineteen eleven, Still in rolled at Wilberforce
University in Ohio. He learned to play multiple instruments, including

(01:05):
the cello and obo. His musical talent flourished in college,
where he conducted the university band, composed music, and formed
a string quartet. But Still left the school before graduating.
He was interested in pursuing a career as a classical composer.
He studied composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and at

(01:27):
the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston under George
Whitefield Chadwick and He began working as a freelance performer
and arranger in nineteen fifteen. Still married Grace Bundy, and
they eventually had four children together, though they divorced in
nineteen thirty nine. Still served in the Navy during World

(01:48):
War One, but beyond that he dove head first into music.
He worked as an arranger for composer and musician W. C. Handy.
He played oboe in the musical Shuffle Along, which had
a successful run on Broadway and featured people like Josephine Baker,
Florence Mills, and Paul Robeson. He took a job with
Harry Pace's past Phonograph Company, doing arrangements for artists who

(02:12):
recorded on the Black Swan label. In the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra performed Stills Afro American Symphony. It was the first
time a major orchestra performed a symphony composed by a
Black American, and it's still's best known composition. He said
the following about the symphony, I knew I wanted to

(02:33):
write a Symphony. I knew that it had to be
an American work, and I wanted to demonstrate how the blues,
so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to
the highest musical level. The symphony featured elements of spirituals, blues, jazz,
and call and response. It was also the first symphony
to use a banjo. Many of Still's works incorporated Black

(02:57):
American forms like the blues, spiritual in jazz. By the
time Afro American Symphony premiered, Still had been to Los
Angeles and composed more than one hundred songs for the
band leader in orchestral director Paul Whiteman. He moved to
Los Angeles permanently in nineteen thirty four. Throughout the nineteen thirties,
he arranged music for films like Pennies from Heaven and

(03:20):
Lost Horizon, and he continued to collect first in his
musical career. He became the first Black American to conduct
a major symphony orchestra in the United States when he
led the Los Angeles for Harmonic in nineteen thirty six,
and he was the first to have an opera performed
on national television when his opera A Bayou Legend, finished
in nineteen forty one, premiered on PBS in nineteen one.

(03:45):
Right after still divorced Grace Bundy, he married Verna Rvy
in Mexico, where interracial marriage was legal. Rvy was a
pianist and writer who wrote the libretti for many of
his operas over the course of his career, still host
nearly two symphonies, ballets, operas, chamber music pieces, and works
for solo instruments. He collaborated with Zorah Neil Hirston, Katherine

(04:09):
Garrison Chapin, and Linkston Hughes, and his compositions were influenced
by people like Paul Lawrence Dunbar and W. E. B.
Du Bois. Still died in Los Angeles. I'm Eve Jeff
Coote and hopefully you know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. And if you have any

(04:31):
comments are suggestions, you can send them to us via
email at this day at I heeart Media dot com.
You can also follow us on social media at t
D i h C podcast. Thanks again for listening to
the show and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts

(04:54):
from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.