Musical composers of the past are sometimes forgotten because their music is placed behind shelves or ends up in antique stores.
However, the EC symphony orchestra paid tribute to the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra, William Grant Still, Saturday at the Marsee Auditorium.
Still was the first to have a symphony of his own (his first symphony) performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television.
He is often referred to as “the dean” of African-American composers.
Dr. Dane Teter, coordinator of the applied music program in EC, said that Still was a great man with many historical and beautiful pieces that are not well known and that he would like to share it with everyone.
“Because of segregation, and many racial differences at the time, Still wasn’t as well-known or as mainstream as other composers,” Teter said. “We want to pay tribute to Mr. Still by playing some of the pieces that he composed so that we can show how beautiful his work was. To this day, nobody really knows who Grant Still is.”
With the limited amount of technology and resources in the past, Teter said that Still’s work wasn’t exposed to the public even though his work was phenomenal.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Teter said. “Mr Still’s work was off-the-charts type stuff and I wish that many of the young kids in this generation can truly realize how gifted he was.”
Judith Anne Still, the daughter of Grant Still, spoke about her father’s career in music and she also shared some of her experiences managing Still’s work since her father passed away in December 1978.
Judith Still now dedicates herself to getting her father’s music recorded and played by orchestras.
The toughest challenge that faced the orchestra was that some of the musicians were not too familiar with Still’s work. They had to learn the piece from scratch and adapt it to Still’s style.
“I didn’t even know who Grant (Still) was until we started playing his music,” Hanibal Seminario, a flutist, music major and saxophone player, said. “But he has very beautiful pieces that were great for us to play and it also expanded my knowledge about music.”
Manuel Arellano, a pianist and music major, said that playing Still’s pieces was fun because it gave him a chance to be creative.
“I wasn’t quite familiar with Still’s work so it gave me a chance to put my own creative twist to it,” Reyes said. “It gave me a chance to put my own style into Grant Still’s work which was already great itself. It was fun.”
One of the aspects of his music that Reyes got creative with were the dynamics.
In music, the artist can express how loud or soft the music will be through crescendo and decrescendo, the art of playing the music soft or loud. Reyes said that was the fun part.
“Still had great pieces that were fun to play,” Reyes said. “The dynamics were great to mess around with.”
With the concert finished, Teter said it would be great for this generation of musicians to know more about Still’s work and also about lesser-known musicians of the past.
“I’m hoping is a great opportunity for past musicians who were less known to get more publicity,” Teter said. “The work that they did needs to be exposed more to the public and it is sad that not enough people know who these musicians are.”
