William Dawson
Negro Folk Symphony
Welcome back to Score Club!
For the next three weeks, we will be exploring a quintessentially American piece of music that not only expresses the composers own individual identity, but the identity of all humanity. How William Dawson expresses despair, hope, and triumph in his Negro Folk Symphony is a testament to the greatness of his music, and the power of a single voice.
William Dawson (1899-1990) was a composer and trombonist who made immense contributions to the musical world, most notably of his choral and solo vocal arrangements of African American Spirituals. At age 13, he ran away from home to the Tuskegee Institute, where he studied music, wrote his first pieces and graduated in 1921. His Negro Folk Symphony is one of his most well known works. This week, we will focus on the first movement.
While Dawson studied composition within the Western tradition, which has historically been dictated by European white men, in writing the Negro Folk Symphony, he strived to create a piece that was “unmistakably not the work of a white man.” His efforts resulted in a piece that seamlessly combines traditional Western techniques with sounds and styles from West Africa and the African American tradition. This merging also paved the way for a new “American Sound”, which is entirely evident in this piece.
Specifically, Dawson was inspired by, and even quoted African-American Spirituals in his symphony. For a more in-depth look at these spirituals and other slave song traditions, click here. This footage from 1929 (five years before Dawson wrote his Negro Folk Symphony) exemplifies the style of spiritual that Dawson would have been most exposed to and influenced by.
Even at the very beginning of his symphony, the influence of these spirituals is evident. The french horn solo that opens the piece is a clear homage to these spirituals in many ways. There are many similarities between the spirituals in the video before and the way Dawson treats the orchestra in this opening.
For example, the horn melody itself is strikingly similar to many spiritual melodies that one could hear on southern plantations. Listen to the video above and the opening of the symphony a few times and see how many similarities you can find. Further, the way the full orchestra responds to the french horn melody is akin to call-and-response structure of spirituals, an important characteristic of that music.
In fact, the opening melody in the french horn is what guides us through the piece. That same melody, either in full or in part, is played over ten times throughout the piece, and small bits of it (called motives) are present almost at all times. Composers throughout history, from Bach to present day, have used repetition like this to give structure and meaning to their pieces.
Some of the most glaring repetitions of Dawson’s opening melody are at 5:38, 8:38 and 10:10 in the video above. Determining the individual character of these melodies and how they “act” upon the music that comes before and after them gives us important clues into the meaning behind the piece. The movement is subtitled “The Bond Of Africa.” How does Dawson use this melody to express that idea?
Dawson was able to merge the worlds of folk music and traditional classical music seamlessly, and his use of the french horn melody throughout his symphony is a perfect example of how he brought his traditional training into his work. This video is of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, and he uses a different horn theme in a very similar way to Dawson. The theme is first played at the beginning, and then at 8:33, 11:37, and 15:15. Compare how Dawson and Tchaikovsky use this technique and to what end.
That’s it for this week! Next week we will dive into the second movement! Happy listening!
Hope in the Night
Negro Folk Symphony - WEEK 2
Hope is a complex idea. If we are searching for hope the implication is that we are in a time of struggle. Yet, if we find hope during these times, we are able to simultaneously believe in goodness and maintain our optimism for the future. It is a powerful feeling but one that is extremely difficult to express in art. This week, we look at how William Dawson explores the idea of hope in the second movement of his Negro Folk Symphony, and ponder how he might think of hope.
Structure and/or form has been one of the primary vehicles for presenting overarching themes/meaning in music since before Bach. Mozart and Beethoven began the work of truly exploring the possibilities of using form to express meaning, and those who followed, including Dawson, have continued that tradition while experimenting with new structures for their works.
In the second movement of Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, the structure is particularly important and distinct. Its opening, with the drudging low strings, minor key and solo english horn (inspired by spirituals and akin to the first movement’s french horn theme) presents a kind of darkness where hope cannot be found - however at 2:45 in the video here, he veers off course into an entirely new world - one full of life, optimism and movement.
It is these two drastically different sections that permeate the rest of the movement, creates a narrative where we search for hope, and give us a glimpse into how Dawson thinks of hope. While they differ in style, musical material, melody and harmony, neither is entirely devoid of the other. We can find brief moments of beauty in the first section, and moments of despair in the second (starting at 2:45). How Dawson uses the material in these sections in whole and in part throughout the movement, and how they interact and intertwine with each other is what we need to listen for.
For example, the main melody exposed by the english horn at the very beginning makes a sudden entrance at 3:54 and at 7:16, this time at a forte and in the trumpets. Comparing these three moments helps to find meaning in the music. How do they moments differ? How did the music lead up to these moments and what happened afterwards? Perhaps most important is what happened in-between these moments, and what story it tells.
That particular melody from the beginning - along with many other musical materials both from the darker and lighter sections - comes back frequently throughout the movement. They all come together to paint a picture of hope through the eyes of William Dawson. Once we have located and examined how these sections and materials interact, we can start to put together the “story,” but one key element remains: the end of the movement.
With the end of the movement comes the return of the drudge from the very beginning. The pulse of the drum, drone of the gongs and the swells in the strings all point to the night; To a kind of void where we may feel lost. The music fades away as it seems our main character is slowly marching away into the darkness. The darkness is of course an idea - the space that we can all find ourselves in when we need hope in our lives. Through this ending, Dawson is furthering the idea that hope is only needed in times of hardship, and can only be searched for when it is needed. However, he also clearly shows us throughout the movement that hope can in fact be found anywhere; that despite any and all hardships we may face, hope will always give us a way forward.
That’s it for week two! Stay tuned for the third and final installment of this piece when we will see where this new-found hope and optimism takes us!
Oh Le’ Me Shine!
Week Three!
