Score Club Special Edition

Welcome to our fourth and final installment of our Special Edition Score Club! This week we explore the music of contemporary (living) African American composers/performers in Classical music and Jazz.

After World War II, music of all kinds began to splinter in seemingly infinite directions. Today, there are innumerable styles ranging from Neo-classical, Minimalism, Avant-garde, Jazz, Popular and everything in between. We hope this week to give you a sampling of some of these unique styles in our contemporary musical world. Each of these styles is just as important and meaningful as the next. In no particular order, we will spotlight a number of composers writing in very diverse styles.

Daniel Bernard Roumain

To illustrate how diverse our musical world is, let’s start with a composer who is known for bridging the gap between all styles of music and art forms, Daniel Bernard Roumain (b. 1970). In this video that samples some of this work, he explains his thoughts on collaboration and working in many different mediums.

Roumain’s opera We Shall Not be Moved was called “The best Classical music performance of 2017” by the New York Times. Here is a brief synopsis of the opera:

On the run after a series of tragic incidents, five North Philly teens find refuge in an abandoned, condemned house in West Philadelphia at the exact location that served as headquarters of the MOVE organization, where a 1985 standoff with police infamously ended with a neighborhood destroyed and 11 people dead, including five children. This self-defined family is assuaged and even inspired by the ghosts who inhabit this home and begin to see their squatting as a matter of destiny and resistance rather than urgent fear.

These are two clips from that opera.

George Lewis

George Lewis (b. 1952) is another composer who works in multi-disciplinary art forms, however his music is distinctly different from that of Roumain’s. Equally at home in the Jazz and Experimental Classical world, he was a pioneer in computer music when composers began to utilize digital media, and is equally influential in the the genres of improvisation, experimental and electronic music, as well as installation art. As a trombonist, he has recorded with Jazz greats like Count Basie, and has released over a dozen albums to his name.

His piece Anthem (2012) written for the Wet Ink Ensemble, is a great example of how versatile Lewis is. Written for voice, electronics and chamber ensemble, the piece clearly incorporates aspects of Avant-garde, Jazz, Rock, the spoken word and Classical traditions. If you move the cursor in the video to any point, you will immediately be moved to an entirely different soundscape.

This recording of Interactive Trio for Trombone and Two Pianos (2011) is another example of how improvisation takes a large role in his music, and how he incorporates electronics. George Lewis himself does not enter the stage until half way through the performance.

Jessie Montgomery

New York City native Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981) is a skyrocketing composer and active, in-demand violinist. Her music, while firmly situated in “Classical” traditions blends seamlessly with music of the vernacular and is often written as a call for social justice. Her works serve as an excellent example of music expressing (and exposing) our current time.

One of her most well-known pieces is titled Banner. Written for the Sphinx Organization (which will be discussed later), it commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner. While it draws from the Star Spangled banner, it also incorporates folk music, anthems and styles from all over the world.

Much of Montgomery’s music is permeated by complex rhythms that drive the piece. Strum, which OrchestraOne performed at Third Street Music School Settlement, is an example of how ingeniously she uses rhythm to give a narrative to the piece, while allowing melodies to soar un-impeded.

Tania Leon

Tania Leon (b. 1943) is a Cuban-born musician currently living in NYC who is equally respected as a composer and a conductor. Further, her contributions in music education are vast, including her founding of the music school and orchestra at Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theater of Harlem. In addition to her large output of work, she has guest conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Beethovenhalle Orchestra among many others. She has been commissioned by many of the world’s best orchestras and chamber ensembles and has a wealth of accolades and awards to her name.

Her most recent orchestral work, Stride, has yet to be premiered. It will be part of the New York Philharmonic’s “Project 19,” which is in celebration of the ratification of the 19th amendment. Stride is written in memory of Susan B. Anthony. This clip is of the New York Philharmonic in rehearsal with this piece.

Leon’s most recent ballet titled Inura incorporates rhythmic traditions found in South America (especially Brazil) and traditional African music. Composed for voices, strings and percussion, it’s an incredibly unique and wonderful sound world.

Wynton Marsalis

Nine-time grammy winner Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961) is one of the most virtuosic trumpet players of our time, and arguably the most influential Jazz musician of the 21st Century. As the Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and leader of the Jazz band there, he has innumerable compositions across all genres and all sizes of ensembles. His music ranges from newly written standards to pieces that experiment with unique new sounds, and music that is heavily influenced by popular music of the day. He frequently writes music that speaks to the socio-economic conditions surrounding the African American community today, and also to the lives of slaves. One of these pieces won a Pulitzer Prize (see below).

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz band is perhaps the greatest Jazz band in existence today. Their virtuosity and adaptability is second to none as they are equally at home playing the old standards as the are playing some of the most challenging new music in the Jazz world. Duke Ellington is one of their biggest influences. Here they are performing one of Duke’s most difficult pieces, Braggin’ in Brass.

Wynton’s music combines all of the Jazz and popular styles of the past to the present. This recording of Where Y’All at from his album “From the Plantations to the Penitentiaries” combines Jazz, Hip-Hop, elements of Gospel, and some traditional African sounds as well. The entire album speaks to the systemic injustices faced by African Americans throughout the history of the United States.

In 1997, his piece Blood on the Fields won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Written as a two and a half hour Jazz Oratorio (a genre very much invented by Duke Ellington) the piece follows the lives of two slaves and their journey to freedom. This video shows Wynton speaking a bit about the piece, followed by a performance of an excerpt titled Work Song.

Aaron Dworkin

Aaron Dworkin (b. 1970) is a multi-media performing artist, author, social entrepreneur, artist-citizen, and educator. He served as the Dean of the University of Michigan School of Music from 2015-2017, was named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, and was President Obama’s first appointment to the National Council on the Arts. His work, from lectures to performances to compositions and more, focuses on politics, innovation, creativity, human pair bonding and issues of economic and social justice.

Dworkin frequently uses the art of the Spoken Word in his performances, as in this performance of The American Rhapsody. It tells the story of the USA through the prism of the life and words of America’s first President, George Washington. The work is set to Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Symphonic Variations on an African Air. The American Rhapsody is a tribute to the ideals of courage, freedom and commitment while also serving as a story of vulnerability and the progression of humanity through the great injustices which plague our history.

One of Dworkin’s biggest passions is Inclusion in American Classical music. This video shows him addressing his thoughts on this topic. It led him to found the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based national organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. It’s a remarkable organization that has affected over 100,000 students and is one of the most successful organizations of its kind. Click here to learn more.

Shelly Washington

Shelly Washington (b. 1991) is a composer, saxophonist, collaborator, and educator currently based in NYC. Her music pulls from a wide variety of styles and she says the following of her philosophy “The music I write focuses on exploring emotions and intentions by finding their root cause. I want a listener to somehow move, for their emotions or imaginations to be altered, or even just be moved to tap their toes.”

One of her most recent pieces is The Farthest, Commissioned by Dianne Berkun-Menaker for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Silent Voices II concert, April 2018. This is what she says of the piece: “The Farthest is intended to be sung by the voices of now as a call both forward and backwards in time; a shout of gratitude back to those who challenged the wrongs of their time, and a call forward to all listeners to never give up hope, and to strive for being their best.”

On writing music for Social Justice, she says the following: “In the music I write that confronts known social injustices, I want to create a space for public dialogue while personally reclaiming power for my own experienced inequalities” Her piece Big Talk is an example of her powerful voice for social justice. This is her program note: “BIG Talk was written for two baritone saxophones as a personal response to the repulsive prevalence of rape culture that can be observed in catcalling and sexual harassment that female-identifying persons experience and endure on a daily basis.”

Michael Abels

Michael Abels (b. 1962) is a composer and conductor who is best known for his film scores from Get Out and Us. The latter won the World Soundtrack Award, the Jerry Goldsmith Award, a Critics Choice nomination, an Image Award nomination, and multiple critics awards. He has a large oeuvre of orchestral, band and chamber music as well, blending the worlds of Classical, Hip-Hop, Rock and Roll, Jazz, Electronic Dance Music and more styles.

His piece Urban Legends incorporates many forms of American music, including Rock, Jazz, Hip-Hop and EDM while being presented in a traditional classical format, the Concerto Grosso, with four soloists in front of the orchestra. The piece was commissioned by the Sphinx Organization, mentioned above.

Anthem is one of the works from the soundtrack from Us. Scored for voices, strings and percussion, it draws from all the styles mentioned before, as well as traditional African drumming and song.

Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton (b. 1945) is a composer and saxophone player who is known in the world of Free Jazz. However, his music, much like George Lewis’s, defines genre. It is improvisatory and experimental, giving it an ever-changing life. Given a MacArther Genius Grant in 1994, Braxton developed a number of entirely new ways to notate and write music. These include graphic notation, “Language Musics,” “Kelvin Compositions,” “Collage Forms,” “Ghost Trance Musics” and others.

One well known album of his is called Beyond Quantum. Instead of the typical track listings, he breaks the album down into five “meetings” with his bandmates percussionist Milford Graves, and bassist William Parker. While almost entirely improvisatory, these “meetings” are real compositions by Braxton and his band members. Their communication is impeccable and the contrasts throughout the album are remarkable.

Jeffrey Mumford

Born in 1955, Jeffrey Mumford has been commissioned by some of the biggest orchestras in the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and the Library of Congress (co-commission), the BBC Philharmonic, the San Antonio, Chicago & National Symphonies, the Sphinx Consortium, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and the Cleveland Orchestra. The New York Times speaks of his music like this: " a philosophy of music making that embraced both raw passion and a gentle imagistic poetry.” His pieces are solidly “modern", but also evocative and thought-provoking.

Even Mumford’s titles are evocative, with names like of fields unfolding…echoing depths of resonant lights. The titles themselves say much about his compositional process for each piece. Of this piece, which is a cello concerto, he says the following: “Recently, I have focused more keenly on gradations and intensities of light as communicated by sound. I imagine distinct worlds within clouds as they define distance, which greatly fuels my imagination. In particular, my most recent works attempt to address these elements, such as my ‘cello concerto…”

This piece written for solo violin and chamber ensemble titled through a stillness brightening is similar in style. These descriptive and poetic titles give the listener a way into the piece, and add depth to our listening experience.

Regina Carter

Regina Carter (b. 1966) is a Jazz violinist, composer and arranger who has significantly expanded the traditional role of the violin. Trained in the classical tradition, she has been awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant, has been on the Pulitzer Prize Jury twice, tours with her own band and has performed with the great jazz legends of our time, including Wynton Marsalis on his Blood on the Fields album.

In 2014, Carter released her album “Southern Comfort,” which acts as a musical journey into her past. Here is what she says about the album: “I wanted to hear the music that my ancestors heard. Southern Comfort is a musical journey tracing my father’s roots in the American South.” This album is a traditional folk song from the south entitled “Shoo-Rye,” with Carter’s unique flare.

Much of her music explores her own past and the history of the people and places around her. Her Album “Motor City Moments” (2000) is an homage to her home of Detroit, MI. Throughout the album, she, as is typical of her playing, incorporates all styles of American music from Folk, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues and more.

Carlos Simon

Carlos Simon’s music while solidly Neo-romantic ventures in many directions, and is influenced not only by the great romantic composers of the past, but by the popular music of the day as well. He often incorporates spoken word and multimedia effects as well. He not only writes music for traditional ensembles large and small, but has also scored many independent films to great acclaim.

One of his String Quartet’s titled Elegy is a stunning example of his style of neo-romantacism. The piece honors the lives of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner and was recently performed at the Kennedy Center for the Mason Bates JFK Jukebox Series.

In contrast to Elegy, Simon uses a typical small Jazz band in his White Only. Colored Only. Throughout the piece, the ensemble plays simultaneously against George Wallace’s infamous “Segregation Forever” speech from 1963. The juxtaposition is apt, as Jazz, an art form that sprung from African and slave roots was starting to bridge the Black and White communities, and was gaining huge popularity in the 1960s - at the very time Wallace gave his speech.

Evan Williams

The music written by composer/conductor Evan Williams is a prime example of the modern tendencies of composers to pull from a plethora of styles, new and old. His music has been performed by members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Quince Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble and many more throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and Switzerland.

Commissioned by The Urban Playground Orchestra in NYC, his piece Beautiful Death is centered around the suicide of Evelyn McHale On May 1, 1947. The picture of her laying on the roof of a car after jumping from a building was made famous in LIFE Magazine. He says this of the piece: “Beautiful Death is a critique on the rhetorical trope of suicide, especially self-immolation, of a female for the sake of lost love.”

His piece Dead White Man Music is an example of how he blends styles from the past and present. The use of a harpsichord as soloist and some of the stylistic tendencies in the piece are solidly baroque, but also in the piece are elements of modern Classical music, Jazz, Rock and Roll and many other genres. He says: “To put it bluntly, the performance and study of the canon is one of dead white man music, and that fact often feels like a barrier for female composers and those of color that must be overcome. Dead White Man Music serves as a personal reflection on this issue, and my own place in Classical music as a young black composer.”

Chanda Dancy

Chanda Dancy (b. 1978) is an composer, violinist, keyboardist, and singer. Like Michael Abels, she is best known for her film scores, specifically independent films including MVP (A Sundance Film Festival Selection), the official selection of the Vienna International Film festival, What are We Waiting For, and the award-winning feature Chandler Hall. She is also a member of the rock band, Modern Time Machines.

Dancy has an amazing ability to encapsulate the emotion and action of any scene perfectly and in an entirely unique way. Some of her scores are purely electronic, others are for full orchestra, and others, like this one, are for mixed instruments in a chamber ensemble. This piece titled The Chase is from the movie Alibi Nation.

Her most recent stand-alone piece is titled Centrifuge: Or The Powers That Separate Us and contains all the character and twists and turns that her music for film contains. This is what she says of this piece: “In society, our ‘centrifuge’ uses the powers of fear, lies and hate to force people of a united country to separate, leaving the heavy burdened – the poor, the sick, the pariahs – to the bottom of the “great experiment”, crying out in anguish and calling for ‘Riot!’”

The vastness of the contemporary music world can be intimidating. The composers above are just a very small representation of the music being created by African American musicians only in the Classical realm. The study of this music, even just for the the first decade of the 21st century, can be a life-long endeavor, especially if one incorporates the world of popular music.

From all of us at OrchestraOne, thank you for taking this Journey with us! And remember to sign up for Score Club to continue getting emails about some of the greatest music throughout history! We will be returning to our usual format of discussing one piece over the course of a few weeks for the next edition. Click HERE to sign up!