George Walker's “Lyric for Strings”: Program Note by Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma

[Photo courtesy of George Walker]

George Walker is the third Black composer whose music has been programmed by Rachel Barton Pine, Guest Concertmaster, for the concerts of San Francisco's New Century Chamber Orchestra, June 5-10. The first two are Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma has written this Program Note for George Walker's Lyric for Strings:

One of the most remarkable figures on the contemporary scene is George Walker (b. 1922). His musical education was as a pianist at Oberlin, the Curtis Institute and Eastman School of Music, but he was also a private student of Nadia Boulanger (she met most of her other pupils in class). Toward the end of his academic career, he was in charge of the music program at Rutgers University in Newark. Perhaps he first became known by the pioneering recording by his childhood friend, Natalie Hinderas -- his first piano sonata. The Lyric, perhaps his most frequently played and readily accessible work, bears a resemblance to that sonata – in fact, to most of his works – fresh and unexpected cadences that redefine the tonality of the music just heard, but with an ardent aesthetic credo, Dr. Walker has stated that he does not repeat successes. Therefore, each of his works has a new voice and fresh approach. He has the distinction of being the first African American composer to win a Pulitzer Prize (1996). This was for his Lilacs, set to Walt Whitman’s well known text, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The Lyric work was originally the slow movement of his first string quartet, and titled Lament, homage to his grandmother. The version for string orchestra intensifies the harmonic richness inherent in the original setting. One will certainly be immediately reminded of a similar situation with Samuel Barber’s Adagio, but Walker’s contribution is quite independent and unquestionably valid.

Rachel Barton Pine
Guest Concertmaster
New Century Chamber Orchestra
George Theophilus Walker
Lyric for Strings
Dominique-René de Lerma