Dominique-René de Lerma: "I wonder what might be the story if 'Troubled island', as an example, had secured its proper place"

[Africa: Piano Music of William Grant Still; Denver Oldham, piano; Koch 3 7084 2H1 (1991)]

Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, whose website is http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com, is a leading Musicologist who has specialized in Composers of African Descent for four decades. He is principal advisor to AfriClassical.com, and compiled the comprehensive Works List for William Grant Still (1895-1978) which is featured at the website. He adds his thoughts to the discussion about William Grant Still and the music of George Gershwin:

“Had Black singers ever rejected being cast in Porgy and Bess the work might never have been performed, but it also has to be admitted that many of these might have had less of a career. I don't suggest that P&B sucked out all the oxygen, yet I wonder what might be the story if Troubled island, as an example, had secured its proper place in the repertoire. It might yet; it certainly deserves a major production -- and this might be forthcoming (see Judy Still's words below) [Prior Post]!

“Still's just concern for an appropriate representation of Black dignity reminds me of a comment Joe Eubanks made when he was about to take a year off from the faculty at Morgan for the Radio City production: He said very correctly that P&B was not at all within in him, that he was much more the king in Verdi's Don Carlo. He did, of course, accept the gig, just as he had done when the show toured Europe (with Leontyne Price and Bill Warfield).

"Elizabeth Greenfield, Sisserietta Jones, and Marian Anderson were lucky never to have been cast in the work. Can we picture Roland Hayes as Sportin' Life? This is not to say that I do not regard P&B as a major work. How might WGS have reacted to the rappers?"

Comments by email:

Randye Jones [Soprano and Researcher with website on Black Classical Vocal Music, http://www.randyejones.com/]
Greetings! I posted the forwarded noticed to the Facebook group on African American Art Song that Darryl Taylor runs and was stunned at the huge amount of discussion it generated, over 50 posts the last time I looked. My perspective without reading a convincing argument for such a boycott is to take a different tactic: to encourage colleagues to explore every option available to purchase, perform, and study works by African American composers. However, I also can't help but hope that these works become more readily available and not limited to one, or no, source. Randye

Judith Anne Still
The best argument for not doing Gershwin is that many a Black composer in Harlem died in poverty because good-old-George stole his music, while Gershwin made millions from his thefts. Then, PORGY is demeaning and unflattering, and it is now in the public domain, yet the Gershwin estate still takes money from people for performances. Lastly, a performer who does PORGY is dealing with stolen property. My beef is that Still's operas are not performed because PORGY is always done "instead of."