The
Spirituals of William L. Dawson;
The
St. Olaf Choir;
Anton Armstrong, conductor;
Marvis Martin, soprano;
St. Olaf Records 2159 (1997)
William Levi Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony (1934)
A YouTube posting has made Dawson's only symphony available in its entirety online. The Negro
Folk Symphony (35:44) was posted on YouTube May 23, 2012.
William Levi Dawson (1899-1990) is
profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works
List by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma,
http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com
The
Dawson page discusses the recording by Leopold Stokowski:Leopold
Stokowski conducted the first performance of Dawson's Negro
Folk Symphony
in 1934. He also recorded the work for Decca Records in 1963. The LP
recording has since been reissued on CD by Deutsche Grammophon
as DG 477 6502 (2007). Alan Newcombe says in the liner notes that
the work was important to the evolution of the American symphony:
“His Negro
Folk Symphony
was first performed by Leopold Stokowski with the Philadelphia
Orchestra in 1934. After making a study of indigenous African music,
in 1952 Dawson revised his work to give it a more 'African' rhythmic
underpinning. While recalling the idiom of Dvorak's 'New World'
Symphony and the cyclic principles of the César Franck school, not
to mention Bruckner's Fourth at the opening of the last movement, the
work's individuality of texture and rhythmic energy make it a
significant, albeit largely unacknowledged, contribution to the
development of the American symphony.”
On August 9, 2014, AfriClassical posted:
The article by William Robin on August 8, 2014 says, in part:
"There
was a time in classical music when black composers seemed on the cusp
of the mainstream. In the 1930s, pioneers like Still and William Dawson
wrote symphonies inflected by folk tunes and the blues that were given
their premieres by prominent American orchestras."
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