Tacoma Weekly
By Dave Davison
February 23, 2018
The Tacoma Community College
Orchestra, conducted by Dr. John Falskow and Dr. Nse Ekpo, is slated to
perform a concert March 2 at 7:30 p.m. The program, featuring music by
African-American composers, is called “American Expressions.”
On the schedule for the evening are three of Scott Joplin’s ragtime
compositions, from “The Red Back Book;” George Walker’s “Lyric for
Strings” and Florence Price’s “Symphony No. 1.”
Price is especially interesting. She was an African American composer
who was based in Chicago. Born in Little Rock, Ark. in 1887, she died
in 1953 and her music was largely neglected during her lifetime, though
she did receive some national attention and some of her works were
performed by the Chicago Symphony.
***
Joplin (1868-1917), the “King of Ragtime,” wrote 44 ragtime pieces, one
ragtime ballet and two operas over the span of his career. Joplin
refined the ragtime music of honky-tonk piano players and combined
Afro-American music’s syncopation with 19th-century European romanticism
to elevate the form.
***
Walker, who is still with us, is the first African American composer to
win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, which was awarded for “Lilacs” in
1996. “Lyric for Strings,” the piece to be played by the TCC Orchestra,
was written in 1946 after the death of Walker’s grandmother. It was
composed while Walker was a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of
Music. After a brief introduction, the principal theme is stated by the
first violins with imitations appearing in the other instruments. The
linear nature of the material alternates with static moments of
harmony. After the second of two climaxes, the work concludes with
reposeful cadences that were presented earlier.
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