Still got much of his professional musical training working in popular music, and his experience as a jazz musician shines through in this symphony. He began sketching it in 1924, when he was playing in the orchestra for the hit musical comedy Shuffle Along. ‘The Blues were not immoral or trivial, as some people wanted to believe,’ Still wrote, ‘but instead an expression of the hopes and yearnings of a lowly people, wanting a better life.’ So he worked the blues into the fabric of this symphony, transforming the classical form.
Each movement is prefaced by a quote from pioneering African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (also a collaborator of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose piano quintet we heard earlier in the series). The symphony and its epigraphs tell a story of racial uplift, the quotation for the final movement coming from Dunbar’s Ode to Ethiopia: ‘Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul… truth shall lift them higher.’
This was the first symphony by an African American composer to be performed by a major American orchestra, and both audiences and performers loved it. It was really popular after its premiere in 1931, and remains one of the most frequently performed American symphonies. It’s easy to see why — gorgeously orchestrated, melodically rich, emotionally intense, and ranging from profound sorrow to utter joy, this is a piece that has immediate appeal and enough depth to reward repeat listening.
The subtitles Still gave each movement are our prompts for today:
‘Longing’
‘Sorrow’
‘Humour’
‘Aspiration’
This is a recording that gets the full range of fun and seriousness that this symphony needs. The fourth movement is particularly well done, with a really sumptuous sound.
If you want to hear more about Paul Laurence Dunbar, whose words formed part of the inspiration for this symphony, you can listen to a short documentary I presented on him here.
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