Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • WINTER 2017 • PAN PIPES 11 achievement by African Americans in several areas) in 1928, and was subsequently published by C.C. Birchard and Company. His Symphony no. 1 (Afro-American Symphony), composed in 1930, became the first composition written by an African American to be performed by a major orchestra (it was, for instance, presented by the New York Philharmonic in 1935). 2 Still also received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1934, and moved to Los Angeles to spend a year creating an opera, which became Blue Steel. Nonetheless, despite these successes, his work was always judged through the lens of race—it seemed impossible for critics to evaluate his music simply on its own merits. Racial distinctions, as well as the class distinctions separating commercial and art music, followed him throughout his life. William Grant Still composed in a number of different styles, including a more dissonant, avant-garde sound following his time studying with Varèse. Many of his better known works (such as the Afro-American Symphony) feature characteristics of the blues idiom in their structural, harmonic, and melodic elements. His later works are composed in a more universal style that includes whatever elements Still deemed appropriate for the form and subject of the composition. His work for oboe and piano, Incantation and Dance, composed in 1941, fits the latter category. Featuring two distinct sections, it includes a more lyrical beginning followed by a lively, jig-like conclusion. Still spent a significant part of his life playing the oboe, and this is clearly seen in the idiomatic qualities of the piece, its passages fitting naturally and comfortably under the fingers of the performer. Even some works which were not originally written for the oboe can be played easily on that instrument, which I discovered when I came across some arrangements of Still's songs made by flutist Alexa Still (no relation to the composer). "If You Should Go," originally appearing as one of the Songs of Separation (1949) for voice and piano, based on a text by poet Countee Cullen, and Song for the Lonely (1953), also for voice and piano with a text by Still's wife Verna Arvey, both proved to be enjoyable additions to one of my Sigma Alpha Iota musicales. Ulysses Kay, the second composer I explored, wrote compositions in many forms, and his work cannot be categorized as well as that of William Grant Still's in technical, stylistic, or racial terms. He was born January 7, 1917, in Tucson, Arizona to a musical family. e nephew of jazz great Joe "King" Oliver (he was the brother of Ulysses' mother), he received early and consistent encouragement of his musical talents, and took his uncle's advice to focus on learning the piano, rather than the cornet, to get a good foundation in music. He became proficient on piano, violin, and saxophone, forming a combo with some of his friends while in high school. It was for this group that he made some early attempts at arranging music. Kay entered the University of Arizona as a liberal arts major, but missed having music as a major part of his life, so he changed his focus of study to public school music. It was during his time in college that another experience further encouraged him to make music his life pursuit— he met William Grant Still in the summers of 1936 and 1937. Still's inspiration stayed with him, and the elder composer would go on to recommend Kay for fellowships in the future (Kay would later compose a piano solo, Visions, to commemorate Still's 80th birthday in 1974). Upon graduating from the University of Arizona in 1938, he went on to get his master's degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied composition with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. At Eastman, Kay was soon able to hear one of his works performed when Hanson conducted the Rochester Civic Orchestra in a concert featuring Kay's Sinfonietta. In 1941 and 1942 he was awarded scholarships that allowed him to study with Paul Hindemith at Tanglewood and Yale University. Aer a stint in the Navy, Kay got a fellowship to study at Columbia University with Otto Luening. During the 1940s and 1950s Kay won numerous awards for his compositions, including the American Broadcasting Prize, the BMI Orchestral Award, and a Fulbright Scholarship; in addition, he became the first black composer to win the Prix de Rome, 3 and was at the American Academy in Rome from 1949 to 1952. Following his return to the United States, he began working for BMI, first as an editorial advisor of concert music, then as a consultant. In 1958, he was chosen as a delegate to the Soviet Union as part of a cultural exchange program along with Roy Harris, Peter Mennin, and Roger Sessions. He became a full-time professor of music at Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York in 1968. Ulysses Kay also enjoyed a special connection with Sigma Alpha Iota, being selected as one of the composer-judges for the 1962 Inter- American Music Awards. His composition for mixed chorus, Flowers in the Valley, premiered at the 1962 convention in Chicago under the direction of Margaret Hillis. Kay's compositional style can be characterized as lyrical, but containing interesting rhythms, chromaticism, and occasional dissonances. One of the pieces he wrote for oboe, Brief Elegy, originally written for oboe and strings, but also arranged by Kay for oboe and piano, exemplifies this style. It was composed in 1946 and first performed in 1948 by oboist Leonard Shifrin at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (Kay also wrote another work for the oboe in 1943, Suite in B, which was never published during Kay's lifetime). Both William Grant Still and Ulysses Kay are just two examples of the many composers who have been denied the attention they deserve, but in the 21st century, there is no excuse not to recognize them and many other composers of color, as well as women composers who have contributed so richly to the repertoire—our musicales and concerts can be so much the richer. Still and Kay have earned their places in music history not just as worthy African American composers; their gis allow them to be deemed simply worthy composers. Kathi Bower Peterson is a graduate of Indiana University, where she majored in music history and was a member of Iota Epsilon chapter. She also has an MM (in musicology) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MLIS from San Jose State University. She has been the librarian at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, California for 19 years. She is currently the treasurer of the San Diego County Alumnae Chapter and Coordinator of Scholarships for SAI Philanthropies, Inc. End Notes: 1 Catherine Parsons Smith, William Grant Still (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008), 68. 2 Catherine Parsons Smith, William Grant Still: a Study in Contradictions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 185. 3 Constance Tibbs Hobbs and Deborra A. Richardson, comp. Ulysses Kay: a Bio Bibliography (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994), 12. Additional Sources: Cairns, Elliott S. "Rediscovering an American Master: the Ulysses Kay Papers," American Music Review 44 (2014): 1-7. http://www.brooklyn. cuny.edu/web/aca_centers_hitchcock/ AMR_44-1_Fall2014.pdf Haas, Robert Bartlett, ed. William Grant Still and the Fusion of Cultures in American Music. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1975. AMERICAN MUSIC

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