... Copyright © 1992 by Duke University Press 1992 A Negro Symphony Orchestra Since 1937, when a Los Angeles publication mentioned the fact that one of my ideals is the realization of a Negro Symphony Orchestra so fine that it would rank with and perhaps surpass the best in the world, several...

..., and Australia. She also performed with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. But Maynor's goal was more than to interpret the musical masterpieces of the world...

... Conservatory of Music for part of the 1917-18 academic year.1 Then he studied privately in 1922 with George W Chadwick of the New England Conservatory of Music. Performing at the time in Eubie Blake's orchestra for the production of the broadway hit, Shuffle Along, Still carried on his compositional study...

... unique in the music history of America; Henry F. Williams and F. E. Lewis, who became 116 ffle I. llodtaniel Dell leader members of the great symphony orchestra of the Coliseum, Boston; Justin Holland, linguist, authority on, and virtuoso of the guitar, teacher of members of the first families...

... Mrs. Francis Biddle. Then I recalled the time the League of Compos­ ers suggested that certain contemporary composers write patriotic works to be introduced by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra over the Columbia Broadcasting System a big capitalistic enter­ prise, as I understand it. My contribution...

... the orchestration. I don't, because I generally compose directly for orchestra. In other words, as each idea comes, I hear it orchestrally, and my notations for the orchestra score are written into my sketches. But before turning to the actual writing of the orchestration there is the additional task of testing...

... one American work and one contemporary work by a foreign composer (not necessarily Russian)? Why couldn't the orchestras in every com­ munity also explore the possibility of finding composers and per­ formers in their own communities (sometimes even in their own orchestras Remember that every composer...

... himself for the big opportunity that never came. He died without having had a real chance. The Negro Musirían in America 2Ì1 The same thing happened to many of the Negro instrumentalists who hoped to get jobs in symphony orchestras. They studied, prac­ ticed, looked for openings, and finally came to grips...

... expression. In theaters the drum and piano usually formed the "orchestra." At the more well-to-do dances and theaters, combinations of players-either string players or mixed-furnished the music. This gave rise to the Negro dance orchestra. These Negro combinations took up the popular airs of the day and put...

.... Finally, when the day came that I conducted the "Deep River" program on radio station WOR after having made orchestrations for it for many months, it was the men in the orchestra who had asked for me to conduct them and the men who showed me how to do it. All this practical experience later blended...

... in charge of the Settlement hit upon the idea of having Mr. James Reese Europe, the well-known Negro conductor, appear with his orchestra of all Negro performers in a great benefit concert for the school. Other colored musicians were also asked to take part, and the date was set for May 2nd, 1912. Miss...

... of that period have envisioned an Afro-American attaining a position of promi­ nence in the symphonic or operatic fields! You can understand that when I tell you that not until I got to Oberlin and had reached my majority did I ever hear a symphony orchestra! That would explain it. I wonder what the people...

... but not apart from the subject at hand, so that a treatise such as this must take their work into the scope of its consideration. Their contributions, based upon Negro folk art, form a great and enduring fantasia wherein the voice, the written word, the piano, and the orchestra are used. Some...

..., after having given some thought to the matter, I hesitate to term the thoughts I'm about to express "theories." I'd rather call them experiences and resultant conclusions. The major problem confronting one who sets out to score for an orchestra is that of presenting the music most effectively...

..., is that Negroes apparently do not realize that if they are to participate in the nation's cultural activi­ ties, they must first become a tangible part of the nation's cultural life. There are many young colored musicians who need a chance to play with America's great symphony orchestras; there are many tal­...

... American folk song. Negroes have written symphonies that have been played by large orchestras the world over; Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson and Dorothy Maynor have been acclaimed as peerless in their own fields. What tremendous strides have been made in these few years! We could do more today than we...

... to delight and amaze people the world over. His famous orchestra, now directed by his son Mercer, carries on the Ellington tradition drawing on a repertoire of several thousand works, ranging from popular standards like "Satin Doll" to ballet and symphonic scores, and to the major achievement of his later...

... unique, for he alone has dared to present American compositions at Roches­ ter on a large scale, meanwhile wisely not forgetting to play the works of others. The result is a fine orchestra under the direction of an excellent musician (who is also an American composer of great prominence...

... of "rags," jazz music, and other dance tunes by untutored or only partially educated Negro orchestras and pianists, effects which surpass in real characterization any of the results obtained by Dvorak. Beautiful and unusual as the "New World Symphony" is, it yet leaves a great deal to be said through...

... with Eubie Blake's orchestra for the 1921 production of Shuffle Along and wrote both jazz and musi­ cal theater arrangements for bands and individual performers as di­ verse as W C. Handy, Paul Whiteman, Sophie Tucker, and Artie Shaw; he also worked as an arranger and conductor for the Pace and Handy Black...