Program for
Benefit
CD
Three Impromptus,
Op 78 Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor (1875 – 1912)
Numbers 1 and 2
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born
on August 15, 1875, in Holborn, England (a suburb of London). His mother
was English and his father, Daniel H. Taylor, was from Sierra Leone.
Daniel Taylor studied medicine at Taunton College, Somerset and Kings
College. After becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons he
obtained a license from the Royal College of Physicians. Due to
many issues, mostly involving race, Dr. Taylor returned to Sierra Leone
early in the life of his son, Samuel.
Studying violin and singing in
the choir at St. George’s Church choir in Croydon served as the basis of
young Samuel’s music training. His talents were noticed by Colonel
Herbert Walters who became his benefactor and provided funding for his
formal education in music at Royal College. While at Royal College, Sir
George Grove arranged for Taylor to study composition with Sir Charles
Stanford. This laid the foundation for him to receive a fellowship
in composition in 1893. 
As a composer, Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor’s best known work is Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast of
1898; the first of three works based on the poems of Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow. Taylor’s organ works can be described as musical gems.
The
Three Impromptus, Op. 78, are works that one would hear composed
for organ during the latter part of the 1800’s in England. The
three works are late Romantic miniatures typical of that period.
Prelude to Our American Cousin
Eric Sawyer
(b. 1962)
Prelude to Our American Cousin
is a realization for organ of the orchestral overture to an opera that
concerns Lincoln’s assassination at the theater. The Prelude
aims to evoke a background of recently won peace and hovering violence
present on that evening. It sets in motion materials central to
the opera’s musical development, including a rippling descending figure
near the opening that breaks off with a dual suggestion of forgiving and
forgetting. After building to a martial outburst, the Prelude
resumes the contemplative mood with a treatment of the Civil War melody
“When This Cruel War Is Over” and a quotation of an aria in the opera in
which one of the actors recounts a dream of meeting a friend on the
battlefield. - Eric Sawyer
Improvisation
Lucius R. Weathersby (1968-2006)
Theme: Seht, neuer Morgen in unserer
Nacht
Mein schönste
Zier und Kleinod bist
Three Works
William Grant Still (1895 - 1978)
Revere
Elegy
Bayou Home
William Grant
Still, known as the “Dean of African-American Composers”, wrote many
works for orchestra and voice, as well as full operas. His
compositional output was great, but in the area of organ compositions,
he only composed two works for organ: Elegy and
Revere. Both
works are meditative and harmonically interesting. Bayou Home was
arranged by Hutchins B. Coleman from a vocal work bearing the same name.
The original work was composed in 1941, with lyrics written by his wife
Verna Arvey.
Variations on Nettleton
Undine S. Moore
(1904 – 1989)
Referred to in
reverence as the “Dean of Black Women Composers,” Undine Smith Moore was
born August 25, 1904, in Jarratt, Virginia. At the age of seven
she began piano lessons with Lillian Allen Darden. In the fall of
1924 she received the first scholarship from the Julliard Graduate
School to study music at Fisk University. Graduating in 1926, she
began working toward her Master of Arts degree at Columbia University.
She completed her degree in 1931. Having started work at Virginia
State College in 1927, she continued to teach there until her retirement
in 1972.
Variations on
Nettleton was composed for a student at
Virginia State University during the 1970’s. A student asked Moore
if she would compose a work for her senior recital. The
composition takes the tune of the familiar hymn “Come Thou Fount of
Every Blessing” and works it through a number of variations.
Iowa Winter Suite
Lucius R. Weathersby (1968-2006)
I. First Snow
II. Hard Freeze
II. 1:00 AM 20 Degrees
Below Zero
IV. Third Week of March
Iowa Winter
Suite was a graduate college composition.
Originally from the southern part of the United States, I moved north,
namely to the state of Iowa, for my graduate studies. The winters
were unlike any that I had experienced in Louisiana. My
composition professor saw how the winters affected me and suggested that
I compose a work that gave others the opportunity to share my dismay at
and discomfort in extremely harsh weather.
Retrospection
Florence Price
(1887 – 1953)
Florence Beatrice
Smith Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on April 9, 1887.
Her mother was a piano teacher and father was a dentist. She
learned to play the piano at an early age. She later attended the
New England Conservatory of Music and received a degree in organ and
piano. She taught music at Shorter College in Little Rock from
1907-1910 and from 1910-1912 at Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia.
After her 1912 marriage to Little
Rock attorney, Thomas J. Price failed, Florence found herself and her
two children in a difficult financial situation. During this time,
she found shelter in the home of one of her students, Margaret Bond, in
Chicago. Although her situation was, at times, bleak, nothing
could thwart her love of performing and composing or dissuade her from
continuing to do both.
Price’s musical output is extensive -
from orchestral works, concertos, vocal and choral works to organ and
piano music, she can be described as prolific.
Retrospection
or Elf on a Moonbeam and A Pleasant
Thought are short organ works that are rich in jazz harmonies
typical of the time.
Joshua Fit De Battle Ob Jericho
Fela Sowande
(1905 - 1987)
Fela Sowande is
recognized as the father of modern Nigerian Art Music. Born in
Abeokuta, Lagos, to a church musician and Yurubian priest had a defining
influence on young Sowande’s early musical development. His father,
Emmanuel Sowande, introduced him to the music of the Yurubian tradition,
while Dr. TK Ekundayo Phillips, a composer, organist and choral director
introduced him to the works of various composers of European origin.
Sowande attended
music schools in London earning a Bachelor of Music degree from the
University of London and became a Fellow at the Trinity College of
Music. His musical composition output is large and diverse,
including many works for the pipe organ. These works vary from
African thematic inspired works to African-American spiritual inspired
compositions. An example of the latter influence is Joshua Fit
De Battle
Ob Jericho.
His wealth of tone color, varied rhythms and command of orchestral tone
color is ever present in his organ compositions; one is never free of
variety. His special talent for utilizing musical material of a
set culture and allowing it to dictate compositional form, harmonic
language and fusing that material with both classical and jazz idioms is
exemplary.
Improvisation
Lucius R. Weathersby (1968-2006)
Theme: Lobt Gott Ihr Christen alle
gleich
New Orleans Suite
Lucius R. Weathersby
(1968-2006)
New Orleans
Suite is dedicated to the people of the
Gulf Coast Region – those who escaped and those who did not escape the
ravages of Hurricane Katrina. The suite sets out to musically
capture the traditional New Orleans Jazz Funeral. In this idiom,
the Suite begins with the slow, mournful sounds of the hymn Nearer My
God to Thee and Just a Closer Walk with Thee and concludes
with an outburst of joy and hope, expressing that everyone - rich or
poor - will experience rapture in the after life.