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African American Voices

African American Voices

COVER CKD699
Label(s)
Genre(s)
Classical
Code
CKD 699
Inlay available for download
Booklet available for download
Buy the album
Price
$22.00
  • Negro Folk Symphony: I. The Bond of Africa
    Composer(s) William Levi Dawson
    Artist(s) Kellen Gray Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Negro Folk Symphony: I. The Bond of Africa

    11:49
    $4.60
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  • Negro Folk Symphony: II. Hope in the Night
    Composer(s) William Levi Dawson
    Artist(s) Kellen Gray Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Negro Folk Symphony: II. Hope in the Night

    10:52
    $3.40
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  • Negro Folk Symphony: III. O, Le’ Me Shine, Shine Like a Morning Star!
    Composer(s) William Levi Dawson
    Artist(s) Kellen Gray Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Negro Folk Symphony: III. O, Le’ Me Shine, Shine Like a Morning Star!

    08:18
    $3.40
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  • Lyric for Strings
    Composer(s) George Walker
    Artist(s) Kellen Gray Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Lyric for Strings

    05:22
    $2.30
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  • Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": I. Longing. Moderato assai
    Composer(s) William Grant Still
    Artist(s) Kellen Gray Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": I. Longing. Moderato assai

    07:07
    $3.40
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  • Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": II. Sorrow. Adagio
    Composer(s) William Grant Still
    Artist(s) Kellen Gray Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": II. Sorrow. Adagio

    05:47
    $2.30
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  • Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": III. Humor. Animato
    Composer(s) William Grant Still
    Artist(s) Kellen Gray Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": III. Humor. Animato

    03:13
    $2.30
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  • Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": IV. Aspiration. Lento, con risoluzione
    Composer(s) William Grant Still
    Artist(s) Kellen Gray Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": IV. Aspiration. Lento, con risoluzione

    08:28
    $3.40
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Total running time: 60 minutes.

    Album information

    The Royal Scottish National Orchestra teams up with its Assistant Conductor Kellen Gray to record works by three of the twentieth century’s greatest African American voices, which is released to coincide with Black History Month. 

    The two symphonies by William Levi Dawson and William Grant Still proved to be fundamental in the utilization of Afro-American idioms within the symphonic form. Each composer focused on one of the two original staples of African American music: folk and jazz. William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony takes its inspiration from West African folk idioms, American Negro spirituals and early African American folk rhythms and songs from Gullah culture. William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 draws its influence from elements popular in jazz and pre-jazz. Although the latter is the more well-known figure in American music, Dawson was every bit as significant in the timeline of African American music, and his only published symphony is astonishingly mature for a composer’s earliest efforts at symphonic writing.

    This programme also celebrates the centenary of George Walker’s birth with the inclusion of his Lyric for Strings.