|
CDs of Still's Compositions by
Various Artists
Works by William Grant Still /
The American Scene /
Music of William Grant Still /
Still/Dawson/Ellington: Symphony No. 2/Negro Folk
Symphony/Harlem /
Still: Symphony No. 1; Ellington: Suite from "The River"
* * * * *
Africlassical.com:
Song of a New Race
By Amin Sharif The
ability to see beauty in another people's culture is a raw
quality-especially in race conscious America. Bill Zick is one
of those rare persons who has found a unique way to celebrate
the achievements of African people throughout the world. Bill
has established a website devoted totally to the composers of
black classical music. Samuel Coleridge, Le Chevalier Sainte
George, Micheal Mosoeu Moerane have respectively composed
classical music for audiences in America, Europe, and South
America.
Yet,
until now, there has been no central resource that anyone,
African, African-American or otherwise, could access that would
tell them the story of how composers of African decent have
contributed to the classical period. Bill's website www.Africlassical.com
has changed all of that.
It was my great fortune to find Bill's site when I was trying to
locate a poem that William Grant Still set to music. Still is
considered, by some, to be the greatest Afro-American composer
of classical music. Still's
Afro-American Symphonies No.1 and
No. 2
are considered to be as important to American music as the woks
of Copeland or Ellington-who was also a composer of classical
music. Bill was kind enough not only to direct me to where I
could find the poem. But, he also gave me some insight on how
his love of classical music began.
Bill states that for thirty years he heard only the works of
"white classical' composers. But, in 1993, Bill found the
CDs of the "Detroit Symphony Orchestra featuring the works
of Duke Ellington, William Levi Dawson and William Grant
Still." It seem s that these woks made a great impression
on him. He says, "I enjoyed them greatly, and realized it
was not the quality of the works that that explained their
relative neglect by the classical music establishment."
When
Bill retired due to a medical problem, he decided to "use
the Internet to communicate his findings." What Bill has
constructed is a fine-if not the finest site on the subject of
African, Afro-American, Afro-European, and Afro-Latin composers.
His site is bilingual, in English and in French. He says that
the page on the Afro-French composer Le Chevalier de Saint
George receives as many visitors as the English counterpart.
Obviously,
Bill is quite serious about his work. The site is both
attractive, informative and fun. Bill has a quiz that one can
take after reading about little and more well known black
composers. But since the site has been around since 2000, Bill
had had plenty of time to refine the site.
In my humble opinion, Bill has done a fantastic job bringing to
light a subject matter that is as cultural pertinent as the
works of Coltrane or Miles Davis. Indeed, any real fan of Miles,
Trane, and Monk would know that they all either studied or
listened to classical music. It is well know that Bird loved
listening to the Firebird Suite. No doubt each one of these
giants of jazz would have loved this site.
Africlassical is an extraordinary experience in
black music. That, it was constructed by a cool white cat (Bill
Zick) makes it all amazing. Well done, Bill!
posted 5 March 2005
* *
* * *
 |
AfriClassical
(Blog)
A companion to
AfriClassical.com,
a website on African Heritage in Classical Music. Meet 52
Black composers and musicians, take a Black History Quiz and
hear over 100 audio samples at the site.
William J. Zick |
 |
Dear Friends,
In March 2005, Amin Sharif wrote a glowing review of my website,
www.AfriClassical.com, for
which I remain grateful and which is quoted on the Reviews page of my
site. The website has a new companion blog,
http://africlassical.blogspot.com/
For my first post on July 20, 2007 I chose to discuss the cover art of
Calliope 9373 (2007), released in June. Earlier, I had expressed the
same concerns in an E-mail to the U.S. distributor, Harmonia Mundi USA.
I have since learned that a famous French cartoonist named Cabu was
commissioned to produce the cover image of Saint-Georges.
In the cover picture, everyone else wears normal 18th century attire.
Saint-Georges, the only person of color in the scene, wears a red outfit
with white polka dots! It is absurdly inappropriate! In my mind it
resembles nothing more than the demeaning attire of a minstrel
performer!
A lengthy reply has been made by E-mail on behalf of Calliope, saying
the cover art was created by "two great artists." It is reproduced in
full in a post in which I answer the pertinent points in the reply:
http://africlassical.blogspot.com/2007/07/calliope-cover-is-work-of-two-great.html
Are we rescuing classical composers and musicians of African descent
from obscurity only to see them ridiculed on CD covers?
Please consider blogging or writing about this issue. Thanks in
advance.
Best wishes,
Bill Zick
wzick@ameritech.net
Ann Arbor, MI
posted 29 July
2007
* * * *
*
update 5 July 2008 |
