A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
William Grant Still, Jr. 'The Dean of African Ameri- can Composers' A Trailblazer Who Bridged Popular and Classic Music
By Kevin Scott, Grand Historian
The earliest forms of African American music were imported from the captive Africans who were forced into slavery in the United States. Although they were without their possessions, they brought their knowledge of West African rhythms and mu- sical instruments like drums, zithers, xylophones, and the banjo. The African slaves primarily used music to relieve the exertions of their labors and their lives, which gave way to Spirituals and Gospel music. Following the end of slavery, a new form of music, the blues, was born as a means of expression from the personal adversity the ex-slaves and sharecroppers felt. The music genre of jazz developed from blues and ragtime. high school class. His mother, a high school literature teacher, wanted Still to pursue a career in medicine. He enrolled at Wilberforce University in 1911, where he became one of the thirteen charter initiates of the Delta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, January 22, 1915. While there, he maintained high academic records but spent most of his time participating in music ensembles, conducting the university band, and producing his first attempts to compose and arrange music. Still was bitten by the music-bug and decided that he wanted to become a music composer and dropped out of school two months before graduation. Upon deciding that he wanted to be a professional composer, Still’s mother was initially upset because, as he wrote, “In her experience, the majority of Negro musicians were disreputable and were not accepted into the best homes.” As he reflected later, though, “She lived long enough to know that my initial serious com- positions had been successful, and her pride knew no bounds. Although she had opposed my career in music, she finally understood that music meant to me all the things she had been teaching me: a creative, serious accomplishment worth of study and high devotion as
O rchestral and operatic music were not genres influenced by African Americans, but William Grant Still, Jr. incorporated the blues, spirituals, jazz, and other ethnic American music into his compositions. His works became an international sensation that revolutionized classical music and shattered the stereo- type some may have had of African Americans in this music category. Through his uncharacteristic blending of African American music genres into his classical compositions, Still became affectionately known as ‘The Dean of African American Composers.’ Still was born in Woodville, Mississippi, in 1895, but was raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, after his father died when he was only three-months-old. Still’s parents were both college graduates and musically inclined. He was reared in a racially mixed neighborhood in a middle-class home, with the luxuries of having various musical instruments and phonograph records. His stepfather exposed him to classi- cal music, including opera, and took him to stage shows. These early experiences shaped Still’s love for music. At 15, he began taking violin lessons and was self-taught on the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bass, cello, and viola. Still was an above-average student, who became valedictorian of his
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