A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
Still second from far left. Shuffle Along on tour in Boston 1921.
tion for his opera, A Bayou Legend. Still was further lauded, along with eight other Arkansas artists in 2016 for their lasting impact and contributions to the arts. The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau named rooms in the Robinson Auditorium after them; the Grand Ballroom was named in Still’s memory. In 1999, Still was inducted into the American Classical Hall of Fame.
which was performed over their network in 1937 and later converted into a ballet. The following year Still was commis- sioned to write the theme music for the 1929 New York World’s Fair, although he was not allowed to attend unless he came on ‘Negro Day.’ From 1943-1948, Still served on Kappa Alpha Psi’s Com- mission on the Compilation of Kappa Music. He is listed in the 1950 Songs of Kappa Alpha Psi booklet, with Founder Elder W. Diggs and Brother Gloster B. Current as members of the Song- book Advisory Committee. Others who commissioned Still to compose music include Paul Whiteman, the League of Composers, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Southern Conference Educational Fund, and the American Accordionists Association. He enjoyed additional suc- cess with commercial composing and arranging, such as work in major films as Pennies from Heaven (1936) and Lost Horizon (1937). In 1976, Still’s Los Angeles home was designated a Historic-Cultural Monu- ment. Still was posthumously awarded the 1982 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for music composi-
Still died on December 3, 1978. Over his life, he composed more than 150 works, including five symphonies. His last symphony, The Sunday Symphony, premiered six years after his death by the North Arkansas Symphony Orches- tra during a William Grant Still Festival in 1984. And in the years since, U.S. orchestras, universities, and classical radio stations have created programs of his pieces more frequently and are re- discovering his contribution to American classical music. Diversity in classical music has im- proved since Still’s contributions have changed the paradigm for composers. Before his arrival, composers of color were generally confined to the genres of jazz and blues, if not ignored, with the assumption that their experience and sound were monolithic. Thanks to Still, doors were opened to generations of musicians and composers.
Still’s Legacy Continues
Still never compromised his music, personal integrity, or beliefs for the sake of career advancement. His use of inter- cultural elements in his music may have been his way of presenting a solution to America's social problems. He stated, “I am for integration. We are all Americans, in our hearts, in our music, in our very being . . . We have in the United States a great many idioms, some aboriginal, some springing from the people who came here from other lands. Someday probably the separate idioms in America may merge, or a composer will come along who will make an overall use of them, and we will then have a distinctly native idiom, recognizable as such.”
THE JOURNAL ♦ SUMMER 2020 | 79
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