Donald Macleod explores the life and music of African-American composer William Grant Still. Today, Still writes his breakthrough First Symphony, the ‘Afro-American’, and relocates to LA on a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship.

Despite the recent success of his orchestral suite Africa, Still embarked on the composition of his ‘Afro-American’ Symphony in a mood of deep despondency. He laid out his feelings in a letter to his friend, the critic Irving Schwerké: “It is unfortunate for a man of color who is ambitious, to live in America. There are many splendid people here; broad-minded, unselfish; judging a man from the standpoint of his worth rather than his color, but there is a preponderance of those who are exactly the opposite. Unless there is a change soon I will be forced to abandon my aspirations and look to other means of gaining a livelihood – or to go where such conditions do not exist.” In the event, thanks to the extraordinary reception of the symphony at its first performance by the Rochester Philharmonic under Howard Hanson, Still’s fears proved unfounded; by the end of the decade the ‘Afro-American’ had been taken up by a further 34 American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia. Buoyed up by the positive reaction to the symphony at its première, Still applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship. Guggenheim Fellows usually went overseas, but Still requested that he should be allowed to serve his fellowship in Los Angeles. It was there that he resumed his relationship with the woman who would become his second wife, Verna Arvey.

Quit Dat Fool’nish
Denver Oldham, piano

Symphony No 1 in A flat, ‘Afro-American’
Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra
Jindong Cai, conductor

A Deserted Plantation
Denver Oldham, piano

Kaintuck’, poem for piano and orchestra
Richard Fields, piano
Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra
Jindong Cai, conductor

Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales. Show less