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Poet Kevin Young (Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and Poetry Editor for The New Yorker) and Dr. Tammy Kernodle (Distinguished Professor of Musicology at Miami University of Ohio) explore topics and themes of the Harlem Renaissance through music and poetry, including Young's own. The Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University, a South Florida HBCU, will join the NWS to perform choral settings of works by William Dawson and Moses Hogan as well as traditional gospel songs. Soprano Michelle Bradley will perform art songs by composers, including William Grant Still, Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.

This is a pre-recorded concert with original footage captured at the New World Center on February 1, 2022.

Noir Reverberations:
A Night of Music and Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond

Kevin Young, poet
Dr. Tammy Kernodle, musicologist
Michelle Bradley, soprano
Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University
New World Symphony Fellows

J. Rosamond Johnson                                     “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (1900)
(1873-1954)
Lyrics by                                                             Michelle Bradley
James Weldon Johnson                                  Thomas Steigerwald, NWS Piano Fellow
(1871-1938)

Langston Hughes                                             “One-Way Ticket” (1949)
(1901-1967)
                                                                            Kevin Young

William Grant Still                                             The Blues from Lenox Avenue (1937)
(1895-1978)
Arranged by                                                        James Zabawa-Martinez, NWS Violin Fellow
Louis Kaufman                                                 Wesley Ducote, NWS Piano Fellow

Pauli Murray                                                     “Prophecy” (1969)
(1910-1985)
                                                                           Kevin Young

Traditional                                                         “Soon-Ah Will Be Done” 
Arranged by
William Dawson
(1899-1990)

Traditional                                                         “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho”
Arranged by
Moses Hogan                                                    Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University     
(1957-2003)

Kevin Young                                                     “Eddie Priest’s Barbershop and Notary” (1995)
(b. 1970)                                              
                                                                           Kevin Young                                                                   

Mary Lou Williams                                           What’s Your Story, Morning Glory?
(1910-1981)

Duke Ellington                                                 Caravan (1936)
(1899-1974)
                                                                           Marty Quinn, bass
                                                                           Wesley Ducote, NWS Piano Fellow
                                                                           Charlie Rosmarin, NWS Percussion Fellow

Eva A. Jessye                                                   “The Singer” (c. 1920)
(1895-1992)
                                                                           Kevin Young

Traditional                                                         “I’m Seeking for a City”
Arranged by
William Dawson

Traditional                                                         “Here’s One”
Arranged by
William Grant Still                                            Michelle Bradley
                                                                           Thomas Steigerwald, NWS Piano Fellow

Kevin Young                                                     “Langston Hughes” (2001)

                                                                          Kevin Young

Florence Price                                                 “Hold Fast to Dreams” (1945)
(1887-1953)
Lyrics by                                                            Michelle Bradley
Langston Hughes                                           Thomas Steigerwald, NWS Piano Fellow                                                                                                                                       

Traditional                                                       “Great Day”
Arranged by
Moses Hogan                                                 Michelle Bradley
                                                                        Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University
                                                                        Thomas Steigerwald, NWS Piano Fellow

Kevin Young                                                  “Sanctuary” (2021)

                                                                        Kevin Young

Nolan Williams, Jr.                                       “Take It to the Lord in Prayer”
(b. 1969)

Franklin Lycurgus Eiland                            “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand” (1906)
(1860-1909)
Lyrics by                                                         Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University
Jennie Wilson                                               Alana Demps, soloist

Langston Hughes                                        “I Dream a World” (1941)

                                                                      Kevin Young

Traditional                                                    “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
Arranged by
Margaret Bonds                                           Michelle Bradley
                                                                      Thomas Steigerwald, NWS Piano Fellow

Program Essay

The Harlem Renaissance represented an epoch or moment within the larger continuum of black expressive culture that has extended out of the black diasporic experience. The Renaissance movement has been largely defined by the surge of musical, literary and artistic activity cultivated by America’s black elite in the years following World
War I. Much of this is due in part to the concentrated focus on the literary aspects of the movement and on activity that took place in Harlem. However, through this festival and this concert, we hope to advance a more holistic reading of the movement that encompasses all aspects of the movement and extends geographically beyond
Harlem.

Historians posit that the Harlem Renaissance was over by 1935. However, the music arm of this cultural movement was just beginning to blossom in spaces like Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles by that time. It was in these spaces that the ideological scope of the movement extended beyond the Eurocentric conventions
and artistic forms promoted by its leadership and came to include the black vernacular forms that mirrored the shifting identity and consciousness of southern migrants and the communities to which they migrated. The liminal nature of these sounds, insulated in the geographic segregation that framed black life in these cities, was resolved
by their encounters with a cultural industry whose appetite for black music was buoyed by the entrepreneurial dreams of individuals. Those individuals captured these sounds of migration through engagement with and access to new forms of technology. For instance, in Chicago the music of the Renaissance was not just represented by concert music, as gospel, blues and jazz figured strongly into the ideological, entrepreneurial and cultural scope of the movement. Each of these genres evolved quickly with the help of the entrepreneurial pursuits of Chicago’s black community, which was represented by venues like the Pekin Theatre, recording labels, publishing houses and grassroots music schools that taught beginning and advanced musicians. In Los Angeles, new variants of gospel music and the blues during these post-World War II years represented attributes of Renaissance ideology. 

This concert reflects not only a more holistic perspective of the Renaissance, but also its larger legacy and influence on the art produced by subsequent generations. The marriage of poetry and music showcased tonight are the most enduring legacy of the movement and strongly connected. The affirmation of the values of the black cultural heritage that underscored much of the work of writers such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Huston, James Weldon Johnson, Gwendolyn Brooks and Richard Wright also had a significant impact on composers and musicians, who had as their primary goal the elevation of black idioms such as the blues, spiritual and dance music. The latter sought to create an aesthetic that reflected the fusion of black cultural idioms and elements drawn from the neoromantic nationalistic movement. There were numerous composers whose works reflected this approach. However, the three leading figures were William Grant Still (1895-1977), Florence Price (1888-1953) and William Levi Dawson (1899-1990). While all three are known for their advancement of symphonic works, tonight’s concert focuses on their significance in advancing robust repertories of vocal and chamber music.

William Grant Still’s Lenox Avenue: The Blues (1937), is one movement extracted from a series of 10 orchestral episodes written for orchestra, chorus and narrator. Each movement was given a descriptive title that invoked the culture and vibrancy of Renaissance-era Harlem. The Blues was originally titled “The House Rent Party”—a reference to one of the insular spaces that defined black life in many northern cities. The rent party was emblematic of the survival strategies employed by southern migrants who had to navigate the racial tensions, low salaries and high rents that framed their everyday experiences. These parties provided a means to raise much need monies, but also to reconnect with the cultural practices of the south.

Outside of the blues, the spiritual was one of the black folk traditions often referenced or directly quoted in the work of William Grant Still and other Renaissance-era composers. Here’s One is an example of how the composer reinterpreted this traditional spiritual into a setting for voice and piano. Written in 1941, it is considered one of
Still’s most popular vocal works.

William Dawson rose to prominence as the director of the Tuskegee Institute Choir. While he had serious ambitions to concentrate on composing large-scale symphonic works, such as his Negro Folk Symphony, it was his arrangements of spirituals that brought him much acclaim. His setting of “Soon-Ah Will Be Done” (1937) represents the modernist approaches he advanced in choral singing during his tenure with the Tuskegee Choir. They foreshadow the energy and advanced harmonies and choral techniques used in Moses Hogan’s arrangements some 60 years later.

While male composers and performers benefitted greatly from the fraternal artistic circles of Harlem, women composers, musicians and writers rose to prominence in Chicago. Two of the major female composers to emerge from the movement there are Florence Price and Margaret Bonds. Price became the first black woman composer
of international acclaim, but she struggled against racial and gender prejudice. However, her smaller works still thrived due to her collaborations with black concert artists, particularly singers like Marian Anderson and Carol Brice, who debuted some of her art songs and settings of spirituals. “Hold Fast to Dreams” was composed in 1945 and features the poetry of Langston Hughes. The text is taken from the iconic poem “Dreams” (1922) and it explores the sustaining power of dreams, especially in the face of adversity.

Scholars have yet to fully explore how the Renaissance movement factored into the progressive and radical forms of art that emerged out of the post-World War II years. However, it is not difficult to surmise that there is some correlation between the movement and the rise of the artist-activist that evolved out of the mid-century black liberation movement. After all, the poetry and music that emerged out of this civil rights struggle reflected how black folk idioms were being reinterpreted by another generation. Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), often viewed as Price’s protégée, represented the generation of composers that came to prominence in the years following World War II. This generation bridged ideologically and musically the Renaissance movement and the mid-century black civil rights movement. Bonds’ compositions reflected her unwavering desire to promote black idioms without trying to fit them into the modernist approaches that were embraced by her contemporaries.

Instead, Bonds combined elements drawn from gospel, urban blues and jazz with neoromantic approaches. Her collaborations with Langston Hughes in producing several large-scale vocal works points to their collective desire to create pieces that spoke to the evolving consciousness of the black America at the height of the civil rights movement. Her setting of the spiritual “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” (1963) is one of the most enduring and was commissioned by famed soprano Leontyne Price. It represented one of the many collaborative relationships with concert artists that Bonds cultivated during her lifetime.

The featured selections by Duke Ellington (1899-1974) and Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981) point to how much jazz factored into the lifeblood of Harlem before and after the movement. Neither Williams nor Ellington were directly connected with the movement, although the latter was emerging as a prevailing figure in Harlem during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Williams would not migrate to Harlem until the early 1940s and she quickly became immersed into the progressive artistic circles that surrounded Harlem and the nightclub Café Society. Despite tangential connections, Ellington and Williams created music that reflected the “uplift” ideology of the movement. Their vast catalogs of works point to how they individually challenged prevailing views of jazz through experimentation with large-scale forms, unorthodox harmonies, and genre-bending approaches.

The generational and genre expanse featured in this concert points to the ways in which the sounds, practices, ideology and cultural awareness that propelled the Renaissance movement during its zenith continue to be interpreted by each generation and thus continue to inform the creation of Black art.

-- Dr. Tammy Kernodle