William Levi Dawson was born in Anniston, Alabama, on September 26, 1899, and died in Montgomery, Alabama, on May 2, 1990. The first performance of the Negro Folk Symphony took place at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 14, 1934, with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. Negro Folk Symphony is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, gong, chimes, triangle, tenor drum, snare drum, xylophone, cymbals, bass drum, steel plate, harp, and strings. Approximate performance time is thirty-five minutes.
The distinguished American composer, conductor, and teacher, William Levi Dawson, was born in Anniston, Alabama. The son of a poor field worker, Dawson studied at the Tuskegee Institute (now University) in Alabama; Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas; the Horner Institute of Fine Arts in Kansas City, Missouri; and the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, where he received a master’s degree in composition in 1927. While studying in Chicago, Dawson played first trombone in the Chicago Civic Orchestra.
In 1931, Dawson was appointed Music Director and Choir Director of the Tuskegee Institute. Dawson remained at Tuskegee until his retirement in 1955. During his quarter-century with the Institute, Dawson developed the Tuskegee Choir into an internationally acclaimed ensemble. Dawson was also active as a composer in various genres. His many arrangements form a cornerstone of the choral repertoire.
Dawson began work on the Negro Folk Symphony during his time in Chicago. Later, while on tour with the Tuskegee Choir in New York, Dawson met with the legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski, Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Stokowski provided Dawson with some suggestions for expanding the work into a full-length symphony. Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra performed the world premiere of Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony on November 16, 1934 (on November 7 in Baltimore, Maryland, Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra accompanied Sergei Rachmaninoff in the world premiere of the Russian pianist/composer’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini).
In 1952, following a trip to West Africa, Dawson revised his Negro Folk Symphony to embody a more authentic sense of African rhythms.
The composer provided the following comments for the work’s 1934 world premiere:
This Symphony is based entirely on Negro folk-music. The themes are taken from what are popularly known as Negro spirituals, and the practiced ear will recognize the recurrence of characteristic themes throughout the composition.
The folk-music springs spontaneously from the life of the Negro people as freely as today as at any time in the past, though the modes and forms of the present day are sometimes vastly different from the older creations.
In this composition the composer has employed three themes taken from typical melodies over which he has brooded since childhood, having learned them at his mother’s knee.
The Negro Folk Symphony is in three movements. The first, The Bond of Africa, begins with a broadly-paced introduction (Adagio), opening with a descending theme that returns in various guises throughout the work. This introduction leads to the principal Allegro con brio. Hope in the Night (Andante) serves as the work’s slow-tempo movement. The finale, O, le’ me shine, shine like a Morning Star! (Allegro con brio) brings the Negro Folk Symphony to a spirited conclusion.
Program notes by Ken Meltzer
