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William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Symphony No. 5, The Western Hemisphere
Composed: 1945 (rev. 1970)
Premiered: 1970, Ohio
Duration: 20 minutes

First performed by the Oberlin College Orchestra in 1970, William Grant Still’s The Western Hemisphere was his fifth and final symphony. The trailblazing composer – who became the first black conductor of a major American orchestra – says of his Fifth Symphony: "One day in eternity has come to its close. A mighty civilization has begun, come to a climax, and declined. In the darkness, the past is swept away. When the new day dawns, the lands of the Western Hemisphere are raised from the bosom of the Atlantic. They are endowed by the Great Intelligence who created them and who controls their destiny with virtues unlike any that have gone before: qualities which will find counterparts in the characters of the men who will inhabit them eventually, and who will make them the abode of freedoms, of friendship, of the sharing of resources and achievements of the mind and of the spirit. These are our fellow-Americans in Latin America, Canada, and the islands of the Western Seas, who are today working with us to convert our ideals into realities."

William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Symphony No. 5, The Western Hemisphere
Composed: 1945 (rev. 1970)
Premiered: 1970, Ohio
Duration: 20 minutes

First performed by the Oberlin College Orchestra in 1970, William Grant Still’s The Western Hemisphere was his fifth and final symphony. The trailblazing composer – who became the first black conductor of a major American orchestra – says of his Fifth Symphony: "One day in eternity has come to its close. A mighty civilization has begun, come to a climax, and declined. In the darkness, the past is swept away. When the new day dawns, the lands of the Western Hemisphere are raised from the bosom of the Atlantic. They are endowed by the Great Intelligence who created them and who controls their destiny with virtues unlike any that have gone before: qualities which will find counterparts in the characters of the men who will inhabit them eventually, and who will make them the abode of freedoms, of friendship, of the sharing of resources and achievements of the mind and of the spirit. These are our fellow-Americans in Latin America, Canada, and the islands of the Western Seas, who are today working with us to convert our ideals into realities."