Black History Month is a time to recognize and celebrate the legacy Black culture has contributed to America and the world. Classical music has been blessed with many composers of African descent, but history has not always remembered them. Below are just a few exceptional composers from the NYPL music collection that we invite you to discover and explore.

If you can't get to one of our grab-and-go locations, search for these compositions online via Naxos Music Library using your library card.

Florence Price's "Silk Hat and Walking Cane"(Piano Music by Composers of African Descent)

Most famous for having her "Symphony in E Minor" debuted by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Chicago World's Fair, Florence was an active contributing member of the Harlem Renaissance. Her music brings together the European classical tradition in which she was trained with the African American spirituals and folk tunes of her devout religious life.  Since 2020, the #MakeFlorenceFamous movement has begun to gain steam in an effort to recognize her contributions to the world of American music.  A frequent collaborator of Langston Hughes and Marian Anderson, "Silk Hat and Walking Cane" is an upbeat and whimsical look inside the happier parts of daily life in Harlem. 

 

 

George Walker's "Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra" (George Walker: Great American Orchestral Works,Vol.4)

George Walker was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music with his work "Lilacs" (featured left). He also became the first Black graduate of the Curtis Institute (after graduating Oberlin College at the age of 18). He was the first Black instrumentalist to perform at Manhattan Town Hall, as well as the first to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra. After receiving both a Fulbright and a Whitney Scholarship, he became the first tenured Black faculty member of Smith College and became the first minority Chair at the University of Delaware. In addition to earning numerous other awards, fellowships and accolades, Mr. Walker is best known for his "Lyric for Strings," "Sinfonia No.3," and "Sinfonia No.4." His biography "Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist" is also available at the Schomburg Center.

 

Margaret Bonds' "Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man" (Dreamer: A Portrait of Langston Hughes)

A longtime collaborator of Langston Hughes and Harlem Renaissance regular, Ms. Bonds was one of the first Black students to attend Northwestern University, graduating at the age of 21 with both a bachelor's and a master's degree.  She then moved to New York City, where she continued her musical studies at Juilliard and worked actively in the theater, serving as music director for numerous productions plus writing two ballets and several musical theatre works, including "Shakespeare in Harlem" to a libretto by Hughes. Bonds is responsible for the cultural preservation of many slave songs and African spirituals.  The album Dreamer includes both Bonds' moving "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man."

Harry  T. Burleigh's "Go Down Moses" (Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry)

Anyone who has enjoyed Dvorák's "New World Symphony" will appreciate the works of Harry T. Burleigh. Burleigh worked vigorously as Dvorák's assistant composer (introducing Dvorák to not only African American songs but also the Native American songs of his grandmother). He was also the first Black composer to be instrumental in developing characteristically American music. Burleigh made Black music available to the classically trained artists, both by introducing them to African American spirituals as he did with Dvorák and by providing musical arrangements of these traditional African American pieces in a more classical format. 

 

William Grant Still's " Afro-American Symphony" (In Memoriam; Africa; Afro-American Symphony)

William Grant Still is credited with being the first African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States, direct a major symphony orchestra in the deep South, have an opera (Trouble Island) produced by a major American opera company, and to have an opera (A Bayou Legend) televised over a national network in the United States. His popularity may be linked to the fact that his music is so easy to enjoy, as listeners may experience while hearing his most famous work—the "Afro- American Symphony" where Still includes the black vernacular poetry of African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar as epigraphs in each symphonic movement.

 

 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's "Cameo" (Undiscovered Piano Works)

Named after the poet, composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born out of wedlock to a British mother and an African father.  Luckily, he seemed to inherit not only the musical talent that ran through his mother's family but also their love and acceptance, which helped him to gain access to the Royal College of Music where his musical talent flourished. Frequently referred to as the "Black Mahler," much of his work was inspired by his African roots including "Four African Dances" and "Symphonic Variations on an African Air." However, he is best known for his piece "Hiawatha," which continues to engage audiences today. The "Undiscovered Piano Works" (left) were only just recorded for the first time in 2015, after lying unseen and unknown since their composition in 1900.

 

Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins' "Water in the Moonlight" (John Davis Plays Blind Tom via Naxos Music Library)

Thomas Wiggins was born the son of slaves. He was blind and autistic, but had a God-given gift of music and was nicknamed "The Eighth Wonder." He wrote his most famous piece, "Battle at Manassus" at age 12 and by his death it is believed that he could play over 6,000 pieces by heart. Despite never having experienced seeing waterfalls or rain, his music is often compared to the inspirational sounds of nature, to which he always attributed his motivation. NYPL library card holders can enjoy his tranquil, meditative "Water in the Moonlight" through the Naxos Music Library.

 

 

Francis "Frank" Johnson's  "Victoria Gallop" (Come and Trip It)

As the first African American bandleader to participate in racially integrated concerts in the United States. Johnson was a prolific composer, with more than two hundred compositions, most of which were for social dances. His love of music led to success in both playing Haydn and Handel for the African American community and playing African American-inspired works for white society of Philadelphia including his own "Recognition March: On the Independence of Haiti" and "Grave of a Slave." In this compilation, listeners may enjoy the "Victoria Gallop" inspired by his successful European tour and performance for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.

Chevalier de Saint-Georges' "Violin Concertos" (The 18th Century Concerto)

In recent years, Saint-Georges has been nicknamed the "Black Mozart" by well-meaning academics. However, the man was a lot more street savvy than Mozart, as well as running with top society of the French Court. Born in Guadeloupe to a French father and an African slave, Saint-Georges' father loved him very much and  insisted on ignoring racial bias and giving his son the best education available in France. Saint-Georges was taught a classical education but the two areas where he excelled were swordsmanship and music. He was a natural talent at both and considering his luck with the ladies of the court at the time, it's a good thing he was good at defending himself. His music has as much amiable energy as it is rumored that he had.

 

Tania León's "Axon" (Swingin' Sepia: Tania Leon)

Ms. León is one of the founding members and the first musical director of Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theater of Harlem, (a company created directly in response to Martin Luther King's assassination). Born in Cuba, Ms. León's blood roots lie in a synthesis of French, Spanish, Chinese, African, and Cuban heritage. Her complex work is not for the light of heart but for those who wish to be challenged and dig deeper into the dark side of atonal turmoil. If you like Stravinsky and Strauss, you'll love Leon. In "Singing Sepia," her lyrical and haunting tune "Axon" evokes both the trials and tribulations of the African American community's history and would be a gratifying piece for any student to hear as part of Black History Month. Most recently in February 2019, the New York Philharmonic performed the world premiere of her composition"Stride for Orchestra."

 

If you'd like to learn more about African American contributions to classical music, please join our African American Composer History Series this February on Tuesdays at 3:30 PM.