Dances of Panama

WILLIAM GRANT STILL (1895–1978)

Dances of Panama (1948)

William Grant Still, Black American pioneer, was an incredibly accomplished musician by all standards, having a ravenous appetite for discovery of music as well as being a very fine cellist himself in both the classical and jazz realms. He was involved in the Harlem Renaissance alongside figures like Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, and was the first African-American composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra (the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra). In recent years his music has finally started getting the worldwide attention it deserves, being richly written and wonderfully crafted, as tonight’s selection will show.

These dances were originally written for string quartet, and were later rearranged for string orchestra. His exposure to the originating music was due to Elisabeth Waldo, a friend, who in turn knew the first transcriber of Panamanian folk dance music. The Caribbean nation had its own music built up from a confluence of African slaves, Spanish colonisers, and native inhabitants, and that proved fruitful material for Still, who produced four varied movements imitating various folk instruments and rhythms.

Programme note by Thomas Ang