Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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I have pleasure in sharing my recording of a piece I first discovered in the collection Four Early 20th Century Piano Suites by Black Composers, published by Schirmer edition, and which I have subsequently included in my Yorktown Music/Hal Leonard anthology The Joy of Graded Piano: Grade Five collection, which you can find out more about here.
Henry Thacker (“Harry”) Burleigh (1866–1949) was an American composer and professional baritone. As a composer he was a pioneer in the development of a characteristically American music.
Burleigh introduced many classically trained musicians and composers (including Dvořák) to spirituals, while also including this wonderfully rich and expressive music in his own compositions.
Through Moanin’ Pines is the first of the six pieces which make up his 1907 piano suite “From the Southland”, his only solo piano work. The movement is accompanied by the following text:
“Along de desolate roads we pass
Thro’ lonely pines and wither’d grass: –
De win’ moans in de branches tall
An’ a heavy sadness broods o’er all.”
Here is my recording.
Piano: Andrew Eales (Nord Grand, Amber Upright piano)
Recording & Mastering: Ableton Live Suite 11, 22 October 2021
Four Early 20th Century Piano Suites
The complete suite From the Southland can be found in this 1997 Schirmer Library publication, together with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Three-Fours (a suite of six valses), Nathaniel Dett’s deliciously evocative suite In the Bottoms, and Artie Matthews Five Pastime Rags.
All are edited by Joseph Smith, who also includes an informative introduction.
Burleigh’s Suite is the most technically accessible of the four, and would suit players of late intermediate to early advanced level (UK Grades 5-7). The other three are suitable for the more established advanced player.
The book is well worth exploring alongside the brilliant OUP series Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora, which I have reviewed here.
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