Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Nearly two decades have passed since Oxford University Press (OUP) Music published William Chapman Nyaho’s pioneering landmark series, Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora (reviewed here), and in the intervening years our collective interest in this rich seam of repertoire has only increased.
I recently reviewed Samantha Ege’s superb scholarly performing edition of Florence Price’s Fantasie Nègre: Four Fantasies for Piano, also from OUP, and now hot on its heels, they bring us her new anthology of music by composers of the ‘Black Renaissance’ in the twentieth century.
Featuring solo piano pieces by eight composers, Piano Music of the Black Renaissance ranges in level from Early Intermediate to Advanced, and offers a fascinating and useful sourcebook of music that deserves much greater recognition within the classical piano repertoire.
My review offers a reflection on the special value of this publication, which I can strongly recommend as an important one that is unlikely to disappoint.
The ‘Black Renaissance’ school
The phrase “Black Renaissance” might be a new one to some ears. Introducing her new anthology, Dr. Samantha Ege explains,
“In the dawning decades of the twentieth-century, Black cultural life in the United States was in the midst of a profound awakening…”
Ege quotes from the African American intellectual Alain Locke, who wrote in 1925 that “Negro life is finding a new soul… an unusual outburst of creative expression”. She goes on to note that what became known as the ‘Harlem Renaissance’ was actually part of a far bigger picture:
“In addition to New York, cultural revolution flowed through the cities of Paris, London, Chicago, and Hampton, Virginia. It took shape, also, in the dream worlds of imagined tropical islands and sepia-tinged memories of antebellum Southern landscapes. The revolution retraced transatlantic connections between Africa, Europe, and the Americas, revisiting the past in pursuit of a more enlightened future..”
Ege notes how this outburst encompassed poetry, novels, choreography, the birth of the blues and the foremost pioneers of jazz, before reminding us that adding to the soundtrack to this sweeping Black Renaissance were many classical composers of African descent.
These, then, are the composers whose landmark music and distinctive voices she celebrates in this exciting piano collection:
- Henry ‘Harry’ Thacker Burleigh (1866-1949)
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
- Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)
- Nora Douglas Holt (1885-1974)
- Florence Beatrice Price (1888-1953)
- Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004)
- Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)
- Betty Jackson King (1928-1994)
The Piano Music
The twelve pieces that Ege has selected as representatives of this colourful and too-little-explored body of repertoire are as follows:
Early Intermediate:
• R. Nathaniel Dett: Noon Siesta (No. 6 from Tropic Winter)
• Zenobia Powell Perry: A Jazz Trifle (No. 5 from Piano Potpourri)
Intermediate:
• Betty Jackson King: Autumn Dance (No. 3 from Four Seasonal Sketches)
• Florence B. Price: At the Cotton Gin
• Harry T. Burleigh: Through Moanin’ Pines (No. 1 from From the Southland)
• Harry T. Burleigh: The Frolic (No. 2 from From the Southland)
Early Advanced:
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Valse (No. 3 from Three Silhouettes, Op. 38)
• R. Nathaniel Dett: Cave of the Winds: March and Two Step
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: At the Dawn of Day (from 24 Negro Melodies, Op. 59, No. 1)
Advanced:
• Margaret Bonds: The Valley of the Bones (No. 1 from Spiritual Suite)
• Florence B. Price: Sketches in Sepia
• Nora Holt: Negro Dance (Op. 25, No. 1)
To give some context to the level descriptors, I would suggest that the opening piece, Noon Siesta, would suit players at around UK Grades 4-5 level. The ostinato pattern that dominates the accompaniment requires well-developed finger independence and dexterity, while the maintenance of a cantabile melody at the same time as managing rapid hand crossings makes it harder than it looks. Meanwhile, A Jazz Trifle is a comfortable fit for Grade 5.
Subsequently, the insistent development of atmospheric tension in Autumn Dance (which Ege likens to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring) requires, by the climax of the piece, stretches of a tenth in the right hand (Ege offers an editorial ossia for “smaller hands” but even this demands regular stretches of a ninth) and five-note chords in each hand add to the challenge, while the piece also needs deft pedalling to maintain a sense of cantabile in octave passages.
It’s a pleasure to see the reappearance of Burleigh’s Through Moanin’ Pines, which I included in two of my own compilations, The Joy of Graded Piano: Grade 5 and Music We Might Have Played. I hope that this stunning piece continues to gain the attention and popularity it deserves, and equally enjoy its companion piece The Frolic, also selected here by Ege.
The longer and more difficult pieces in the second half of the listing include two contrasting works from the pen of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: his Valse is a charming piece that owes much to the popular salon styles of the time, while At the Dawn of Day is the opening piece from the composer’s famous 24 Negro Melodies Op.59 (1905). Based on a South-east African melody (albeit second-hand, via the ethnomusicologist M. Henri Junod’s “The Songs and Tales of the Ba-Ronga People”) this dramatic work is described by Ege as:
“Enchantingly sonorous and gravely heroic, At the Dawn of Day is an ideal recital opener.”
The Valley of the Bones forms the opening movement of Margaret Bonds’s three-part Spiritual Suite (1967), and is based on a well-known story from the Book of Ezekiel, and is an extraordinarily exciting concert work. This is offset by Florence Price’s nostalgic Sketches in Sepia and Nora Douglas Holt’s only surviving solo piano piece, a lively cakewalk entitled Negro Dance.
The Publication
The eye-catching cover for this publication contrasts a detail from Romare Bearden’s colourful lithograph, The Piano Lesson (Homage to Mary Lou) (1983), with a more sombre border and serious font befitting the academic integrity of both the publisher and the publication.
Inside, the pages are presented on OUP Music’s usual off-white paper. The usual title and contents pages are followed by Dr. Samantha Ege’s general Preface: The Birth of a Black Renaissance School, and detailed biographical sketches for each of the eight composers.
The six pages of About the Pieces offer exemplary background research and information about each of the pieces: its composer, context, genesis and reception. Each of these extended essays concludes with practice and performance tips to aid educators and pianists alike.
The scores that follow are beautifully engraved, and include some suggested fingering by Ege, whose own performances of some of these pieces can be found on streaming services. There’s plenty of space for teacher and learner to annotate the scores, and being staple bound the 68-page book stays open on the music stand, making this an ideal performing edition, as well as a superb educational resource.
Closing Thoughts
Amidst growing interest in the music of these composers, we are currently being blessed with some wonderful additions to the repertoire, and superb music editions to add to our shopping lists and libraries.
In common with the recent editions of Florence Price’s music that I have reviewed here, and Leah Claiborne’s excellent recent anthologies, Samantha Ege’s Piano Music of the Black Renaissance offers both an enchanting and enlightening window into unjustly neglected repertoire, and a superb addition in its own right to the libraries of pianists and educators.
For those looking for a more accessible introduction to these composers than that offered by the far more substantial Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora, Ege has selected a excellent choice of contrasting pieces for this new anthology, and every piece here is “killer, not filler”.
In short, this is an important collection, and one that will hopefully bring many years of piano playing pleasure.
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