William Grant Still (1895–1978) is a American composer who is a successful pioneer of black classical music. He studied composition with Edward Varèse and dedicated to the development of African American music significantly. He was the first African American composer whose symphony performed by major orchestra (Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra), who conducts a major orchestra (LA philharmonic Orchestra), and who have an opera produced by major operatic center. Aside from his Afro-America, he wrote a few works with the theme of America. I’d like to introduce one of his symphonic poem, Old California.
The Old California was composed for the commemoration of the 160th anniversary of the city of Los Angeles. It is about 9 minutes long. The melody is mostly taken by woodwind and brass instruments. The composer provided the explanation of his work by himself, which was put on the program note of New York Philharmonic Orchestra by Robert Bager.
The constant and distinct beating evokes the image of Native American music (0:48 of the YouTube link). Still wrote that he intentionally used the Native American’s tribal dance music. Then, with the ringing bell sounds, the scene turns to the religious Spanish fiesta (You can hear this moment from 3:26 on YouTube). Lastly, in my opinion, the chaotic of the appearance of American was depicted with the strong brass instruments (from 4:58). Below is the video from YouTube which I listened to.
Reference:
New York Philharmonic Orchestra Digital Archive. Program note written by Robert Bager and Louis Biancolli on November 4–5, 1944 https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/b5277a32-a2c2-4102-87cc-e1329002a658-0.1/fullview#page/8/mode/2up
