William Grant Still (1895-1978), Florence B. Price (1888-1953), and William Levi Dawson (1899-1990) were all black composers writing in a time of rebirth in the black literary arts called "The Harlem Renaissance" or "The Black Renaissance." Black artists of all mediums—writers, poets, painters, and musicians—were encouraged by black leaders to draw upon their own African cultural heritage and events of recent black history, including lynchings, riots, segregation, and discrimination, for inspiration in their own respective artistic media. Young African-American composers were also influenced, ironically, by the Czech composer Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904), who recognized and promoted the wealth of American material found in the melodies and harmonies of the blues, spirituals, and jazz for use in concert music. Though their conservatory training focused primarily on traditional Western music compositional techniques, Still, Price, and Dawson are recognized for incorporating these "black" musical styles into their classical compositions. Many scholars, such as Rae Linda Brown, Eileen Southern, Samuel Floyd, and Teresa Shelton [Reed] have analyzed works by these composers. While their analyses addressed traditional Western aspects of these works, they do not account for the bifurcated roots of the musical style of these three composers. This study will fuse four analytical techniques: a semiotic analysis based on the literary theory of Henry Louis Gates in his book The Signifyin(g) Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism, traditional formal analysis, linear reductions and voice-leading graphs, as well as an identification of musical traits associated with African or black music. In so doing, I hope to provide a clearer understanding of the black musical narrative in Sill's Afro-American Symphony, Price's E minor Symphony, and Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, to shed light on the critical role they played in the development of a unique American style. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2007. / March 27, 2007. / Blues, Semiotics, Signifying, African American Music, William Levi Dawson, William Grant Still, Florence Price, Jazz, Spirituals, Topics, Tropes / Includes bibliographical references. / Jane Piper Clendinning, Professor Directing Dissertation; Maxine D. Jones, Outside Committee Member; Michael Buchler, Committee Member; Matthew R. Shaftel, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_185020 |
| Contributors | Farrah, Scott David (authoraut), Clendinning, Jane Piper (professor directing dissertation), Jones, Maxine D. (outside committee member), Buchler, Michael (committee member), Shaftel, Matthew R. (committee member), College of Music (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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