15+ William Grant Still Quotes On Jazz, Blue And America

William Grant Still Jr. was an American composer of nearly 200 works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, over thirty choral works, plus art songs, chamber music and works for solo instruments. He was posthumously awarded the 1982 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for music composition for his opera A Bayou Legend.

He was the first African-American composer to have a symphony performed by a professional orchestra in the U.S., the Symphony no. 1 "Afro-American" (1930). It was premiered by Howard Hanson and the Rochester Philharmonic. William Grant Still's career took off in the 1920s as he became associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

William Grant Still Quotes on music, life, and friends.

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It is unfortunate for a man of color who is ambitious to live in America. William Grant Still

I harbor no delusions as to the triviality of Blues, the secular folk music of the American Negro. William Grant Still

I believe that the use of a theme in Blues idiom in a work of this sort for the purpose of welding it together is absolutely unique. And its rhythmic interest should prove to be equally as great as its melodic interest. William Grant Still

For me there is no White music or Black music - there is only music by individual men that is important if it attempts to dignify all men, not just a particular race. William Grant Still

I have what I believe is a good libretto. Can tell better after a professional librettist has examined it. William Grant Still

For me there is no White music or Black music - there is only music by individual men that is important if it attempts to dignify all men, not just a particular race. William Grant Still

It was my good fortune, to be a part of the jazz world when I was young, and when jazz itself was new. William Grant Still

This was the gift of New England to the freed Negro: not alms, but a friend; not cash, but character. William Grant Still

I don't know what people mean by 'Black music'. Are they saying that Negroes can only write music in a certain way? William Grant Still

When I began my career as a serious composer in New York, the general feeling was that all of us on the scene at that time were making a contribution to something uniquely and definitely American. William Grant Still

Undoubtedly the word [jazz] is of French origin for both it and the eccentric style of to which it was applied were introduced in the Northern section of the U.S. by Creole musicians. William Grant Still

As I see it the music of the American Negro has resulted from the union of the religious songs you mentioned and the primitive songs of Africa. William Grant Still

It was my mother who insisted that I practice regularly. William Grant Still

This was the gift of New England to the freed Negro: not alms, but a friend; not cash, but character. William Grant Still

For a long time I’ve wished to add my voice to those that are now protesting against lynching. William Grant Still

It was [Chadwick] more than anyone else who inspired me to write American music. William Grant Still

I am working now on the score of La Guiablesse. The scenario is based on a legend of Martinique. William Grant Still

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