William Grant Still: "Afro-American Symphony"

Grades 6-8

Note to Teachers:
This Outline and the following pages you can download are meant to be a "packet." You are welcome to use only certain pages, but if you print and copy each page, the students can staple this into a packet of work:

Page 1: America Takes Its Place | Answer Key
Page 2: It's Still Technical
Page 3-5: The Versatile Mr. Still | Answer Key | Based on biography
Page 6: "Versatile" Research Moments
Page 7: "Jammin' on William Grant Still's Blues Theme" Sheet Music
*Orff arrangement based on Still's Blues theme from Afro-American Symphony

Also included are a Unit Pre-Test (Answer Key) and Test (Answer Key)

Standards
These lessons address learning outcomes listed below and allow you to teach to seven Multiple Intelligences (Naturalist is not present).

READING

• Analyze, compare, and contrast aspects of the text (Dunbar excerpt in outline)
• Express reasons for recommending or not recommending the text for a particular audience or purpose (Dunbar excerpt in outline)
• Select information from a variety of resources to support ideas, concepts, and interpretations ("Versatile" Research Moments)

MATHMATICS

• Identify needed and given information in a problem situation, as well as irrelevant information (Division of Quarter Note in Outline)
• Use proportions to create a circle graph ("Versatile" Research Moments)
• Analyze and identify patterns (Blues activity in outline)

CITIZENSHIP

• Group significant individuals by broadly defined historical eras (Still Introduction/America Takes its Place WS)
• Identify the central idea an historical narrative (albeit legendary) attempts to address (Dunbar excerpt in outline)
• Determine and explain relationships among resources, economic activities, and population distribution. (It's Still Technical WS)
• Identify factors that influence consumer decisions to demand or supply goods or services (It's Still Technical WS)

SCIENCE

• Identify the positive and/or negative impact of technology on human activity (It's Still Technical WS)
• Recognize the advantages and/or disadvantages to the user in the operation of simple technological devices (It's Still Technical WS)

Lesson Plans

I. William Grant Still (1895-1978) and Western Music History
Meets National Standards for Music Education: 8,9

A. Introduce William Grant Still

1. Ask: "In the study of great composers of Western Music, why does it take us so long to get to American composers?"
   1. Ask students the above question
   2. Someone might hit on the right answer that we are a young country and the roots of what we consider "classical" music go back to Europe, specifically Italy.
   3. Ask students if they recall any other European countries to which music spread from Italy (Germany, Austria, England, France, etc.)
   4. Although "classical" music was traveling over to America as people of Europe came here, we still have an art form which is specifically American. Ask students if they can identify the specific style of music "invented" in America (Jazz)
   5. Hand out America Takes Its Place and complete by explanation or by using the Key as an overhead transparency. This activity is designed to be very general; add additional countries not listed on the Key at your discretion.
2. Ask: "Describe a typical composer we have studied. For example, man or woman, educated or no, wealthy or no, lived a long life, etc."
   1. Students may come up with a GENERAL statement that most composers since the time of Bach had been men, played a keyboard instrument; often had education - many through university or conservatory; often had musical parents, worked in the church, did not always live long lives, often struggled in life.
   2. General statements like these needed to be reinforced as just that: general and not specific. What we are trying to get at is that composing music was most often open to men of European descent. While recognizing that some consider this "unjust" or "unfair," it is important to note that we received a tremendous amount of wonderful music from these composers.
3. Ask: "Around the turn of the 20th century (circa 1900), the United States population was comprised of what nationalities (in other words, they had descendents in what countries, or had come themselves from there)?"
   1. Ask students the above question (one could name practically any country; Middle Eastern countries that are so much in the news now are unlikely; major immigrant populations were coming from the European continent (plus Ireland) and millions had come from Africa in the previous two centuries)
   2. Ask: Who, in America, were being encouraged to compose and perform music? (in many cases, men of European descent were educated in the highest levels of music and were the ones making a living composing and performing music).

II. American Jazz in the Context of Western Music History
Meets National Standards for Music Education: 8,9

A. Over a period of decades since the late 1800s, JAZZ has given many black Americans the opportunity to write, perform, and make a living within this style of music.

1. It is beyond the scope of this lesson to do anything but touch on the history of Jazz in America. Perhaps you have studied Jazz composers in class to which you can refer. The point is that by the time of the Second World War, the Swing Era was a huge musical and social force in America.
2. Complete Technology and the Economics of Jazz. This worksheet is designed to (1) identify how technology was spreading jazz music in America and (2) identify the factors that influence consumer and producer decisions to supply or demand goods.

B. William Grant Still enters at a time in American history when men of African descent were often subjected to prejudice, hatred, and disrespect by other Americans.

1. Remind students that even successful jazz musicians, like Duke Ellington, were not allowed certain rights because of their skin color. (For example, Duke's band would often have to enter through the back door of the "Whites-only" establishment they were playing. Their music was played and greatly appreciated, but many White Americans could not accept them as people deserving of equal legal rights.
2. Have students read the Still biography and complete The Versatile Mr. Still worksheet (Answer Key). The Research Moments are designed for ambitious students who wish to receive extra credit.

C. Unlike many of our composers from centuries past, we can learn about Still through a Living Primary Source.

1. Ask students how many of their parents listen to "talk radio."
   1. You will have a variety of answers.
   2. Ask students what is a main difference about getting one's news off the television and hearing it on a radio station.
   3. The primary difference is that you cannot "see" the people talking.
   4. What are some advantages/disadvantages to removing the "visual" part of your information source. (you are not biased by how someone looks, you are required to use your imagination, you pay more attention to the inflection of words. ON THE OTHER HAND, some people remember information better if they can attach it to a person or pictures, some people might get distracted/lose attention if they have nothing to "watch" and, therefore, "miss" what was said).
2. Tell the students we are going to hear part of a recent interview with Judith Grant Still, William's daughter. Ask them "is she a PRIMARY or a SECONDARY source of information?
   1. She is a PRIMARY SOURCE because she WITNESSED HISTORY (watched him live, heard him speak, knew him well)
3. Ask: "Is this a reliable source of information or not?"
   1. she is his daughter and, therefore, likely knew a great deal about him.
   2. on the other hand, a person close to someone can possess bias.
   3. bias means that someone has "prejudged" a situation for some reason. Judith Grant Still has the challenge of remaining objective about her father, whom she loved and respected. We have chosen to trust her as a reliable and valuable source about her father. We can also take what she says and compare it with other sources to test its validity.
   4. Conclusions: Primary sources are valuable because they WITNESSED HISTORY. Also, USE A VARIETY OF SOURCES when trying to understand a piece of history.
   5. To create an activity about Learning from a Primary Source, download the interview excerpt from the website to broadcast it for your students. Either devise your own questions for students, based on her responses, or ask students to record what information they have learned from Ms. Still's responses.

III. American Composers Want to Write "American" Music
Meets National Standards for Music Education: 2,5,8,9

A. How to make music sound "American"

1. Explain that Still (like, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, e.g.) sought material and style that would make music truly "American" in sound
2. Spirituals and Blues in America after the Civil War mixed with ragtime and European "classical" music to create JAZZ
3. Jazz may be our only "original" style of music in America

B. Still gained inspiration from the Blues

1. If your students understand what spirituals are, you may tell them that Still thought even these songs often "exhibit the influence of Caucasian music." He wanted to find something with unique African roots that had retained its purity or ownership by Black Americans.
2. Still saw musical value in the Blues and even said, "I wanted to demonstrate how the Blues, so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to the highest musical level [the symphony]."

C. What are "The Blues?"

1. (information taken from The New Harvard Dictionary of Music) Blues began as an "emotive tool" to express the hardships of life in America for people from Africa. Around the turn of the 20th century, Blues refers both to the poetry of these troubles and the setting of the poetry to music.
2. Although Blues speaks of troubles, some musicians and appreciators of Blues music will tell you that the Blues makes them feel better about their own hardships. Some find the outpouring therapeutic; others say that the hearing the Blues makes them feel that they are not alone, and therefore, uplifted.
3. In America, in the early 1900s, one also finds "country blues" in the Mississippi delta and East Texas. Students might connect these to modern "country music."
4. Blues music of black Americans traditionally follows a 12-bar standard form and progression: I-I-I-I | IV-IV-I-I | V-IV-I-I. However, the progression is flexible (lowering the 7th scale degree in bar four, e.g.)

D. Playing the Blues

1. Ask students to count or clap out three 4-bar measures. Or, you might ask them to do some motion for four bars, change to a different motion for the second two bar, and again change for the last bars. This should establish the 12-bar Blues Pattern.
2. Mr. Still made up his own Blues theme to be a focal point in his African American Symphony. The accompanying Orff arrangement requires a keyboard player with solid rhythm to play Still's Blues tune, under which students can play accompanying harmony.
3. Teachers familiar with Orff philosophy can set up students with the chords G B D (F-natural)-I chord, C E G-IV chord, and G B D (F-sharp)-V7 chord, and create an improvisation session on Still's tune.
4. Play the first movement of Still's Afro-American symphony and have students identify when they hear the Blues theme.

IV. Afro-American Symphony
Meets National Standards for Music Education: 2,7,8,9

A. Still's Conception of the Symphony

1. Explain: Still actually created themes years before beginning work on the symphony as a whole. Themes in a sketch book were listed under categories: Passionate, happy, dramatic, plaintive, barbaric
2. Choose five students. Give each an Orff mallet or have them use their voices. Place the Still categories on five pieces of paper and have each student draw one. Ask them to create a short (four to 6 notes, for example) THEME based on that characteristic. Have the other students guess which category they have chosen.

B. How to get started writing a symphony (according to his own account, Still followed this method to write his symphony):

Mr. Still's compositional order:

1. rented a room (space) where he would be undisturbed
2. devised his own Blues theme (9 tone mode w/ flatted 3rd and 7th)
3. planned form of Symphony
4. wrote the entire melody
5. worked out the harmonies
6. worked out various treatments of themes
7. worked out orchestration
   1. Write out each step on a 8x10 card. You can either divide the class into 3 or 4 groups of 7 or choose 7 volunteers to come up in front of the class (in any case, each group must have seven individual cards, each bearing one of Still's steps).
   2. Ask the group(s) to determine in what order they think Still performed his task. It is unlikely any group will be able to guess his formula, nor is it supposed to represent what most composers do. Rather, students are working on interpersonal learning and at least giving thought to how a composer might go about doing his or her creative work.

C. Extra (outside) musical ideas in the Symphony

	Paul Laurence Dunbar Poetry
	Herbert W. Martin, professor of English and poet-in-residence at the University of Dayton and Paul Laurence Dunbar scholar, reads the poetry associated with William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony. Twell de Night is Pas' When I Gits Home An Ante-Bellum Sermon Ode to Ethiopia And offers the following commentaries on these works. Twell de Night is Pas' When I Gits Home An Ante-Bellum Sermon Ode to Ethiopia

1. Still chose the "classical" symphonic form of 4 movements
2. Still gave each movement a sub-title: Longings, Sorrows, Humor, and Aspirations. Play the first minute or two of each movement, out of order. Ask students to record on paper by subtitle, the movement they hear as you play it.
3. After the work was completed, Still chose poetry by African American 19th century poet Paul Laurence Dunbar to accompanying each movement (N.B., according to one source, he eventually recanted and said he did not want such poetry to distract listeners from the music).
4. More mature students can be given a stanza to read. Otherwise, the teacher should do his or her best to render the dialect Dunbar uses.
5. After hearing a stanza read aloud , play portions of the appropriate movement.

(1st mvt.)
All my life long twell de night has pas'
Let de wo'k come ez it will
So dat I fin' you, my honey, at last,
Somewhaih des ovah de hill
excerpt from 'Twell de Night is Pas'

(2nd mvt.)
It's moughty tiahsome layin' 'roun'
Dis sorrer-laden earfly groun',
An' oftentimes I thinks, thinks I,
'Twould be a sweet t'ing des to die
An go 'long home
excerpt from When I Gits Home

(3rd mvt.)
An' we'll shout ouah halleluyahs,
On dat mighty reck'nin day.
excerpt from An Ante-Bellum Sermon

(4th mvt.)
Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul
Thy name is writ on Glory's scroll
In characters of fire.
High mid the clouds of Fame's bright sky
Thy banner's blazoned folds now fly,
And truth shall lift them higher.
excerpt from Ode to Ethiopia
--Paul Laurence Dunbar

	Hearing Dialect
	Dunbar scholar Herbert W. Martin discusses dialect during an interview at WGUC in December, 2002. The use of dialect by writers in the late 19th Century. Dialect is particular to a region and time. Dunbar used Black, Irish and German dialect in his works. The best writers hear the way language is used and put it on the page.

D. Hearing dialect

1. It should be obvious to the students that the first three stanzas are in a dialect, which is contrasted with the final stanza Dunbar writes. To many students, the dialect will sound "funny" or make them uncomfortable. The key to their appreciation will be the respectable delivery of the text. Any student trying to "make fun" of this speech should be spoken to.
2. Ask: what do you associate with the hearing of the dialect (students from non-African heritage might say that it sounds "uneducated" or is "poor English")
3. Point out that there is a beauty and a rhythm to the dialect if one considers the language without the perception of the "rules" of grammar. Ask students if they can identify a rhythm to the language.
4. Ask: What is the affect on the listener of the dialect changing to proper and powerful English?
5. If you pre-judged the dialect to be less than worthy because it sounds "uneducated," for instance, how does Dunbar make you re-think your first impression? (you thought the speaker was unintelligent because of his word choices. In fact, the same speaker is very well educated and because of this, can CHOOSE his mode of expression)

E. Still as an Innovator

1. Probably the first use of the banjo in a major symphonic work! (Mr. And Mrs. Still --Verna Avery-- were aware of no other work using banjo in a symphony prior to 1930)
2. Ask students how they think the traditional audience might have reacted to such an non-traditional symphonic sound as the banjo (with the experimenting in 20th century music, perhaps people liked the new sound; some might have used such innovation against Still as another example of why he should not be writing concert hall music).

William Grant Still Links