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Calvert Johnson /Professor of Music and College Organist / Agnes Scott College / Decatur, GA 
cjohnson@agnesscott.edu

February is Black History Month. Many churches now make a point of incorporating African-American topics, Spirituals, exchanges with Gospel Choirs from African-American churches in February, or choral anthems using black materials. Mid-January, many churches focus on the national holiday celebrating the life and ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, especially here in his hometown of Atlanta. Most organists have never learned a single composition by a black composer, and have no idea where to obtain this repertoire. The attached table is a listing of some of the best material in print or easily obtainable through retailers and publishers. In addition there is a brief bibliography to learn more about this interesting music. It is well worth the time, and congregations (and recital audiences) respond favorably. The return on the time spent learning some of this repertoire will be great, speaking from personal experience. 

My special recommendation is the music of Florence Price (and not just because I edited this set of four volumes)--very well composed music and accessible with jazzy harmonies. The easiest works are in volume 2 (Short Organ Works taking about 2 minutes each to perform). The most challenging are the Suite No. 1 (volume 1), the Variations on a Folksong (volume 3), and the First Sonata (volume 4). The Sonata, however, does not use black idiom or material, being inspired by French late Romantic repertoire. 

Other composers whose works are worth the effort to learn are those included in the ECS (E. C. Schirmer) series produced in collaboration with the American Guild of Organists national taskforce: J. Roland Braithwaite, William B. Cooper, Roger Dickerson, Mark Fax (more difficult, but excellent), Adolphus Hailstork (well written and a superb piece for an Advent postlude with its toccata figuration above the well-known tune in the pedals in a 5/8 meter). Many of these are arrangements of Spirituals and familiar hymns/chorales. 

In addition, Vivace Press has several works that I heartily recommend: Local composer Sharon J. Willis, whose 4-movement Suite "We Shall Overcome" will be available by March 2000. This suite is a set of vignettes from the Civil Rights movement, concerning Rosa Parks and the bus incident, Martin Luther King and Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. and the protest marches of the 1950s and 60s, the Birmingham church bombing in 1963 that killed four little girls in a prominent black church, and the hope for the future expressed in "There Is a Balm in Gilead". Dr. Willis successfully interweaves quotations from many familiar Spirituals and the African-American National Anthem. The story is well told and compelling. Level of difficulty: moderate. The work only takes about 8 minutes to perform, so it is suitable for a prelude at many churches, or a meaningful recital piece that audiences will appreciate because they recognize so many tunes and can follow the program with Dr. Willis' well-written notes. Although this is her first organ works, she is making a name for herself with her operas and Spiritual arrangements for voice and piano (great accompaniments!). 

Ralph Simpson has a stirring Fantasy and Fugue on the the Spiritual "My Lord, What a Mourning" (Vivace Press) that is of moderate difficulty, well suited to a prelude or postlude. Morningstar has published three other spiritual settings: "Roll Jordan, Roll," and also a set of two on "Jacob's Ladder" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." The idiom is quite accessible Vivace Press is also publishing Ruth Norman's Festival Overture--a spiky, somewhat dissonant, difficult work, but a good prelude or postlude once you learn it. This Bethesda MD composer was honored recently by a concert of her works at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. 

If you are patient, you can eventually obtain copies from England of the works by Fela Sowande, a Nigerian composer who was trained at the Royal College of Organists and became the Musical Director of the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and Honorary Organist at the Anglican Cathedral Church of Christ in Lagos, Nigeria. He incorporates African elements into a basically Western/European post-Romantic style. The compositional technique is solid as a rock, and the style and materials very accessible. Level of difficulty: medium difficult. I particularly recommend the settings of Spirituals (he learned the tunes from American GIs who frequented the jazz bars at which he played during WW II in London). 

Another earlier composer well worth the effort is Samuel Coleridge-Taylor whose mother was English and whose father was from Sierra Leone. He was highly regarded in England where he was an accomplished composer and organist; his compositions were performed by the best orchestras and broadcast on BBC. I especially recommend the Impromptus, which will remind of late Romantic German and Austrian piano works but well written for the organ. They were later transcribed and published for piano. The Three Pieces are little salon miniatures, and quite easy. 

Some other quiet works, good for offertories, or even background music at funerals: the works by two well-respected mainstream American composers: William Grant Still and the Meditations by Ulysses Kay. They are not difficult, and are carefully constructed. 

Noel Da Costa's Spiritual Set is moderately difficult and requires fine musicianship to bring off convincingly. There are sections for improvisation on a set of given pitches, there are many rhythmic sections that must be expressive, and opportunities for added embellishment. The second and fourth movements are great fun, however, with their dance rhythms and Gospel/Blues elements--great for a short postlude or the whole set for a recital closer! He has composed more works for organ, but I haven't been able to get copies from him (manuscript). Da Costa is a composition professor at Rutgers University, and was born in Jamaica. 

More challenging are the Suite by Hailstork (devilishly difficult), the partita by David Hurd, the Prelude and Fugue by Leslie Adams (the other work was commissioned for the Atlanta National AGO convention in 1992, and not difficult--also not a particularly good piece of music, unlike the Prelude and Fugue), and the sonata by Charles D. Coleman.

ORGAN WORKS IN PRINT BY BLACK COMPOSERS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Calvert Johnson, compiler

Adams, Leslie

Prelude & Fugue for Organ (1979). Pullman WA: Vivace Press, 1998.

Adams, Leslie

Offering of Love. Westlake OH: HCM, 1992.

Braithwaite, J. Roland

Prelude on the Spiritual O Fix Me. Boston: ECS, 1997.

Burleigh, H. T.

Deep River. NY: G. Ricordi, 1917.

Coleman, Charles D.

Impromptu for Pedals Alone. Detroit: Northwestern School of Music Press, 1977.

Coleman, Charles D.

Sonata No. 1. Detroit: Northwestern School of Music Press, 1979.

Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel

Three Impromptus, op. 78. London: A. Weekes, 1914.

Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel

Three Pieces for Organ. London: Novello, 1898.

Cooper, William B.

Spiritual Lullaby. Boston: ECS, 1996.

Cooper, William B.

Meditation on Steal Away. Boston: ECS, 1996.

Da Costa, Noel

Chili’-lo. NY: Associated, 1971.

Da Costa, Noel

Spiritual Set. Melville NY: H. W. Gray (Belwin-Mills), 1977.

Dickerson, Roger

Chorale Prelude on Das Neugeborne Kindelein. Boston: ECS, 1996.

Dillard, Donald.

Improvisation on Amen. Lansdale PA: Long Island Publications, n.d.

Dillard, Donald.

A Setting of Three Hymns. Lansdale PA: Long Island Publications, n.d.

Diton, Carl R.

Keep Me from Sinking Down. NY: G. Schirmer

Diton, Carl R.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. NY: G. Schirmer

Fax, Mark

Three Organ Pieces. Boston: ECS, 1996.

Gie, Shirley

Variations on Nkosi. South African Music Rights Organisation

Grové, Stefans.

Afrikan Hymnus. South African Music Rights Organisation

Grové, Stefans.

Afrikan Hymnus II. South African Music Rights Organisation

Hailstork, Adolphus

Adagio and Fugue in F Minor. St. Louis: Morningstar, 1999.

Hailstork, Adolphus

Four Spirituals. St. Louis: Morningstar, 1999.

Hailstork, Adolphus

Listen to the Lamb. St. Louis: Concordia, 2004.

Hailstork, Adolphus

Toccata on Veni Emmanuel. Boston: ECS, 1996.

Hailstork, Adolphus

Suite for Organ. Chapel Hill: Hinshaw, 1976.

Hancock, Eugene W.

An Organ Book of Spirituals. Dayton: Lorenz, 1966.

Hancock, Eugene W.

The Wrath of God. Accord NY: Selah Press, 1993.

Harvey, E.

African Dance Suite. South African Music Rights Organisation, A 00969.

Hurd, David

Partita on Detroit. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1992.

Hurd, David

Four Spiritual Preludes. St. Louis: Morningstar, 2002

Hurd, David

On the Name Maurice Duruflé. NY: H. W. Gray, 1996.

Hurd, David

Evening Song. NY: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Hurd, David

Three Fugues (1989). Accord NY: Selah, 1992.

Inniss, Carleton

A Spiritual Service based on African-American Spirituals. NY: Carl Fischer, 1998.

Kay, Ulysses

Two Meditations. NY: H. W. Gray, 1951.

Kay, Ulysses H.

Suite No. 1 for Organ. NY: Carl Fischer, 1986.

Kerr, Thomas H.

Arietta (Rise Up, Shepherds, and Follow). American Organ Music, vol. 2, ed. Leslie P. Spelman. Evanston: Summy-Birchard, 1957.

King, Betty Jackson

Nuptial Suite. Chicago: Jaxonian Press, 1962.

Ndodana, Bongani

But There Went Up a Mist Watering the Face of the Ground. South African Music Rights Organisation.

Norman, Ruth

Ever Awakening. Bethesda MD: photocopy of MS, 1999.

Norman, Ruth

Festival Overture. Readfield WI: Vivace Press, 2000.

Price, Florence

First Sonata for Organ. Fayetteville AR: ClarNan, 1996.

Price, Florence

Variations on a Folksong (Peter Go Ring Dem Bells). Fayetteville AR: ClarNan, 1996.

Price, Florence

Short Organ Works. Fayetteville AR. ClarNan, 1995.

Price, Florence

Suite No. 1 for Organ. Fayetteville AR. ClarNan, 1993.

Reddy, Surendran

Toccata for Madiba. South African Music Rights Organisation, A 02730.

Sadoh, Godwin

Nigerian Suite No. 1. Colfax NC: Wayne Leupold Editions, 2003.

Simpson, Ralph.

Fantasy and Fugue on My Lord, What a Mourning. Pullman: Vivace Press, 1994.

Simpson, Ralph.

Roll, Jordan, Roll. St. Louis: Morningstar, 1993.

Simpson, Ralph

Two Spirituals for Organ. St. Louis: Morningstar, 1993.

Smith, William Farley

Songs of Deliverance. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.

Sowande, Fela

Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho. London: Chappell & Co., 1955.

Sowande, Fela

Gloria. NY: G. Ricordi and Co., 1958.

Sowande, Fela

Jesu Olugbala. London: Chappell & Co., 1955.

Sowande, Fela

K’a mura. London: Chappell & Co., 1945.

Sowande, Fela

Oyigiyigi. NY: G. Ricordi and Co., 1958.

Sowande, Fela

Pastourelle. London: Chappell and Co., Ltd.

Sowande, Fela

Prayer (Oba A Ba Ke). NY: G. Ricordi and Co., 1958.

Sowande, Fela

Yoruba Lament. London: Chappell & Co., 1955.

Sowande, Fela

Obangiji. London: Chappell & Co., 1955.

Sowande, Fela

Kyrie. London: Chappell & Co., 1955.

Sowande, Fela

Go Down Moses. London: Chappell & Co., 1955.

Still, William Grant

Elegy. Los Angeles: Western International Music, 1963.

Still, William Grant

Reverie. Los Angeles: Western International Music, 1962.

Temmingh, H. Nkosi

South African Music Rights Organisation, A 02557.

Terry, Micky Thomas

African-American Organ Music Anthology, 4 vol. St. Louis: Morningstar Publishers, 2000-2002.

Tillis, Frederick

Passacaglia. NY: American Composers Edition, n.d.

Volans, Kevin

Walking Song. South African Music Rights Organisation.

Walker, George

Three Pieces. MMB Music, 1991.

______.

Two Pieces (Prayer and Improvisation on St. Theodulph). MMB Music, 1996.

Willis, Sharon J.

We Shall Overcome. Readfield WI: Vivace Press, 2000.

Zaidel-Rudolph, J.

Five African Sketches. South African Music Rights Organisation, A 01303.

ORGAN MUSIC

Hancock, Eugene W. "Organ Music by Black American Composers: A Bibliography." The American Organist. ______. Organ Music of Black Composers. NY: American Guild of Organists, 1992.

Harrell, Paula D. Organ Literature of Twentieth-Century Black Composers: An Annotated Bibliography. Greensboro: The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1992.

Terry, Mickey Thomas. "African-American Organ Literature: A Selective Overview." The Diapason, vol. 87 (April 1996), 14-17; vol. 89 (May 1998), 18-21.

GENERAL SOURCES

Abdul, Raoul. Blacks in Classical Music. NY: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1977.

De Lerma, Dominique-Rene. Black Music in Our Culture. Kent OH: The Kent State University Press, 1970.

Floyd, Samuel A. Jr., editor. Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance. NY: Greenwood Press, 1990.

______. The Power of Black Music. NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Green, Mildred Denby. Black Women Composers: A Genesis. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983.

Hare, Maude Cuney. Negro Musicians and their Music, reprint of 1936 edition. NY: Da Capo Press, 1974.

Roberts, John Storm. Black Music of Two Worlds, 2nd, rev. ed. NY: Schirmer Books, 1998.

Rublowski, John. Black Music in America. NY: Basic Books, Inc., 1971.

Southern, Eileen. Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 1983.

______. The Music of Black Americans: A History , 2nd ed. NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1983.

______. editor. Readings in Black American Music. NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1971.

Stewart, Earl L. African-American Music: An Introduction. NY: Schirmer Books, 1998.

Walker-Hill, Helen. "Discovering the Music of Black Women Composers." American Music Teacher, vol. 40 (August/September 1990), 20-23, 63.

Williams, Ora. American Black Women in the Arts and Social Sciences: A Bibliographic Survey. Metuchen NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1978.