Page 71 - CJMay25

Book Reviews
Book Reviews

Gregory Pysh, editor

gregory.m.pysh@gmail.com

William L. Dawson niston, Alabama, at age thirteen to study music at the
Gwynne Kuhner Brown Tuskegee Institute 100 miles south, Dawson followed
University of Illinois Press, 2024. pp. 152 an insatiable curiosity about the craft of composition,
Cloth, $110; paper, $24.95; ebook, $14.95 orchestration, and the origins of the Spirituals. He
moved on from Tuskegee to Kansas City and Chica-
Note: A version of this review originally appeared in Pennsylva- go, continuing to study composition while working as
nia History, A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies (Fall 2024). a band director, trombonist, and music editor, until an
invitation came to return to Tuskegee as director of a
As the editor of the recently published new edition new school of music at the Institute. Though the fund-
of William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, Gwynne ing for this program would soon fall through, Dawson
Kuhner Brown’s William L. Dawson adds to the recent devoted himself to developing the choir, even with no
flourishing of scholarship and recordings of Dawson’s music majors left to draw on. Through his arrange-
work, most notably Mark Hugh Malone’s biography, ments of the Spirituals, he “gave students who were
William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator (Universi- two or more generations removed from slavery a way
ty Press of Mississippi, 2023) and the September 2024 of engaging positively with their ancestors’ experienc-
issue of the Choral Journal devoted entirely to Dawson, es, spirituality, and artistry” (p. 34).
with contributions from both Brown and Malone. Soon after his return to Tuskegee, Dawson’s new-
As a conductor and teacher, William Dawson first ly expanded choir had gained enough attention to
drew national attention through his 110-voice Tuskegee be invited to become part of a variety show concert
Institute Choir, beginning with its 1932 performance at at the December 1932 opening of Radio City Music
the opening of Radio City Music Hall in New York Hall. While this opportunity brought his choir nation-
only two years after his arrival. After twenty-five years al prominence, it also brought him in contact with the
at Tuskegee, he went on to become one of the leading eminent conductor Leopold Stokowski, with whom he
guest conductors and clinicians throughout the United shared the score of a new symphony. The sympho-
States at a time when the presence of Black performers ny’s premiere in November 1934 received universal
of any kind at national choral conferences was exceed- high praise, but follow-up performances were few. A
ingly rare. trip to Africa in 1952-53 inspired Dawson to revise the
Beginning with his running away from home in An- symphony. After reviewing the revised score, Stokows-

CHORAL JOURNAL May 2025 Volume 65 Number 8 69