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Book Reviews
Book Reviews

ki decided to record it with his newly founded Ameri- arrangements for his 100+-voice Hall Johnson Choir,
can Symphony Orchestra in 1963. The symphony fell comprising professionally trained singers performing
largely dormant again until the 2023 publication of a for a broader audience through the growing media of
newly edited set of score and parts by Brown led to Hollywood films and television. Both composers cre-
another landmark performance and recording, again ated more freely composed choral settings for large
with the Philadelphia Orchestra, this time under the choirs, bringing listeners closer to the heterophony and
direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. intensity of the ring-shouts and sorrow songs as they
Brown makes the case that this work is far more would have been heard on antebellum plantations.
than a compilation of folk song harmonizations; the Brown does make a passing reference to Johnson, but it
themes are fully integrated into the brilliant and var- would be interesting to explore how their work in two
ied orchestral texture, as are the compelling rhythmic parallel, but very different, worlds may have intersect-
ideas inspired by Dawson’s trip to Africa. Dawson’s ar- ed.
rangements of the Spirituals have had a much more Brown delves extensively into Dawson’s principled
continuous influence in the choral world. In the post- insistence on vernacular diction and his unusually dis-
war era, several of his arrangements became essential ciplined approach to rehearsing a choir. Dawson ob-
elements of the choral repertoire, and for many singers tained a level of dynamic range and ensemble unity
were their first exposure to the Spirituals in any form. that was ahead of his time, an important reason for
Like his symphony, these arrangements are remark- the success of his national role as an “Itinerant Mas-
able in their formal originality, going well beyond the ter” in his long post-Tuskegee career. Brown poses the
straightforward harmonizations most common at that question at the outset of why such a gifted and remark-
time. In this area, a little broader context would have ably original composer would produce such a limited
been welcome in Brown’s monograph. In the 1930s, number of works, instead devoting himself primarily to
Dawson was building up the sound and repertoire of conducting and teaching. She proposes that “although
a large, one hundred-voice university chorus singing anti-Black racism and his response to it unquestion-
arrangements with more dynamism than known here- ably shaped his professional trajectory,” his career as
tofore. At the same time, Hall Johnson was composing a deeply committed and passionate teacher “was not
a fallback plan… Dawson was both ambitious and in-
tentional, an artist and educator who made considered
decisions about how and where to direct his gifts, and
whose legacy is rendered no less momentous by the in-
difference of the White musical elite” (p. 4).

Thomas Lloyd
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A Quick Start Guide to Choral Singing
Matthew Bumbach and Dean Luethi
GIA Publications, 2022
92 pages

The authors have written this handbook for neo-
phyte choral singers as well as experienced conductors
and long-time choristers to gain new perspectives on
choral singing. The Introduction gives the reader the

70 CHORAL JOURNAL May 2025 Volume 65 Number 8