Religion in Rhythm

[H]armony ... is not regarded by the intelligent votary of the Muses as given by them with a view to irrational pleasure ... but as meant to correct any discord which may have arisen in the courses of the soul, and to be our ally in bringing her into harmony and agreement with herself; and rhythm too was given by them for the same reason.... --Plato, Timaeus [Jowett translation] December 1931, William Grant Still signed a contract with singer-songwriter-bandleader Willard Robison. Under its terms, Still was to serve as arranger for Robison for a year, with an option to renew for a second year. All arrangements made under this agreement were to be Robison's property. One paragraph of the contract paid tribute to Still's gifts in this area: is agreed that your ability and talents as an arranger and orchestrator of musical compositions [are] extraordinary and unique. Therefore, the contract stipulated, you will not at any time during the term hereof make orchestrations for any person, firm or corporation other than myself (Robison 1931).(1) Still was to receive $100 a week for his services. Not mentioned in the contract was a further service Still would peform for Robison: he would soon be hired as conductor of Robison's radio orchestra. It would be a pioneering example of cooperation between a white singer and a black arranger/conductor. Robison, whose Deep River Orchestra had been a moderately important recording orchestra in the twenties (it is remembered for including Bix Beiderbecke on one highly atypical recording date), is now best known as composer of the jazz standard Old Folks and as lyricist of Cottage for Sale. February 1931, building on successful appearances on the previous year's Camel Pleasure Hour broadcasts, Robison started his own radio program, the Deep River Hour.(2) By November 1931, the show was broadcasting three times a week over New York radio station WOR. The arranger for the first Deep River Hour radio shows had been Kenn Sisson (1898-1947), an experienced radio arranger who had worked with Ben Bernie (ASCAP 1980, 468; I am assuming that Sisson's work with Bernie preceded his work with Robison). Sisson was an able arranger of popular songs; his published stock arrangements are spoken of with approval by twenties-revival bandleaders. But Robison had higher ambitions for the Deep River Hour. One of Robison's ambitions was to present light classics arranged for his orchestra. Robison himself wrote atmospheric piano pieces--two of his suites for piano, Inspiration Suite and Rural Revelations, had been published by Robbins--and he hoped to hear his compositions, along with others he admired, presented by his orchestra. (Four numbers from his Robbins suites--By Quiet Firesides, Down a Daisy Lane, In Pastures Green, and In a Poinsettia Garden--are represented by Still arrangements in the Ellington Collection in the Smithsonian Institution.) Kenn Sisson, fully at home with popular song, seems not to have been comfortable in the world of the light classic; at least, there are no arrangements of light classics by him among the materials in the Ellington Collection. A deeper reason for Robison's interest in Still was Robison's style and subject matter as a performer. Much of Robison's repertoire, including many of his own songs, deals with the rural South (Georgia on My Mind, a Hoagy Carmichael song written the year before the Deep River Hour began broadcasting, is a good example) and, specifically or by inference, with the black experience. Robison was a devotee of W. C. Handy-style blues and of the rhythmic spiritual, a genre that will be discussed later in this article. The very name of the orchestra shows his desire to identify his music with the black experience. And many of Robison's songs--like many of those of Harold Arlen after him--invoke the black experience in order to speak of the human experience in general; Robison may well have seen Still's arrangements and conducting as a chance to validate his right to speak in this voice

Art · Rhythm · American Sports and Literature · Classics · Music History and Culture · Theater, Performance, and Music History

• William Grant Still in Ohio (1911-1919)

  Catherine Parsons Smith•American Music•2004

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