I Dream a World: The Operas of William Grant Still

by Beverly Soll

University of Arkansas Press, 2005
eISBN: 978-1-61075-197-1 | Cloth: 978-1-55728-789-2
Library of Congress Classification ML410.S855S69 2005
Dewey Decimal Classification 782.1092

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

ABOUT THIS BOOK

William Grant Still (1895–1978) dreamed of a world in which his eight operas—for him the ultimate form of musical expression—would be heard in the major opera houses in the United States, devoting most of his career toward the pursuit of this goal. The first part of I Dream a World creates a context for Still’s operas and explores commonalities among them, including structural elements and musical characteristics. The second part traces the research, composition, and perform-ances of the operas as a way of documenting the history of the composer and his contributions to American opera. Although I Dream a World is not intentionally biographical, it is very pers-onal. It is more than the story of William Grant Still’s love of operatic music, of the libretti that reflect his own life and philosophy, and of the world he dreamed through his work. It opens a window on Still the man as well as on Still the composer that offers important insights into the social milieu of this pioneering figure.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Beverly Soll is arts/special events coordinator at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and the author of Arias, Duets, and Scenes from the Operas of William Grant Still.

REVIEWS

“Past scholarship on the career of William Grant Still has largely left readers interested in his operas searching for something more. Unfortunately, no single volume was available. Beverly Soll’s I Dream a World fills that void. . . . In documenting Still’s contributions to American opera, she also provides poignant insight to his continued struggle for place within a larger society.” —Michael J. Dabrishus, assistant university librarian for archives and special collections at the University of Pittsburgh and coauthor of William Grant Still: A Bio-Bibliography “Beverly Soll has been thorough, thoughtful, fair, engaging, and most organized, all of which help the reader to sit back and enjoy the ride through William Grant Still’s life. . . . She draws the reader in immediately and states her case. Harlem, Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Verna Arvey on the one hand, and opera composition, opera promotion and opera production on the other, do not connect until Soll shows us that they should and do, through the genius of William Grant Still.” —Thomas King, professor of voice at Austin Peay State University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
List of Illustrations	000
Preface	000
Acknowledgments	000
Introduction	000
Part 1: Background and General Introduction to the Operas
Chapter 1
	Chronology of the Operas	000
Chapter 2
	The Operas in the Context of Twentieth-Century America	000
Chapter 3
	A Look at the Creation of the Operas through the Composer's Diaries	000
Chapter 4
	The Compositional Process	000
Chapter 5
	Still's Life and Philosophy as Reflected in the Themes of the Operas	000
Chapter 6
	Character Types and the Roles of Chorus, Orchestra, and Dance in the Operas
	000
Chapter 7
	Structural and Musical Aspects of the Operas	000
Conclusion to Part 1	000
Part 2: Research, Composition, and Performance History of the Operas
Chapter 8
	Blue Steel (1934)	000
Chapter 9
	Troubled Island (1939)	000
Chapter 10
	A Bayou Legend (1941)	000
Chapter 11
	Costaso (1950)	000
Chapter 12
	Mota (1951)	000
Chapter 13
	The Pillar (1956)	000
Chapter 14
	Minette Fontaine (1958)	000
Chapter 15
	Highway 1, U.S.A. (1962), revision of A Southern Interlude (1942)	000
Epilogue	000
Appendix A
	William Grant Still's Performance Log of Aria or Opera Performances	000
Appendix B
	Distribution of Voice and Character Types	000
Appendix C
	Acts, Place, Setting, and Time of the Operas	000
Appendix D
	Catalog of Arias by Opera, Title, Character, Voice Type, and Range	000
Appendix E
	Orchestration Employed in the Operas	000
Appendix F
	A Brief Overview of Opera/South	000
Abbreviations	000
Notes	000
Bibliography	000

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