piano works by african american composers · piano works by african american composers undine smith...

Piano Works by African American Composers

• The Battle of Manassas (1866)

• Water in the Moonlight (1892)

• Rain Storm (1865)

• Reve Charmant (1881)

• The Oliver Gallop (1860)

• Sewing Song (1889)

• March Timpani (1880)

• Wellenklange: Voices of the Waves (1882)

Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins - Thomas Bethune (1849-1908) A blind, slave pianist, autistic savant, musical prodigy from Georgia

Scott Joplin (1867-1917) The “King of Ragtime”, an African American composer and pianist, achieved fame for his ragtime compositions

• Great Crush Collision March (1896)

• Combination March (1896)

• Harmony Club Waltz (1896)

• Original Rags (1899)

• Maple Leaf Rag (1899)

• Swipesy Cakewalk (1900)

• Peacherine Rag (1901)

• Sunflower Slow Drag (1901)

• Augustan Club Waltz (1901)

• The Easy Winners (1901)

• Cleopha (1902)

• A Breeze from Alabama (1902)

• Elite Syncopations (1902)

• The Entertainer (1902)

• March Majestic (1902)

• The Strenuous Life (1902)

• Something Doing (1903)

• Weeping Willow (1903)

• Palm Leaf Rag (1903)

• The Sycamore (1904)

• The Favorite (1904)

• The Cascades (1904)

• The Chrysanthemum (1904)

• Bethena (1905)

• Blinks’ Waltz (1905)

• The Rosebud March (1905)

• Leola (1905)

• Eugenia (1906)

• The Ragtime Dance 1906)

• Antoinette (1906)

• The Nonpareil (1907)

• Gladiolus Rag (1907)

• Searchlight Rag (1907)

• Lily Queen (1907)

• Rose Leaf Rag (1907)

• Heliotrope Bouquet (1907)

• Fig Leaf Rag 1908)

• Sugar Cane (1908)

• Sensation (1908)

• Pine Apple Rag (1908)

• Pleasant Moments 1909)

• Wall Street Rag (1909)

• Solace (1909)

• Country Club (1909)

• Euphonic Sounds (1909)

• Paragon Rag (1909)

• Stoptime Rag (1910)

• Felicity Rag (1911)

• Scott Joplin’s New Rag (1912)

• Kismet Rag (1913)

• Silver Swan Rag (1914)

• Magnetic Rag (1914)

• Pretty Pansy Rag (1915?)

• Recitative Rag (1915?)

• Reflection Rag (1917)


Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866-1949) African American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer known for his baritone voice

Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) Composer, organist, pianist, choral director, professor, born in Canada, moved to the U.S. at age 11

• After the Cakewalk (1900)

• Cave of the Winds (1902), march and two-step

• Magnolia, Suite for Piano (1912)

• In the Bottoms (1913), Suite for piano [Prelude (Night), His Song, Honey (Humoresque), Barcarolle (Morning), Juba Dance]

• Eight Bible Vignettes

• Inspiration Waltzes

• Enchantment (1922), a Romantic Suite for solo piano [Incantation, Song of the Shrine, Dance of Desire]

• The Cinnamon Grove (1928), a Suite for piano

• Tropic Winter (1938), a Suite for Piano

• Eight Bible Vignettes (1941–1943)

• Nepenthe and the Muse

James Sylvester Scott (1885-1938) Ragtime composer and pianist, regarded as one of the three most important composers of classic ragtime

• A Summer Breeze (1903)

• The Fascinator (1903)

• Efficiency Rag

• Sunburst Rag, two step for piano

• Ragtime Oriole

• Rag Sentimental

• Quality Rag

• Peace and Plenty Rag

• Ophelia Rag

• Honey Moon Rag

• Hilarity Rag

• Grace and Beauty - A Classic Rag

• Frog Legs Rag

• Broadway Rag (1922)

• From the Southland, six pieces (1914) [Through the Moanin’ Pines, The Frolic, In De Col’ Moonlight, A Jubilee, On Bended Knees, A New Hidin’ Place]

Nora Holt (c.1885-1974) Singer, composer, music critic, first African American to receive a Master’s Degree in composition in the United States

• Negro Dance (1921)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baritone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baritone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Nathaniel_Dett#In_the_Bottoms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Nathaniel_Dett#In_the_Bottoms


Florence Price (1887-1953) African American classical composer, pianist, organist, music teacher, from a mixed-race Arkansas family

• Tarantella (1926)

• Impromptu No. 1 (1926)

• Valsette Mignon (1926)

• Preludes (1926-32): No. 1 Allegro moderato; No. 2 Andantino cantabile; No. 3 Allegro molto; No. 4 [“Wistful”] Allegretto con tenerezza; No. 5 Allegro

• At the Cotton Gin (1927)

• Song without Words in G Major (1928 or early 1930s)

• Meditation ([ca. 1929])

• Fantasie nègre [No. 1] (E minor) (1929, rev. 1931); based on the spiritual "Sinner, please don't let this harvest pass"

• On a Quiet Lake (June 23, 1929)

• Barcarolle (ca. 1929-32)

• His Dream (ca. 1930-31)

• Cotton Dance (Dance of the Cotton Blossoms) (1931)

• Fantasie nègre No. 2 in G minor (March, 1932)

• Fantasie nègre No. 3 in F minor (March 30, 1932)

• Fantasie nègre No. 4 in B minor (April 5, 1932 - [ca. 1937]) (4 versions)

• Piano Sonata in E minor (1932)

• 3 Little Negro Dances (1933); also arranged for for two pianos (1949)

• Tecumseh (published 1935)

• 3 Sketches for little pianists (1937)

• Arkansas Jitter (1938)

• Bayou Dance (1938)

• Dance of the Cotton Blossoms (1938)

• Summer Moon (for Memry Midgett)' (April 6, 1938)

• Down a Southern Lane (April 29, 1939)

• On a Summer's Eve (June 15, 1939)

• Rocking chair (1939)

• [Ten Negro Spirituals for the Piano] [1937-42): Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler; I’m Troubled in My Mind; I Know the Lord Has Laid His Hands on Me; Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho; Gimme That Old Time Religion; Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; I Want Jesus to Walk with Me; Peter, Go Ring dem Bells; Were You There When They Crucified My Lord; Lord, I Want to Be a Christian

• Remembrance (1941 or earlier)

• Village Scenes (1942): "Church Spires in Moonlight," "A Shaded Lane," "The Park"

• Your Hands in Mine (1943) (originally titled Memory Lane)

• Clouds [ca. 1940s]

• Cotton Dance (Presto) ([ca. 1940s])

• 2 Fantasies on Folk Tunes (date unknown)

• In Sentimental Mood (1947)

• Whim Wham (July 6, 1946)

• Placid Lake (July 17, 1947)

• Memories of Dixieland (1947)

• Sketches in Sepia (September, 1947)

• Rock-a-bye (1947)

• [Three Roses]: To a Yellow Rose, To a White Rose,To a Red Rose (1949)

• To a Brown Leaf (1949)

• First Romance(ca. 1940s)

• Waltzing on a Sunbeam (ca. 1950

• Snapshots: I. Lake Mirror (1952), II. Moon behind a Cloud (1949), III. Flame (1949)

• Until We Meet (1952)

• Dances in the Canebrakes (1953)

• about 70 teaching pieces

• I'm Troubled in My Mind

• Pieces to a Certain Pair of Newlyweds

• Three Miniature Portraits of Uncle Ned (originally "Three Miniature Portraits of Uncle Joe"; later "Two Photographs”


Duke Ellington (1899-1974) Composer, pianist, leader of a jazz orchestra

• Soda Fountain Rag

• The Single Petal of a Rose

• Bird of Paradise

• Fleurette Africaine

• Dancers in love [Perfume Suite No.3]

• Melancholia

• Swampy River

• Reflection in D

• Black and Tan Fantasy

• Lotus Blossom

• The Clothed Woman

• The Lake

• Blues

• Black Beauty

• Sacred Concerts Suite [The Lord’s Prayer, Meditation, New World A-Comin’]

• Fast and Furious

William Grant Still (1895-1978) The “Dean of Afro-American Music,” classical composer and conductor from Mississippi

• A Deserted Plantation, suite in 3 movements (1933)

• 3 Visions (1935) [Dark Horsemen, Summerland, Radiant Pinnacle]

• Quit Dat Fool’nish (1935)

• 7 Traceries (1939) [Cloud Cradles, Mystic Pool, Muted Laughter, Out of the Silence, Woven Silver, Wailing Dawn, A Bit of Wit]

• Kaintuck for 2 pianos

• Entrance of the Porteuses

• Bells (1943) [The Phantom Chapel, Fairy Knoll]

• Marionette (1946)

• Preludes [5] for piano

• Five Animal Sketches

• Swanee River, arrangement

James Hubert “Eubie” Blake (1887-1983) Composer, lyricist, pianist of ragtime, jazz and popular music

• The Charleston Rag

• Memories of You

• Bandana Days

• Troublesome Ivories

• Eubie’s Classical Rag

• The Chevy Chase Rag

• Capricious Harlem

• Rhapsody in Ragtime

• Poor Jimmy Green

• Eubie Dubie

• Brittwood Rag

• The Baltimore Todolo

• Poor Katie Redd

• Kitchen Tom


Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989) The "Dean of Black Women Composers," a notable, prolific American composer, professor of music, classical pianist

• Valse Caprice (1930) • Before I'd Be a Slave (1953)

Howard Swanson (1907-1978) African American composer of classical music

• “The Cuckoo” Scherzo for piano (1948) • Piano Sonata (1950)

John Wesley Work III (1901-1967) Composer, educator, choral director, musicologist, scholar of African-American folklore and music

• Sassafras, pieces for piano (1946) • Big Bunch of Roses

Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004) Composer, professor from Oklahoma

• Childhood Capers (1935)

• Rhapsody (1960)

• Nocturne (1961)

• Times Seven (1964, Rev. 1985)

• Orrin and Echo (1970)

• Flight (1970)

• Ties (1970)

• Teeta (1972, Rev.1988)

• Round and Round (1977)

• Soliloquy (Rev.1979)

• March (Three Notes) (1980)

• Blaize (1985)

• Suite from Tawawa House (1985, Rev.2014) [Overture, Cake Walk, Sunday Dance Tune, Prelude, Fire Music, Jumping Over the Broom]

• A Jazz Trifle (1986)

• Vignette No.1 (1990)

• Vignette No.2 (1990)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composer


Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972)African American composer and pianist from Chicago

• Lillian M. Bowles: For the piano • Troubled water

Ulysses Kay (1917-1995) African American neoclassical composer from Arizona

• Four Inventions (1946) • First Nocturne for Piano (1973)

Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981) Jazz pianist, arranger, composer from Georgia

• Runnin’ Wild (1922), arrangement

• The Moon is Low (1929), arrangement

• Sleepy Time Gal (1924), arrangement

• In a Mist (1927), arrangement

• Little Joe from Chicago (1938)

• Lullaby in Rhythm (1938)

• Duces Wild (1944)

• Chili Sauce (1944)

• The Duke and the Count (1944)

• Twinklin’ (1944)

• Special Freight (1944)

• I Never Knew (I Could Love Anybody)

• Bobo and Doodles (1944)

• Mary’s Boogie, transcription

• The Moon is Low

• Drag ‘em

• Nite Life

John Len Chatman “Memphis Slim” (1915-1988)Blues pianist, singer and composer

• Mr. Freddie

• Sail On Blues

• Walkin’ the Boogie

• Cow Cow Blues

• Jefferson County Blues

• Four O’Clock Blues

• Trouble in Mind

• 44 Blues

• 88 Boogie

• Down Home Blues

• Down That Big Road

• Roll and Tumble

• Crowing Rooster

• Woman Blues Boogie


George Walker (1922-2018) Composer, pianist, organist, first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music

• Music for Two Pianos

• Piano Sonata No. 1





• Sonata for Two Pianos

• Spatials for Piano

• Spektra for Piano

• Four Seasonal Sketches: Spring Intermezzo, Summer Interlude, Autumn Dance, Winter Holiday

Betty Jackson King (1928-1994) Pianist, singer, educator, choral conductor, composer

Julia Amanda Perry (1924-1979) Classical composer and teacher

• Pearls on Silk • Prelude for Piano

Hale Smith (1925-2009) Composer, pianist, educator, arranger, editor from Cleveland

• My Scarf is Yello

• Off-Beat Shorty

• Evocation

• Mirrors: Rondo and Variations for 2 pianos

1. Agitato2. Slowly

Billy Taylor (1921-2010) Jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster, educator

• Black Swan Rag


H. Leslie Adams (1932)Composer, choral conductor, show music director, educator

• Three Piano Preludes (1961)

• Twenty-six Etudes for Solo Piano• Contrasts for Piano (2001)

• Five Portraitures of Two People, 4 hands (1965)

• Watermelon (1971)

• Street Song (1977)

• Play Me Something (1979)

• Call and Response (1982)

• Pasacaglia and Blues (1990)

• Boogie Woogie Fantasy (1997)

Thomas Jefferson “T.J.” Anderson (1928) Composer, professor of music

• Portraits in Jazz (1976), 12 pieces {Ella Scats a Little Lamb, Waltz for Miles, The Monk, Sweet Mister Jelly Roll, A Taste of Bass, Blues for Duke, Billy’s Songs, Mr. Satchmo, Canción de la Havana, Bossa Brazilla, Blue Bird, Cool-Trane]

Valerie Capers (1935)A Juilliard trained blind jazz composer, pianist, educator

Roger Donald Dickerson (1934)Composer, jazz pianist, educator

• Sonatina

David Baker (1931-2016)Jazz composer, conductor, musician, and educator from Indianapolis

• Sonata No.1

• Five Short Pieces for Solo Piano (1970)• Jazz Dance Suite (1989)


Julius Eastman (1940-1990) Composer, pianist, vocalist, dancer, combined minimalism with elements of pop music

• Piano Pieces I-IV (1968), solo piano

• Touch Him When (1970) for piano 4 hands

• Gay Guerilla (ca. 1980) for 4 pianos

• Crazy Nigger (ca. 1980) for 4 pianos

• Piano 2 (1986), solo piano

• Trio Sonata for Solo Piano

• 2 Scherzos for solo piano

• Piano Sonata No.1.

• Piano Sonata No.2

• Piano Sonata No.3

• Ignis Fatuus (Mysterious Fires)

• Eight Variations on Shalom Chevarim

Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork (1941) Composer, professor

• A Little Whimsy (1978) • Dream and Variations (1974)

Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940)Composer, music educator, co-founder of the Society of Black Composers

Alvin Singleton (1940)Composer from Brooklyn, New York

• Mutations (1966)

• Cinque (1969)

• Argoru I (1970)

• Changing Faces (1970)

• Le Tombeau du Petit Prince (1978), for harpsichord

• Inside-Out (19884), piano 4 hands

• In My Own Skin (2010)


Anthony Braxton (1945) Composer, musician, educator from Chicago

• Composition No.1 (1968)



• Composition No.16 for 4 pianos (1971)







Joyce Solomon Moorman (1946) Composer, educator

• Theme and 12 Variations

• Piano Suite

• A Young Woman’s Impressions of New York City

• A Summer Afternoon in South Carolina

• Piano Sonata

Earl Louis Stewart (1950) Composer, musician, conductor from Louisiana

• The Budding Rose Rag (1969)

• Preludes for the Young Pianist (1973) [Lullaby for Sonny, Song of the Fourth, Clouds]

• Song for Annell (1978)

• Afro-Inventions Book 1 (1994) [Swing, Rag, Ngoma, New Orleans, Traditional Calypso, Afro-Latin, Neo-Salsa, Afro-Latin, Neo-Funk, Swing, Neo-New Orleans, Neo-Bebop]

• Birthday Rag (2003)

• In a Meeting Rag (2003)

• Joplin Lives (2003)

• My Neah Rag (2003)

• Festive Rag (2010)

• A Glimpse Into Another World Rag (2010)

Wallace McClain Cheatham (1945) Composer, musician, researcher, conductor, educator

• Prelude No.1 “Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho”

• Prelude No.2 “Pour Mourner’s Got a Home”• Prelude No.3 “Didn’t it Rain”


• A Walk Through the Shadow (1981)

• Behind the Walk (1984)

• Goddess Variations (1999)

• Middle Passage (1983)

• Wayang VI (1985)

Anthony Curtis Davis (1951)Composer, pianist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his opera

Geoffrey Dana Hicks (1954) Composer, director, educator, pianist, performer, recording artist,

• The Storm (1964)

• Theme and Variation for Piano in C (1970)

• Sonata for Tape and Piano (1975)

• 24 Short Pieces for Piano (1980)

• A Tribute to R.N. Dett (1988)

• The Picture Preludes for Piano (1992)

• The Impromptu Preludes for Piano (2003)

• The New England Preludes for Piano (2010)

• The Outdoor Preludes for Piano (2011)

• Die Klavier Skizzen (The Piano Sketches (2011-2012)

Richard Thompson Composer, pianist, performer, jazz educator

• Six Preludes for Piano

Lettie Beckton Alston (1953-2014) Composer, educator

• The Journey: The Longest Mile

• Etude

• Moods for Piano (1993) [Playful, Mysteriously, Gloomy, Joyfully]

• Three Rhapsodies for Solo Piano (1994) [Well-Marked, Solemn, Playful with Expression]

• Variations on “Let Every Voice and Sing” (2000)


Regina Harris Baiocchi (1956) Composer, author, poet, educator from Chicago

• Azuretta

• Déjà Vu

• Equipoise by Intersection

• Legacy

• Liszten, My Husband is Not a Hat!

• Iconoclasm (2017)

Michael Abels (1962) Award winning composer of film scores, orchestral and solo works, arranger, editor

Geoffrey Mumford (1955) Composer, educator

• two Elliott Carter tributesI. For Elliott (1983-84)II. a celebration of Elliott (2006)

• barbaglio del manca (1981)

• tango variations (1984)

• fragments from the surrounding evening (1984)

• a flower in folding shadows (1986)

• a landscape of interior resonances (2001)

• four dances for Boris (2004)

• of ringing and layered space (2010)I. “Jenny”

II. “Lura”

Trevor Weston (1967) Composer, educator

• A Shepherd’s Vouage (1996)

• Meme la lune devient triste de temps en temps (1998)

• Knell (2002)

• New Blues for TJ (2003)

• Eurythmy Variations (2007)

• Wafting Clouds (2019)


Gregory Jackson (1976) Composer, percussionist, director, educator from Tennessee

• Etude, Op.1, No.1 & 2

• Prelude, Op.3

• Prelude Op.4

• Op.7, Allegro

• Mood change, Op.8

• Fantasia, Op.11 (1999)

• Postlude, Op.17

• Etude, Op.27

• Berceuse, Op.51

• Subjective Reality, Op.57

• The First Frost, Op.73

• For Ilyse, Op.101

James Lee III (1975) Composer from Michigan, educator

• Piano Sonata No.1 (2002)

• Fantasia Ritmica (2003)

• 12 Preludes of the New Earth (2009)


• Souls of Alkebulan (2012)

• Four Jewish Songs (2018)


• Recuerdos Diaspóricos (2018)

• Window to Eternity’s Threshold (2018)

• Ya’akov’s Last Words (2018)

John Wineglass (1973) Emmy Award-winning television composer, performer

• Piano Suite No.2 in E-flat1. A Midsummer Waltz

2. The Journey3. Distant Memories

• Fantasy No.5 for Piano: Ascending Towards Heaven

Nkeiru Okoye (1972) Composer

• African Sketches [Dusk, Drums Talking, The Village Children at Play, Dancing Barefoot in the Rain]


• Monday (2004)

Jessica Mays (1987) Composer, pianist, singer-songwriter

Joe W. Moore III (1986) Percussionist, educator, composer

• 29

• Iceberg

• Just This Once

• Lanota

• My Favorites

• Spectrum


Image Credits:

Anthony Braxton: Peter GannushkinAnthony Davis: Anthony DavisAdolphus Hailstork: Old Dominion UniversityBilly Taylor: jazztimes.comDavid Baker: jazzinamerica.orgDuke Ellington: public domain publicity photoEarl Louis Stewart: Photo Credit: Global Music AwardsEubie Blake: U.S. Library of CongressFlorence Price: University of Arkansas Libraries Special CollectionGeoffrey Dana Hicks: from tremonttemple.orgGeoffrey Mumford: faculty image at Oberlin.eduGeorge Walker: Photograph by Frank Schramm, New York Times ObituaryGregory Jackson: Innovative Percussion, Inc.H. Leslie Adams, Photograph by Michael Dalby, WikipediaHale Smith: classicalmpr.orgHarry T. Burleigh: Photographed by Maud Cuney-Hare, Washington, D.C.: The Associated Publishers, Inc., 1936, p. 328. Copyright not renewedHoward Swanson: Center for Black Music, Columbia College, Chicago. Photograph by Maurice Seymour, New YorkJames Lee III: Morgan State UniversityJames Scott: U.S. Library of CongressJessica Mays: Jessica Mays via newmusicusa.orgJohn Len Chatman “Memphis Slim”: deepsouthernsoul.blogspot.comJoe W. Moore III: C. Alan PublicationsJohn Wesley Work: U.S. Library of CongressJohn Wineglass: musicinmay.orgJoyce Solomon Moorman: discogs.comJulia Amanda Perry: blackpast.orgJulius Eastman: Photographed by Christine RusiniakLettie Beckton Alston: colorado.eduMargaret Bonds: Public Domain ImageMary Lou Williams: Photograph by William P. Gottlieb, restoration by Adam Cuerden, U.S. Library of CongressMichael Abels: Photo by Jason LaVeris/Film MagicNkeiru Okoye: Credit: Women’s Philharmonic AdvocacyNora Holt: Carl Van Vechten, U.S. Library of CongressRegina Harris Baiocchi: Regina Harris BaiocchiRichard Thompson: richardthompsonpiano.com Robert Nathaniel Dett: U.S. Library of Congress, public domainRoger Dickerson: louisarmstrongjazzcamp.comScott Joplin: public domainThomas Wiggins: Photoprint by Golder & Robinson, N.Y. Copyrighted by John G. Bethune, U.S. Library of CongressTrevor Weston: Photo credit Trevor WestonTJ Anderson: Jeffrey Herman, nmbx.newmusicusa.orgUlysses Kay: ca. 1975. Ulysses Kay Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia UniversityUndine Smith Moore: WikipediaValerie Capers: Valerie CapersWallace M. Cheatham: amicimusicensemble.comWilliam Grant Still: Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, U.S. Library of CongressZenobia Powell Perry: colorado.edu

http://jazztimes.com

http://jazzinamerica.org

http://tremonttemple.org

http://classicalmpr.org

http://newmusicusa.org

http://musicinmay.org

http://blackpast.org

http://richardthompsonpiano.com

http://louisarmstrongjazzcamp.com

http://colorado.edu

piano works by african american composers · piano works by african american composers undine smith...

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