Negro Folk Symphony

• Dawson composed his Negro Folk Symphony in 1934, and revised the work in 1952.¹
• Leopold Stokowski conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in premiere of this symphony, at Carnegie Hall, on November 20, 1934. A subsequent performance by Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra was broadcast on CBS radio soon afterward.²

“The themes are taken from what are popularly known as Negro Spirituals. In this composition, the composer has employed three themes taken from typical melodies over which he has brooded since childhood, having learned them at his mother’s knee.” 

From William Dawson’s program notes to the premiere of the Negro Folk Symphony.³

“Mr. Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony took the house by storm. The custom of no applause during a symphony gave way after the second movement to a spontaneous outburst that brought the orchestra to its feet, and at the end the enthusiasm was so great that Mr. Dawson was called to the stage repeatedly to bow his acknowledgements.” 

Review of the premiere, by Pitts Sanborn, The New York World-Tribune, November 21, 1934⁴

Movements

1. The Bond of Africa 
2. Hope in the Night 
3. O Lem’ me Shine, Like a Morning Star! ⁵

1. Willie Strong, “Dawson, William Levi,” Grove Music Online (October 16, 2021), accessed June 9, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002249298.
2. Tom Huizenga, “Someone Finally Remembered William Dawson’s ‘Negro Folk Symphony,” NPR (June 26, 2020), accessed June 9, 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2020/06/26/883011513/someone-finally-remembered-william-dawsons-negro-folk-symphony.
3. Quoted in Ibid.
4. “William Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony (1934),” Wise Music Classical, accessed June 9, 2021, https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/27260/Negro-Folk-Symphony–William-Dawson/. 
5. Ibid.