In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy

• Still composed this work in 1943. Its full title is In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy.¹
• In Memoriam is one of several works that the League of Composers commissioned Still to write during WWII.² The commission was intended for live orchestral performance and for CBS radio broadcast.³
• This work premiered on January 5, 1944. The New York Philharmonic performed the work, directed by Artur Rodziński.⁴
• William Grant Still received a great deal of positive feedback on In Memoriam, both from critics and from the general public. One woman from Syracuse wrote him a letter on the piece which he appreciated so much that he released it to the Associated Press. Here is an excerpt:⁵

“Your composition was dedicated to the boys of your race who have given their lives for their country; the gratitude of their fellow-Americans belongs to these boys in equal measure. And I trust that those who return may indeed find a democracy of tolerance and unity – an America, with liberty and justice for all.”

From a letter sent to Still in response to In Memoriam

1. Gayle Murchison and Catherine Parsons Smith, “Still, William Grant,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 17, 2022, https://oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000026776.
2. David Ciucevich, liner notes to William Grant Still: Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American,” Fort Smith Symphony, John Jeter, Naxos 8.559174, CD, 2005.
3. John Michael Spencer, “An Introduction to William Grant Still,” Black Sacred Music 6, No. 2 (Fall 1992), 22.
4. Ciucevich, liner notes to William Grant Still: Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American.”
5. Spencer, “An Introduction to William Grant Still,” 23.