R. Nathaniel Dett: My Cup Runneth Over: Complete Piano Music
Clipper Erickson, piano.
Navona Records 6013
Disc One: Total Time: 76:09
Disc Two: Total Time: 72:10
Recording: ****/****
Performance: ****/****
Being “first” can be great during one’s lifetime perhaps, but it can relegate you to the history books as time passes. In the case of R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943), there is much more to his neglect than meets the eye at first. We must first start with which country lays claim to Dett’s music. Though he grew up on the Ontario side of Niagara Falls, he spent his academic years at Oberlin College, the first person of African descent to graduate from the school in 1908. He would receive honorary doctorates later from Howard and Oberlin, but would earn his Master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music in 1931. Perhaps overshadowed by Scott Joplin’s more popular ragtime and dance music, Dett is important as the first composer to begin fusing the European art tradition with the incorporate of “Negro” folk music. In that respect, he carried on the sort of explorations begun by the virtuoso Louis Moreau Gottschalk. But Dett’s music moves us closer to the more modern colors of the early 20th Century. His own study of spirituals and compositions of choral music would be the foundation of inspiration for a African-American musicians this making him one of the more important figures of American musical history.
While some of Dett’s piano music has appeared from time to time, especially on New World Records, it is great to have these piano suites assembled here by Clipper Erickson. Erickson teaches at both Westminster Conservatory, Princeton, NJ; and at Temple in Pennsylvania. He has made a number of critically acclaimed recordings of both the classical repertoire and of American music. Here he has put together a collection of notes from the composer alongside his own discussion to help create context for these works. The music spans from Dett’s first works to those from the last part of his life. They provide pictures of both the experience of African-Americans coupled with the shifts in musical style happening at the time.
Magnolias (1912) was completed during Dett’s first appointment as a professor of music at Lane College in Jackson, TN. Cast in two parts, the first part has roots in late romantic writing, but already we can hear some of the hints of Impressionism entering into the harmonic ebb and flow. Dance rhythms enter in “My Lady Love” which also features an engaging melodic line. The second part moves into some of the “racial peculiarities” Dett used to describe the music, perhaps most apparent in the title “Mammy”. The music has a blend of pianistic showmanship with a touch of the salon. The five-movement suite, In The Bottoms (1913) was championed by no less than Percy Grainger and is perhaps his most well-known piano work. Here we begin to move into the more evocative piano writing that blends the romantic style with advanced harmonic ideas. Here as in the earlier suite we are in essence exploring “program music” intending to provide a suggestion of life in the South. We can hear banjo strumming (“Prelude”), a deeply moving “improvised” song (“His Song”), a love song (“Honey”-note the Southern term of endearment); folk-dance (“Barcarolle” and “Juba”). As with the earlier suite, these are gorgeous examples of early 20th-Century music with one foot somewhat in the previous century (in line with Edward MacDowell’s music but with an often more intense and reflective quality intermingled).
The title Nepenthe and the Muse (1922) is certainly rather odd, but in keeping with the vogue of musical works inspired by ancient literature that populates American music at the time. It was the result of Dett’s studies with the composer Arthur Foote at Harvard and bears a dedication to him. The hypnotic music takes its cues from the effects of this early drug appearing In Greek literature. As such, it tends to hover more in the impressionist realm. After working with Foote, we also see a slight shift in the more suite-like works to those structured more formally in a piano sonata style. Both Enchantment (1922) and Cinnamon Grove are four-movement works, the first with descriptive titles, the second with tempo markings and subheadings from which Dett took his inspiration. Both tend to reflect the more Romantic tradition. Enchantment, dedicated to Grainger, continues in the piano traditions of Liszt and Grieg, apparent in movements such as “Dance of Desire”. But there are also those Impressionistic-like suggestions in the title movement of “Beyond the Dream”. The inclusion of Egyptian symbols suggests that the work was influenced by the Rosicrucian movement, of which Dett was a member.
Dett’s music always had a poetic connection and this is never more so than in Cinnamon Grove where specific poets (Donne, Tagore, Longfellow) are mentioned as providing inspiration. The final movement is inspired from a song in Dett’s 1927 collection, Religious Folk Songs of Negros. One can also hear a little dance music and some modern harmonic touches. It is the conclusion to Disc One which is an excellent overview of Dett’s piano music style connecting to the previous century. The music is well-constructed and features often engaging melodic ideas and little pianistic touches. The style has a more elegant quality, less the often brashness of Gottschalk’s virtuosic displays. Listeners will be struck at the moments of tenderness coupled with some of the more extravagant climaxes, and always the way rhythm appears to be a consistent undercurrent, often providing a connective idea through the suite.
Disc two finds us exploring Dett’s later music, beginning to move beyond the salon perhaps to more modern harmonic ideas—especially moving into more open intervals of fourths and fifths. Still, even in Tropical Winter (1938) the primary melodic ideas continue to impress alongside music rooted in depictions of African-American, and American life. Spirituals are still influencing the sound of the music, but they are beginning to feel more like they are from a lost, and bygone culture. This is especially true as “The Daybreak Charioteer” opens with more open harmonic ideas and bigger pianistic gestures. The melodies are also becoming more angular at times, less interested with romantic implications, but continuing to evoke certain settings (one wonders of pieces like Debussy’s Etudes or Preludes were part of Dett’s own repertoire and exploration). Perhaps here in Tropical Winter, we finally get an example of a mature work that pulls together the composer’s experience and personal technique into a compelling suite. With the many religious pieces in Dett’s choral catalogue, it is no surprise that he would also explore Biblical philosophy and theology in his piano music. In 1942-43, he composed a group of Eight Bible Vignettes each connecting the African-American experience through the characters of the Old Testament. Some combine spirituals (“Father Abraham”) sometimes with Hebraic melodic ideas. Also fascinating is the blues-tinged, and more expressionistic, “Martha Complained”, a variation set with more percussive writing (“Other Sheep”); and the final movement inspired by Psalm 23, “Madrigal Divine”. The style here feels as if it is evolving even as the suite moves through each of the movements with deeply personal music.
The final three works on the disc return us to brief turn-of-the century pieces connecting to dance (“After the Cakewalk”, 1900; “Inspiration Waltzes”, 1903) and brief descriptive music of “Cave of the Winds” (1902). It allows us to see how far the composer had come musically while being good encores to round of the presentation.
Clipper Erickson proves to be a fine interpreter of these pieces. He is able to find the right balance of romantic technique and the sort of ebb and flow of Impressionist style that makes this music so engaging. The sound here is equally perfect for capturing the intimate quality of these pieces. It feels like we have been invited in to the perfect room to sit back and be enthralled by this often beautiful music. R. Nathaniel Dett’s music is worthy of exploration for those who appreciate the music of the Americas. While it would be tempting to put his music as influenced by Negro folk song and spiritual, the end results often mask that influence well as it becomes part of the fabric of who Dett was as both a musician, and a composer of African descent living in the intense and changing early 20th Century. One always catches a sense of admiration and awe at the music that Dett studied and explored, and in these piano pieces, we get the opportunity to be equally enthralled by how this music connects us to the previous century and moves us closer to the center. It never really catches its inspiration from the Jazz Age of the 1920s, and in that respect ends up having a somewhat timeless quality that reaches beyond the period. Both Cinnamon Grove and Tropic of Winter are the bigger finds here that are pieces worthy of greater exposure with the rest being icing on the cake. The vignettes also are like modern Liszt-like pieces with an almost improvisational quality at times that seems to move farther into modernism as each one progresses. That makes
Navona’s packaging is commonly cardboard sleeves and that is the case here. The discs are individually sleeved in different cardboard compartments-prone to potential scratching. The notebook that is included though, and the general layout is well done. The notes provide enough to give one context without trying to force the listener’s appreciation of the music. There really is no need as Dett’s music speaks for itself. Highly Recommended!
Recent Comments