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Fanfare for American War Heroes
William Grant Still (trans. Thomas Lloyd)
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General Info
Year: 1942 /
Duration: c. 0:45
Difficulty: III-1/2 (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: William Grant Still Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $64.00 | Score Only (print) - $19.95
Instrumentation
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
The Fanfare for Fallen Heroes, composed during World War II and dedicated “in memorial of the colored soldiers who died for democracy,” gives us a window onto the musical and political world that [Leonard] Bernstein was just stepping into at the time. William Grant Still was a member of a generation of populist American composers, including Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and Virgil Thomson, who were in search of a modern, but still tonal and accessible, American language. As a composer, Bernstein would continue that search. Still and Bernstein were also united in the pursuit of “Double Victory” -- victory against fascism abroad and against racism at home. With this musical epitaph, Still clearly and poignantly reminded his listeners that African Americans were equal in sacrifice for the cause of democracy, even as they were unequal in their access to its powers.
The fanfare is a solemn one, and it serves to introduce a melody in the English horn that speaks in the pentatonic language of the African American spiritual. This is the true focus of Still’s work, not the fanfares that remain in the distance, and it serves as both a memorial and a reminder that the work is not yet done.
- Program Note adapted from Katherine Baber
Media
- Audio: Reference recording (orchestral version). Southland Symphony Orchestra (Sylvia Lee Mann, conductor)
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Wind Orchestra (Nicholas P. Waldron, conductor) – 27 May 2022
Works for Winds by this Composer
- Africa: Land of Superstition (arr. Tam)
- Afro-American Symphony for Band (arr. West Point Military Academy) (1930/1970)
- Afro-American Symphony. See also: Symphony No. 1
- Scherzo from "The Afro-American Symphony" (1930/1970)
- The American Scene (1957)
- Choreographic Prelude (arr. Lloyd) (1970)
- Entrances of the Porteuses (arr. Perna; ed. Lloyd)
- Fanfare for American War Heroes (arr. Lloyd) (1942 / )
- Fanfare for the 99th Fighter Squadron
- Folk Suite for Band (1966)
- Frisco Jazz Band Blues (1919)
- From the Delta (1945)
- The Hesitating Blues (as arranger) (1916)
- Kaintuck' (tr. Perna) (1935)
- Land of Peace
- Little Folk Suite from the Western Hemisphere
- Little Red Schoolhouse (arr. Steele) (1957/1977)
- Miniatures (1963)
- Old California
- Rising Tide. See: Victory Tide
- "Scherzo" for Band. See: Afro-American Symphony for Band
- Song of the City. See: Victory Tide
- Summerland: From Three Visions (arr. Teter) (1937/2013)
- Summerland: For Wind Ensemble (arr. Teter) (1937/2013)
- Symphony No. 1 (1931/1946)
- Symphony No. 1. See also: Afro-American Symphony for Band
- To You, America! (1952/1956)
- Victory Tide (1939/1942/1945)
- Wood Notes (arr. Mauldin) (1948/1959/2022)
Resources
- Baber, Katherine. “Fanfare for American Heroes.” ’’Redlands Symphony.’’ Web. Accessed 1 June 2022