William Dawson – Negro Folk Symphony (1978, Varèse Sarabande)

Media NM
Sleeve VG+

Format : LP
Cat N° : VC 81056
Style : Blues, Classical, Contemporary

The three-movement piece is candidly charged and thoroughly built. Dawson said he wasn’t out to mimic Beethoven or Brahms, but needed those who listened it to know that it was “unmistakably not the work of a white man.” He found motivation for the piece in conventional spirituals, which he favored to call “Negro folk-music.”