“I feel that is my challenge, my responsibility, my legacy, that I do something to make it more inclusive, to make sure that these works get performed to the point that we don’t have to think about the works by African-American or women composers. There’s just music.”

REVIEWS

“Music by African American composers is largely unknown on this side of the Atlantic.  The program of the Beethoven Festival appeared as a “musical ambassador” of the United States.  A “musical grab bag” recital, which often resembled film music, late-romantic sounds of great melodies encompassing chromaticism with strong ties to Jazz … colorful and nuanced … was performed well.” 

Claudia Wallendorf – Bonn General Anzeiger

But Not Forgotten

“When I select which discs I wish to review I choose either music by composers I know and admire or music by composers I don’t know at all. If the former I opt for music I don’t know or don’t know well. Either way it’s all in an effort at extending my musical knowledge. When I spotted a disc in the list entitled Music by African-American Composers for Clarinet and Piano I was intrigued. I knew that it must contain music by composers I didn’t know.

In the event, of the ten composers here I knew of only two: William Grant Still and Scott Joplin. Just as I was stupefied to learn just how many women composers there were I have also been similarly surprised to learn how many African-American composers there are. Conventional “wisdom” has led us to believe that “serious” music is the province mainly of the white western male. How refreshing it is, therefore, to have our preconceptions challenged and often wrought asunder! This disc should certainly help in this process and, incidentally, apart perhaps from Joplin’s contribution, no one would guess the background of any of these composers solely by the music itself.

So, ten composers and ten works; I feel like a contestant on the long-running British radio panel game “Just a minute” which requires talking for a minute on a subject without hesitation, deviation or repetition. That said, I’m going to be hard pressed to avoid repetition. Why? Because the music is all uniformly excellent and I don’t know enough superlatives to choose different words each time.

The disc opens with a short chamber work Night Fantasy by Dorothy Rudd Moore. It is one of the more “modern” works on the disc. It is a wonderfully evocative work conjuring up the spirit world. The clarinet first of all weaves a beautifully simple tune in the first movement, Largo, and then, with spiky rhythms, dances Puck-like in the second effusive and sparkling Allegro. The composer was yet another student of that doyen of music teachers Nadia Boulanger. The second short piece is taken from a larger chamber work and was arranged by the composer for clarinet and piano. It is very much in the spirit of the first work and could almost be a third movement of that. It is a wonderfully playful piece in which both the clarinet and piano duet, almost mirroring each other in every note.

New Orleans native Batiste was principally known and respected as an avant-garde jazz clarinettist who famously played with the likes of Ornette Coleman and ‘Cannonball’ Adderley. This will also come as a surprise to anyone who may believe that jazz and classical music composers cannot exist side by side. Clarence Cameron White’s Basque Folk Song is a wonderfully descriptive piece with a simple beauty that is enchanting. A professor at Virginia State University for forty years Undine Smith Moore’s Introduction and Allegro is another delightful work that, like the others, though short in length, makes up for it in the wealth of ideas within its brief span. There’s a real dialogue between the two instruments that end their conversation in the middle of a “sentence”. The beautiful piece Pastorale from Scenes for Nigeria is by Samuel Akpabot. Strictly speaking he was not an ‘African-American’ but rather an African composer who spent a great deal of time pursuing a career in the USA. Be that as it may, this extract from a longer work shows him to have been an extremely sensitive composer. This short piece is very emotive and quite melancholy in its treatment of the melody; a hymn to his native country.

A complete change of tempo comes next with Quincy Hilliard’s Coty which is in three short movements. The first of these, Daybreak, is a frenetic race for both clarinet and piano to reach its end before the other. The calm second is entitled Sunset and is relaxed and lyrical. The piece ends with Dance which is jerky sounding duo. William Grant Still is a name I’m sure most listeners will be familiar with. He is probably the best known of all African-American composers and his Romance justifies that position. It is a gorgeous song without words that allows the clarinet fully to exploit its most attractive notes with a lovely piano accompaniment.

Scott Joplin, whose rag The Entertainer made its composer famous through its use in the 1973 hit film The Sting with Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Robert Shaw, This led to its achieving hit status for its arranger and huge interest in Joplin’s music (at last!) including Weeping Willow. It is a charming two-step that convincingly describes a swaying willow in that winning way that Joplin naturally possessed. Soul Bird by Todd Cochran is beautifully soulful. It perfectly captures the nature of a bird as the clarinet awakes and flies around against the background of the piano before finally resuming its sleep.

Todd Cochran is yet another composer whose career has included a period in which he embraced jazz and he played piano with the great jazz multi instrumentalist Rashaan Roland Kirk, not that you’d guess from this lovely uncomplicated tune. The final piece on the disc is a really attractive arrangement of Amazing Grace attributed to H. Stevenson about whom nothing is written in the notes and about whom I could find nothing anywhere. The arrangement brings out the best elements of the tune and allows you to hear it afresh in a charming display of the clarinet’s attributes.

Marcus Eley has done a great service to African-American composers. He is a brilliantly talented advocate for his instrument who successfully exploits everything a clarinet can do while Lucerne DeSa is an extremely sympathetic partner. Together they have created a disc of unalloyed joy. I sincerely hope that there will be more in the pipeline as he suggests this is only the tip of a musical iceberg in terms of similar works by other unknown composers.”

Steve Arloff – Music Web International

But Not Forgotten

“Eley focuses on music for clarinet and piano by African-American Composers. A mixture of very melodic pieces and…some challenging modern chamber works as well. A gift of music that can also be a thoughtful exploration of ethnic identity and accomplishment as well.”

Kara Dahl Russell – The WSCL Blog

Perserverance

“Two things are likely to strike you listening to ‘Perseverance’, Marcus Eley’s new release of African American chamber music. First is the extraordinary beauty of the sound of Eley’s clarinet, velvety throughout all its registers, not to mention its immense expressivity. The second is the sheer variety of musical expression from these eight composers, three of them women, the earliest of whom was born in 1887 and the youngest of whom is 29.

Eley’s virtuosity and musical imagination are front and centre in the two solo clarinet works. For Clarinet by Edward Bland (1926-2013), who was a brilliant saxophonist and clarinet player, displays the composer’s idiomatic grasp of the instrument. The Banyan Tree by Todd Cochran (b1951), a native San Franciscan who studied at Trinity College of Music in London, unfolds in three movements: ‘Seeds’, ‘Roots’ and ‘Fruit’. Cochran writes: ‘Each movement is a metaphorical representation of exploration and natural progression.’ Eley captures its detail without sacrificing a palpable narrative thrust.

Of all the composers represented here, the name of Florence Price (1887-1953) may have the greatest topical recognition, due to the rediscovery of a major collection of her works in 2009, which set in motion a major re-evaluation and revival. Her Adoration, originally conceived for organ, is given a rich, deeply felt performance here.

TranscenDance by Dennis Thompson II (b1968), another northern Californian, is in three movements and the longest single work on the programme. ‘Reggae Fantasy’ uses tremolando figurations, with sassy glisses as punctuation; ‘Largo and Danzetta’ is quietly meditative; while the finale, ‘Pater Pater Uncle Grandfather’, is alert with gentle energy, outlining varied phrase-shapes and vivid textures.

David N Baker (1931-2016) was conductor and artistic director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and distinguished professor and chairman of the Jazz Department of the Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington. His DUO for clarinet and cello was commissioned and premiered in 1998 by the Ronen Chamber Ensemble of Indianapolis. It may be the most ambitious work on the programme, and Eley and Clayton acquit themselves magnificently in its varied terrain with musicianship that is hand-in-glove. This is its first recording.

For me, the most beguiling work on the programme is that of the youngest composer, Lawren Brianna Ware (b1994), an Alabaman with a DMA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Ware’s The Featherheart was inspired by an eponymous painting by Enrique Martinez Celaya, and glistens throughout with gossamer textures of exquisite delicacy.”

Patrick Rucker – Gramophone

But Not Forgotten

“The music thrives with life, whether in the formal abstract lines of Dorothy Rudd Moore or Alvin Batiste, or more freeform escapades. There are lyrics with tunes of indescribable sweet beauty: a Basque Folk Song by Clarence Cameron White, a Pastorale from Samuel Akpabot’s Scenes from Nigeria. Todd Cochran’s Soul-Bird soars transcendent above them all, at eight minutes the longest piece on the disc; it is well deserving of the honour.

Throughout [‘But Not Forgotten’], Eley applies his pure, limpid tone eloquently in music of a varied range of styles; perhaps the most personal playing comes in Joplin’s sad Weeping Willow rag, or in a lovely arrangement of Amazing Grace.

Add in Lucerne DeSa’s fullbodied, elegant playing and the gratifying natural acoustic at Endler Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa’s Western Cape Winelands, and the result is an exceptional musical experience in every way. The bookletnotes are documentary in authority and the sound is of the highest audiophile quality.”

Laurence Vittes – Gramophone

But Not Forgotten

“As the title suggests, this new CD brings together music by composers ranging from the slightly neglected to the completely ignored. As a matter of fact, the majority of the pieces in this collection get their world première recording exposure on this CD thanks to the hard work and dedication of clarinetist Marcus Eley. In a recent interview on Minnesota Public Radio, he states: “One of the things I wanted to do in this recording is to salute the unsung heroes of music composition by people who are African-American,” he explains. “And this recording is dedicated to those composers that I’ve had the pleasure of working with or those composers that I’ve admired over the years.” It presents hidden musical gems from composers spanning a time period from 1868 to the present day, from ragtime to the purely impressionist.

The moods and styles range from the lyrical and evocative Basque Folk Song in which Marcus Eley clearly demonstrates the clarinet’s singing quality, to the technically challenging Episodes where he probably doesn’t even have time to come up for air. From the traditional form of the Romance to the quirky adventurous freedom of Coty, both Eley and pianist Lucerne DeSa easily shift gears and comfortably get into character. Other highlights include Eley’s own arrangement of Scott Joplin’s ragtime two-step Weeping Willow, which sounds like two old friends strolling down an old sidewalk, taking turns recounting tales from the past and hopscotching. Very loyal to the original version for solo piano, but yet warmer. And Todd Cochran’s Soul-Bird in which, just like a bird, the clarinet is free to soar as high as it can to express life.

Ever since I heard, many many years ago, Benny Goodman belt out Leonard Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs for clarinet and orchestra, I’ve been convinced of this simple wind instrument’s expressive power. It’s not only suitable for Dixieland jazz or Weber sonatas, as this recording clearly demonstrates. Marcus Eley knows when and how to make the clarinet charm, dance, sing and cry. His versatile take on all of these widely different pieces makes this an enjoyable collection. The recorded sound itself by Sono Luminus (formerly Dorian Records) is warm and intimate.”

Jean-Yves Duperron – Classical Music Sentinel

That’s A Different Groove

“Writing about Marcus Eley’s 2023 release Perseverance, Gramophone magazine’s Patrick Rucker made note of “the extraordinary beauty of … Eley’s clarinet, velvety throughout all of its registers, not to mention its immense expressivity.” Rucker’s words apply equally well to the playing on That’s a Different Groove, the focus this time on clarinet works by Alvin Batiste, David N. Baker, Yusef Lateef, and Oliver Nelson. Eley’s front and centre throughout, with three of the pieces duets featuring him and pianist Lucerne DeSa, while Batiste’s Tune Suite no. 1 partners Eley with the Music Alive Ensemble and others. Without sacrificing their jazz character, the four works are transformed in being reimagined for a chamber music context, hence the album title.

Groove’s the unifying principle, of course, but rhythm here doesn’t mean straight-up shuffle or swing rhythms but more an omnipresent sense of animation, urgency, and thrust. Or to put it slightly differently, the performances aren’t static, even during those moments when they venture into adagio-like realms. Many of the reinventions are fascinating too, Lateef’s reimagining of Brahms a case in point. To be precise, they’re not jazz clarinet settings, though they are genre-crossing pieces for clarinet tinged with jazz feeling. As a clarinetist who graduated from the Indiana University School of Music, studied at Vienna’s Hochschule fuer Musik und darstellende Kunst, and has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, and other ensembles, Eley certainly has the skills for the job.

The subtitle of Batiste’s Tune Suite no. 1 (2000), Swing in the Abstract, could stand for the title of the album in general. In time-honoured jazz tradition, the single-movement piece features the clarinet as both as a front-liner and as a partner engaging in call-and-response with Music Alive Ensemble’s four strings. Batiste was sometimes called a “New Orleans clarinetist,” and true to form traces of New Orleans and blues traditions emerge within this engaging classical-chamber setting. The inclusion of piano, bass, and drums in the arrangement adds significantly to the swing feel of the performance, and, truth be told, as prominently featured as Eley is in the performance, the fact that others figure as prominently makes Tune Suite more akin to a full-ensemble presentation than one pairing a soloist with supporting players.

Like Batiste’s, Baker’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1986) draws from jazz and blues traditions, directly so in the opening “Blues” movement. Interestingly, Baker personifies the multiple genre bases covered by Eley’s release in having been a Distinguished Professor of Music and Chairman of the Jazz Department at the Indiana University School of Music (he was also honoured three times by DownBeat and received in 2007 the Living Jazz Legend Award from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts). Partnering with DeSa, Eley takes the lead forcefully on “Blues” and never relinquishes it thereafter—even if the pianist is a vital presence too. It’s easy to find one’s attention pulled away from the clarinet, for example, when DeSa delivers boogie-woogie and blues licks. The eloquent central movement, “Loneliness,” exudes all the sadness and solemnity one would expect (it also includes, however, impressively virtuosic runs by both players), while the vivacious “Dance” lives up to its title with calypso and Afro-Cuban moves and, again, dynamic performances from both players.

A name long familiar to jazz fans, Lateef developed proficiency on multiple instruments, from alto and tenor saxophones to flute, wind, string, and percussion instruments. He also acquired degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and in 2010 was awarded the Lifetime Jazz Master Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In his four-part Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1998), Lateef re-imagines Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata Opus 120 no. 2 in strikingly original fashion. Hewing to classical form, the opening “Allegro appassionato” paints with darker colours as Eley engages in conversational to-and-fro with DeSa. That sombre tone carries over into the “Andante un poco Adagio” before the “Allegretto grazioso” and “Vivace” movements inject the mercurial work with livelier, at times dance-related gestures.

While Nelson distinguished himself as an accomplished saxophonist and studied composition and theory at Washington University in St. Louis, he also, interestingly, studied piano, taxidermy, dermatology, and mortuary science and later wrote music for film and television projects in Los Angeles. Appearing here in a clarinet arrangement by Eley, Nelson’s three-part setting Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1957) begins with a “Drammatico” movement that is undeniably dramatic in its theme and testimonies by Eley and DeSa but also affectingly lyrical. That elegiac character permeates the stately “Largo” that follows, its clarinet song rather Copland-esque in its quiet majesty. That Nelson would conclude the work with a spirited movement, aptly titled “with Vigor,” doesn’t come as a complete surprise. The momentum generated by the movement’s energized swing also neatly dovetails with the album theme.

As is always the case with projects such as these, the results flatter the performers as much as the composers. Eley’s enthusiasm for the material comes through at every moment, which does much to make That’s a Different Groove establish the strong impression it does and maintain its hold on the listener from start to finish.”

About Textura – Peterborough
Ontario, Canada

“Among African American concert clarinetists who come to mind certainly is F. Nathaniel Gatlin (1913-1989), on Virginia State’s faculty from 1947 until his retirement in 1978 and founder of the Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.  Currently there is Bryant Crumpler (of Atlanta’s El Sistema program); Anthony McGill (principal clarinetist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra); James Gholson (retired this year from his post as principal  clarinet with the Memphis Symphony), Tom Jones (conductor of the Afro-American Chamber Music Society in Los Angeles, who died in 2011); Antoine Clark (formerly of Baltimore’s Soulful Symphony), and Kenneth Keeling (formerly of Carnegie Mellon University).  Unlike their counterparts in the jazz world, these players normally do not double — even on saxophone, much less other winds.  And there are those who left the instrument for the podium: Paul Freeman (founder-laureate of the Chicago Sinfonietta), Leslie Dunner (Joffrey Ballet), and Rudolph Dunbar (1907-1988, who was guest conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic).

In 2009 appeared the first CD dedicated mainly to clarinet music of Black Americans, performed by Marcus Eley.  This, which is probably the first recording with that repertoire, has now been followed by a second.  And very few CD releases have received so much attention in the press — all very enthusiastic — certainly not those for a solo woodwind (note must be made of Lecolion Washington’s superb issue on Albany of 2008, where the repertoire was dedicated to the bassoon).    I knew Marcus when he was an undergraduate student of Bernard Portnoy at Indiana University.  It was immediately evident this handsome young man had an iron-clad dedication to the cause, ready to be invested in a major career as soon as the time was right.  He had been born in Indianapolis in 1954.  When only nine, he and a sister entered a competition to identify orchestral works.  With only one out of ten answers incorrect, he was defeated by his sister, all of whose responses were correct.  Yet he is the one who became a professional musician.

He stayed in Bloomington to earn his master’s degree (1979), whereupon local support awarded him the opportunity to enroll in Vienna’s prestigious Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, where he studied with the clarinetist of the Vienna Philharmonic.  He later added private study work with  other legendary artists, such as Cleveland’s Robert Marcellus and Franklin Cohen, and Chicago’s Clark Brody.  That is an extraordinary foundation!

It is astonishing, however, to know that he was not then picked up for membership in a major orchestra, but he disliked the impersonality of auditions (which, avoiding prejudice, has the players hidden from the jurors and their entrance  made on a carpeted floor to diminish the sounds of high heels).

It becomes even more surprising when Mr. Eley established an international reputation, visiting China twice for recitals and lectures on Black American music, performing on a series of recitals in London, participating in professional conferences in France, Belgium, and Australia.  And now, resulting from his tours of South Africa, comes his second CD.

He has filled out his time representing Rico International, a firm that responds to the world’s clarinetists and saxophonists, and teaching at California State University-Los Angeles.  He expanded his vita becoming Dean of Students at the New England Conservatory of Music for the 1965 school year and has since worked for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and Local 47 of the Musicians’ Union.  He has also worked in the theater as actor and playwright, with Los Angeles as his base.

His recorded repertoire includes a composer-arranged movement from Samuel Akpabot’s Scenes from Nigeria (he had acquired this directly from the composer, a quarter-century ago).  It illustrates a non-jazz essay by Alvin Batiste and Oliver Nelson, whose manuscript sonata, originally for saxophone, Eley located at the Library of Congress.  David Baker, one of the most prolific composers since Telemann, is represented most substantially, and we have the too-rare opportunity to hear music by Dorothy Rudd Moore — which Lucerne DeSa, ever serving as his colleague,  has a chance to prove herself an intelligent and very musical pianist.  Eley has made his own transcriptions of Joplin and Burleigh.  Let us hope that a CD of chamber works for solo clarinet will be forthcoming.  Can we nominate literature, beyond the splendid quintet from Coleridge-Taylor’s youth?  Might not Eley’s command of the instrument stimulate new repertoire?

The challenge has been set.  As Washington and Eley have identified works by those gone, but not forgotten,  the role of researcher-artist should now be accepted by flutists, oboists,  horn and trumpet players.”

Dominique-René de Lerma – AfriClassical

“A bit of déjà vu happened to me when I got the latest CD from the high quality Sono Luminus label (formerly known as “Dorian”) on the desktop. With “But Not Forgotten”, clarinetist Marcus Eley and his accompanist Lucerne DeSa present a high-class anthology of American music for clarinet and piano – and just last August of 2011, a [similar] CD was released from Sono Luminus.

The difference about this CD from last year: While the 2011 release was a representation of American 20th century modern music of composers like and including Copland, Marcus Eley and Lucerne DeSa put their focus exclusively on African-American composers.

Like Pop Music, there are great stars, but also there are few Black artists who have managed to penetrate the “listener mainstream”. One can ask: Just what this makes this CD more interesting from the 2011 previous Sono Luminus release? Well, there is really much to discover!

And not everything that is here is the same recognized music of Scott Joplin or William Grant Still, the two godfathers of symphonic jazz. Here, there are also different selections, and so the first surprise piece of the CD – “Night Fantasy” by Dorothy Rudd Moore, a composition with a strong reference to neo-expressionism. Of course, one can hear references to Jazz but the same can be found of the next piece, “Episodes” by Alvin Batiste which shows how much African-American composition, like Copland, was influenced by the Pan-Americanism model.

With “Basque Folk Song” by Clarence Cameron White, the late romantic-infused music came right through while “Pastorale” from “Scenes from Nigeria” by composer Samuel Akpabot brings to mind African modal motifs. “Coty” by Quincy Hilliard reworks sonorities/harmonies in a unique way.  If one wants to talk about African-American music, it is more than the universe of Ragtime, Jazz and Art music discourse of Big Bands interpreted from 1940 to the present. As it turns out for this CD, we have not heard it all. As there may be still other never recorded [sic] clarinet repertoire, Marcus Eley and his accompanist have partially closed the gap in a savvy and dedicated way.

We have the sounds of William Grant Still and Scott Joplin, followed by a foray into new areas of music with “Soul bird” by Todd Cochran. Finally we hear a blues-heavy, very successful and “emotionally rich” arrangement of the hymn “Amazing Grace”.

Just one final thought remains: “Wow!” “What a beautiful, varied CD!” This CD has succeeded in its well chosen repertoire, as well as interpretation and sound. Here, everything is exemplary and timeless, so that this new anthology proves so far to be most valuable of the current year. This CD can be recommended for its warm and simply perfect sound. For audiophiles who have the highest demand on sound, this CD does it.”

Rainer Aschemeier – The Listener

Article

“Throughout my academic and professional career, I have been an advocate for music by African American composers for clarinet. These composers have not enjoyed the same representation in live performance and recorded music. Though they may not be readily recognizable, their contribution to classical music, no less American music, is significant. This is not to say other composers are less significant, but we must recognize these underrepresented composers. For this article, I will focus on the African American composer’s contribution to the clarinet.

The clarinet has occupied a unique role throughout the history of American instrumental music. Apart from its orchestral position, the clarinet has been considered one of the most flexible. It is not surprising that early composers wrote for the clarinet. Its sound, range and timbre were enticements. Mozart, Weber and Brahms were captivated by the clarinet and other composers followed their example.

The African American composer did not have the same opportunity or access. The early works (circa 1800s) were primarily for voice and choral ensembles based on the work songs of enslaved people and religious themes which eventually became Negro spirituals. These spirituals were shared orally. During the Civil War and through reconstruction, the African American musician could be found performing alone, with a small audience or in traveling minstrel shows. These shows usually had a pianist, a drummer and a few wind and string musicians whose principal job was to accompany singers and provide entertainment between acts. Most of the music was performed by memory. Music literacy or the ability to understand and write in the Western European tradition occurred rarely. Learning the piano, usually the home instrument in the master’s home, was done by rote or in secret. Because reading notes was not common, an enslaved person working in the home, when given the opportunity, would “play around” a melody or improvise. This improvisational ability of the African American musician took root on many musical instruments, in this case the clarinet, and was the basis of a new “American” art form called jazz.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the clarinet escaped the confines of the orchestra and found new avenues of expression. When one speaks of jazz, New Orleans must be said in the same breath. It is where jazz was born. The blending of Creole, French and African cultures was fertile ground for this new music. Small ensembles (trios, quartets, etc.) featured the clarinet. A proper funeral procession or “send-off,” even to this day, will have a clarinet or trumpet lead the musicians. New Orleans jazz was a precursor to ragtime, blues, swing and bebop. At every stage, the clarinet had a vital part. The clarinet was ever-present in the nightclubs and dance halls during the heyday of the big bands. The sound of the clarinet was akin to the human voice, and its presence was synonymous with having a good time. The big bands of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie enlisted the clarinet’s charisma. Composers like George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein incorporated jazz rhythms and harmonies in their clarinet compositions that were made palatable to concert audiences.

As jazz in a concert setting flourished, the African American composer struggled to find acceptance. The African American musician and composer found resistance in the concert hall. Many composers self-published. Those composers who were fortunate to hold a position at a college or university would have their compositions available at the campus library. Large sheet music companies found excuses not to publish. Those companies that did publish these works did not actively promote the compositions. Concert promoters were concerned their audiences would walk out of the concert hall or cancel their subscriptions. It took a courageous white conductor to program a work by an African American. That person was Howard Hanson. In 1931, he conducted the Rochester Philharmonic in the first performance of William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony. Because of Still and composers who came after him, the performance and publication of African American works has blossomed. For the clarinetist, that means there are many undiscovered gems waiting to be performed. Even so, the struggle continues for acceptance and inclusion of the African American composer on regular concert series and not only in Black History Month.”

Clarinet Works by Black Composers – Marcus Eley

The Clarinet

Quote

“… very talented … whom I know will offer a great deal to the music profession.”

Bernard Portnoy – Professor of Clarinet

Indiana University

Jacobs School of Music

But Not Forgotten

“Marcus Eley’s career as a musician, clinician, and administrator is notable. A graduate of Indiana University and the Vienna Hochschule, his professional accomplishments include solo performances and recitals in major capitals across the world and having served as the former dean of students at the New England Conservatory. In the December 2020 issue of The Clarinet, Eley wrote an article advocating for greater inclusion of clarinet pieces by African-American composers into the canon of standard works. The article and accompanying liner notes of But Not Forgotten, a compilation of many of these works, make a compelling argument for their place in our literature.

The works chosen represent a spectrum of 20^th-century compositional thought. Dorothy Rudd Moore’s Night Fantasy is a two-movement work that crackles with spiky modernist touches. The piano is mainly rhythmic throughout, with an interplay that requires solid ensemble. Alvin Batiste’s intimate knowledge of the clarinet forms the backbone of a 3-minute work that demands nimble chromatic scale technique, which Eley executes in an polished performance. White’s Basque Folk Song is a short, 3-minute tonal miniature that is most often found in the violin repertoire. Eley’s tone is supple and light; a palate-cleansing encore. Undine Smith Moore’s Introduction & Allegro is a dense, angular piece that makes challenging technical demands on both players. Eley and Desa’s ensemble work is first-rate.

Samuel Akpabot’s Pastrorale is a call-and-response lullaby arranged from his orchestral piece. The plaintive melodic material requires a delicate tone, and Eley’s pale, light color meets the demands of this piece. Quincy Hilliard’s Coty, a substantial three-movement work, is a technical challenge for clarinet. The fast romp of “Daybreak” ends before one gets too comfortable, and in “Sunset,” the languorous pace highlights Eley’s lonely, floating altissimo. “Dance” shows Eley at his most technically impressive over a pulsing piano ostinato figure.

William Grant Still’s Romance, originally for alto saxophone, is a beautifully crafted elegy that utilizes the chalumeau register to subtle effect. Joplin’s rag is casual and well chosen to highlight Eley’s clarion range. Cochran’s Soul-Bird has a thematic variety that allows the clarinet an opportunity to show its versatility. It is one of the knockout pieces on the album, played beautifully by both players. Amazing Grace concludes the album, and Eley’s passionate interpretation shines through triumphantly, reminiscent of Richard Stoltzman’s earlier version. Of particular note on this album is the overall performance of Alabama-based pianist Lucerne DeSa. She is a powerhouse musician and collaborative artist, and her sensitivity compliments Eley’s performance seamlessly. They form a very impressive ensemble.

But Not Forgotten is a beautifully executed and thoughtfully presented project that accomplishes everything it sets out to do: it allows disparate composers the venue to be heard and appreciated alongside their more prominent peers. Eley’s performance on this album is confident and refined, and he does justice to all of these works.”

 Osiris Molina – The Clarinet