b'February 2021 Program Notesby Elizabeth SchwartzWILLIAM GRANT STILL Serenade for Small OrchestraCOMPOSER:Born May 11, 1895, Woodville, MS; died December 3, 1978, Los Angeles, CAWORK COMPOSED:1957, for the Great Falls High School Orchestra in Great Falls, MTWORLD PREMIERE:Paul Schull led the Great Falls High School Orchestra on May 7, 1958INSTRUMENTATION:flute, clarinet, harp and stringsESTIMATED DURATION:7 .5 minutesKnownasthedeanofAfricanAmericanCommunist affiliations made him an ongoing target composers, William Grant Still composed musicfor vindictive anti-Communist and racist attacks . in a wide variety of genres: symphonies, opera,Still, who had been battling the white-dominated chamber music, choral works, solo songs, andcultural establishment for years in his efforts to get concertos . As a young man, he made his livinghis music performed, had now alienated himself playing commercial music on violin, oboe, andfrom the black community, as well as from liberal banjo . Over the span of his six-decade career,whites who had formerly championed Stills work . Still worked as a performer, arranger, orchestrator,As Leon Botstein explains, In the 1950s, during conductor, and composer .the nascent years of the civil rights movement, the A black man who took pride in his race and alsoeffective alliance was between liberal and progres-refused to be limited by it, Stills career is pepperedsive white America that had severe doubts about the with Afro-American firsts: first to have a sympho- saber rattling and arms race of the Cold War, and ny performed by a major orchestra; also the first tothe [political and cultural] leadership of the black conduct a major symphony orchestra when Still ledcommunity . Still, in what was considered to be an the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in a concertappalling betrayal of Black American progressivism of his own compositions at the Hollywood Bowl inat the time, sided with the enemy by embracing 1936; first to have one of his operas produced bythe traditions of a rigid, suspicious, and somewhat a major company, when New York City Opera pre- intolerant anti-Communism . As a result, Stills sented Troubled Island in 1949; and the first to seemusic was effectively if unofficially blacklisted by one of his operas televised on a national network .record companies, orchestras, opera companies, Intheearly1950s,Stillsprofessionallifethe media, and the black community from the early derailed . He was a staunch anti-Communist who1950s until the late 1980s .offered to name Communists and Communist sym- The Serenade was originally conceived as part pathizers for Joe McCarthys House Un-Americanof a cello concerto undertaken at the suggestion of Activities Committee in 1951 . Two years later, Stillcellist Gregor Piatigorsky . Written for young amateur publicly denounced prominent Communists, includ- players, the music is both technically approachable ing the acclaimed singer Paul Robeson, whoseand full of expressive melodies and lush textures .RICHARD WAGNER Siegfried Idyll for Small OrchestraCOMPOSER:Born May 22, 1813, Leipzig; died Feb . 13, 1883, VeniceWORK COMPOSED:1870WORLD PREMIERE:Wagner led a small ensemble of 13 musicians in the premiere on his wife Cosimas birthday, December 25, 1870 . The ensemble performed on the stairs outside Cosimas bedroom in Tribschen, the Wagners home in Switzerland .INSTRUMENTATION:flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet and stringsESTIMATED DURATION:17 minutesUnlike Richard Wagners heroic, larger-than-lifeWritten as a combined Christmas and birthday gift music dramas, the Siegfried Idyll has a tenderfor his wife Cosima, Wagners original title was intimacy not commonly found in Wagners music .Tribschener Idyll, with Fidis Birdsong and Orange 20Santa Rosa SymphonyRESIDENT ORCHESTRA|WEILL HALL, THE GREEN MUSIC CENTER'