BBC Radio 3 will air a three-part series with composer Eleanor Alberga celebrating the contribution of black composers to the history of Western classical music.
BBC Radio 3 celebrates the impact of black composers on the history of Western classical music with three hour-long episodes, part of A History Of Black Classical Music, debuting on the station’s airwaves on Sunday 10 May at 11pm.
Presented by acclaimed Jamaican-born, UK-based composer Eleanor Alberga, the series foregrounds often forgotten figures, highlights the influence musical traditions such as the spirituals have had on Western composers, and overall charts the history of black people, their heritage, and their impact on the wider cultural life in Europe and America.
The exploration starts in the 16th Century with a focus on John Blanke, the then celebrated court trumpeter to Henry VIII, who was commissioned to write a piece marking the birth of the king’s son in 1511. It proceeds to showcase black composers through 18th and 19th century Europe and America, with figures such as Ignatius Sancho, the Chevalier de Maude-Monpas, and ‘Creole Romantics’ such as Lucièn Lambert and Edmond Dedé.
Dvořák’s fascination with spirituals, the ‘Northern Migration’ and the Harlem Renaissance provide a canvas for an exploration of music by American composers such as William Devi-Lawson, Margaret Bonds, Florence Price, and Lawrence Freeman, all the way to Adolphus Hailstork, George Walker, Julius Eastman and Jonathan Bailey Holland.
The impact of colonialism and immigration is highlighted in the third programme, with a particular attention to the UK and how Western classical music was adopted by different peoples as a means of expression to make their own, with music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Abu Bakr Khairat, Ludovic Lamothe and Oswald Russell. The series ends with a showcase of contemporary British composers such as Shirley J Thompson, Errollyn Wallen, Hannah Kendall, Daniel Kidane and Eleanor Alberga herself, as well as a brief look at composers with links to India, the Middle-East and Asia.
Eleanor Alberga says: “Researching this series has taken me on a revelatory world tour from the 16th to the 21st centuries. With equal measures of upset and delight, this panorama has made me feel privileged to resurrect such long-silent treasures of black classical creativity and to reaffirm the contribution of recent multicultural composers.”
Alan Davey, BBC Radio 3 and Classical Music Controller, says: “Delving into the History of Black Classical Music is an important subject and an important conversation for the sector to have.
“At Radio 3 we have been committed to shining a light on unfairly forgotten areas of Western classical music for some time, but this series in particular will go more in depth, looking at the links between history and music, with proper tribute and acknowledgment, ensuring audiences are aware of some of the great figures in classical music who have contributed so much over the years but have often been overlooked.
“I’m particularly honoured that Eleanor, a brilliant composer practising today, will be joining BBC Radio 3 as a presenter, acting as our guide for this series and taking audiences on a journey which will take us through to some exciting composers creating music today.”
Listeners will have further opportunities to hear music presented in the series across BBC Radio 3 schedules from Sunday 10 May. Works included in the three episodes will be also part of Breakfast and Essential Classics mainly, with contributions on Record Review, Early Music Show and New Music Show. The series will also be available on BBC Sounds.