Pianist Gerry Bryant returns to Navona Records with The Composers: Volume 2, the second installment in a series dedicated to amplifying the voices of underrepresented Black classical composers. Bryant breathes fresh air into compositions by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Betty Jackson King, L. Viola Kinney, Nathaniel Dett, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in this release. Price’s Fantasy No. 2 for Violin and Piano, arranged by Mark Cargill, carries on her legacy as a pioneering symphonic woman composer. Other highlights include Dett’s Dvořák-inspired pieces and Coleridge-Taylor’s celebrated suite of five pieces for piano. Bonds, Kinney, and King also shine, blending classical forms with Black spirituals and cultural heritage. These compositions, born from resilience and artistry, transcend the prejudice that once obscured them, inviting reverence for their rightful place in the classical tradition...

The "Black composers" tag is merely a hook to neatly tie these compositions together under a single umbrella. It doesn't really matter how much or what type of melanin the composers have here (other than culturally and historically it's incredibly important) one thing is blatantly clear from these compositions: Ethnicity, creed or religion has absolutely no bearing when it comes to composing beautifully, memorable classical music.

Following on from Navona Records' The Composers, this 15 tracks (51 min, 55 sec) LP, showcase the works of a number of influential black composers.

Florence Price was the first Black American woman to get recognition as a symphonic composer. She was also the first woman composer to have her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, played by a major orchestra.

Other selections on this album consist of compositions by three other women composers, Margaret Bonds (1913–1972), Betty Jackson King (1928–1994) and L. Viola Kinney (1890–1945), as well as five-piece suites by Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943) and by S. Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912).

Dett was inspired by the great Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (and vice versa), who told the New York Herald in 1893: “In the Negro melodies of America, I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.” Indeed, Dvořák was such a serious student of Black American musical forebearers that the melodies that thread through his “New World Symphony” and his many other compositions pay respectful homage.

Coleridge-Taylor, a contemporary of Vaughan Williams, was an English composer and conductor famous for rich orchestral works and brilliant instrumental writing who, later in his life, was referred to by white New York musicians as “Black Mahler.” Among his best-known works are the Violin Concerto in G minor, The Song of Hiawatha, and his arrangement of the Black American spiritual Deep River.

Margaret Bonds’ music also married the sounds of Black American spirituals with the structure of Western classical music. One of her best-known musical settings is He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand, which she arranged for soprano Leontyne Price in 1963. She also collaborated closely with the leading Black poet Langston Hughes, writing music that celebrated Black American culture and values during the time of the Civil Rights Movement.

L. Viola Kinney taught music and English in Sedalia, Missouri’s segregated Lincoln High School for 35 years. Her Mother’s Sacrifice on this album won a prize in the Inter-State Literary Society Original Music Context in 1908 and was published in Kansas in 1909. A copy of the composition is located in the Library of Congress, but no other musical compositions by her have been found.

Betty Jackson King had written many choral works, art songs, and arrangements of spirituals, and had conducted choirs and workshops in many states. She had taught at the University of Chicago Laboratory School and Dillard University in New Orleans, and from 1979 to 1984, she was President of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc.

I wonderfully collated collection of important music, not just because of the colour of the composers' skin, but because they are truly memorable and inspirational pieces.

Track listing:

Florence Price
01. Fantasy No. 2 for Violin and Piano (7:07)

Betty Jackson King
02. Spring Intermezzo (2:53)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
03. Scenes from an Imaginary Ballet - Suite of Five Pieces for Piano: I (3:02)
04. Scenes from an Imaginary Ballet - Suite of Five Pieces for Piano: II (2:39)
05. Scenes from an Imaginary Ballet - Suite of Five Pieces for Piano: III (3:01)
06. Scenes from an Imaginary Ballet - Suite of Five Pieces for Piano: IV (2:39)
07. Scenes from an Imaginary Ballet - Suite of Five Pieces for Piano: V (1:28)

Margaret Bonds
08. The Bells (4:19)
09. Tangamerican (2:56)

Nathaniel Dett
10. In the Bottoms – Piano Suite: I. Prelude Night (3:54)
11. In the Bottoms – Piano Suite: II. His Song (2:36)
12. In the Bottoms – Piano Suite: III. Honey (1:30)
13. In the Bottoms – Piano Suite: IV. Morning (5:41)
14. In the Bottoms – Piano Suite: V. Dance Juba (3:19)

L. Viola Kinney
15. Mother’s Sacrifice (4:55)

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Darren Rea