RELIGION IN RHYTHM: WILLIAM GRANT STILL'S ORCHESTRATIONS FOR WILLARD ROBISON'S DEEP RIVER HOUR.

[H]armony ... is not regarded by the intelligent votary of the Muses as given by them with a view to irrational pleasure ... but as meant to correct any discord which may have arisen in the courses of the soul, and to be our ally in bringing her into harmony and agreement with herself; and rhythm too was given by them for the same reason....

--Plato, Timaeus [Jowett translation]

In December 1931, William Grant Still signed a contract with singer-songwriter-bandleader Willard Robison. Under its terms, Still was to serve as arranger for Robison for a year, with an option to renew for a second year. All arrangements made under this agreement were to be Robison's property.

One paragraph of the contract paid tribute to Still's gifts in this area: "It is agreed that your ability and talents as an arranger and orchestrator of musical compositions [are] extraordinary and unique." Therefore, the contract stipulated, "you will not at any time during the term hereof make orchestrations for any person, firm or corporation other than myself" (Robison 1931).(1)

Still was to receive $100 a week for his services. Not mentioned in the contract was a further service Still would peform for Robison: he would soon be hired as conductor of Robison's radio orchestra. It would be a pioneering example of cooperation between a white singer and a black arranger/conductor.

Robison, whose Deep River Orchestra had been a moderately important recording orchestra in the twenties (it is remembered for including Bix Beiderbecke on one highly atypical recording date), is now best known as composer of the jazz standard "Old Folks" and as lyricist of "A Cottage for Sale." In February 1931, building on successful appearances on the previous year's Camel Pleasure Hour broadcasts, Robison started his own radio program, the Deep River Hour.(2) By November 1931, the show was broadcasting three times a week over New York radio station WOR.

The arranger for the first Deep River Hour radio shows had been Kenn Sisson (1898-1947), an experienced radio arranger who had worked with Ben Bernie (ASCAP 1980, 468; I am assuming that Sisson's work with Bernie preceded his work with Robison). Sisson was an able arranger of popular songs; his published stock arrangements are spoken of with approval by twenties-revival bandleaders. But Robison had higher ambitions for the Deep River Hour.

One of Robison's ambitions was to present light classics arranged for his orchestra. Robison himself wrote atmospheric piano pieces--two of his suites for piano, Inspiration Suite and Rural Revelations, had been published by Robbins--and he hoped to hear his compositions, along with others he admired, presented by his orchestra. (Four numbers from his Robbins suites--"By Quiet Firesides," "Down a Daisy Lane," "In Pastures Green," and "In a Poinsettia Garden"--are represented by Still arrangements in the Ellington Collection in the Smithsonian Institution.) Kenn Sisson, fully at home with popular song, seems not to have been comfortable in the world of the light classic; at least, there are no arrangements of light classics by him among the materials in the Ellington Collection.

A deeper reason for Robison's interest in Still was Robison's style and subject matter as a performer. Much of Robison's repertoire, including many of his own songs, deals with the rural South ("Georgia on My Mind," a Hoagy Carmichael song written the year before the Deep River Hour began broadcasting, is a good example) and, specifically or by inference, with the black experience. Robison was a devotee of W. C. Handy-style blues and of the "rhythmic spiritual," a genre that will be discussed later in this article. The very name of the orchestra shows his desire to identify his music with the black experience. And many of Robison's songs--like many of those of Harold Arlen after him--invoke the black experience in order to speak of the human experience in general; Robison may well have seen Still's arrangements and conducting as a chance to validate his right to speak in this voice.

Still continued to arrange for Robison until at least the end of 1934, by which time Still was living in Los Angeles (Robison 1935). He conducted the Deep River Hour only through 1932; in January 1933 the show moved temporarily to station WJZ, which objected to Still as a conductor (Arvey 1984, 79). The Deep River Hour returned to WOR in February 1934.(3) By this time, Still was preparing for his move to California; I can find no evidence that he resumed conducting the program.

In later years, Still felt that his association with the Deep River Hour was important in developing his skill as a conductor and orchestrator (Arvey 1984, 78). This episode was also seen by others as an important part of his career. Goddard Lieberson (1937, 54) saw Still's landmark 1937 radio piece Lenox Avenue as "remindful of the Willard Robinson [sic] Sunday afternoon Deep River series."(4) Yet with the passage of years, it has become increasingly difficult to gain a sense of what the show was actually like. It appears regularly in the litany of Still's achievements, but for many years Deep River Hour has been a name empty of any clear auditory associations.

Three recent discoveries have helped us regain some idea of the sound of the Deep River Hour. One is an air check (broadcast recording) of one full program, unfortunately undated.(5) A second is the discovery among the materials in the possession of Judith Still of two scripts: one for the Deep River Hour broadcast of July 12, 1933, the other for the March 4, 1934, performance of a WOR program, Melodoscope, featuring three orchestras, one of them the Deep River Orchestra. On both of these programs, Still's Afro-American Symphony--we may suspect only the Scherzo--was played (see App. A). The third discovery is that the Ellington Collection contains a moderate number of arrangements, by Still and others, used on the Deep River Hour (see App. B).(6)

Each of these discoveries offers only a brief glimpse of the program--the Ellington papers the wider view, the air check the actual auditory experience, the scripts some information on repertory--and there is little overlap among the sources.(7) Yet through them we can get an idea of the atmosphere of the Deep River Hour and an insight into Still's "extraordinary and unique" gifts as an arranger.

Despite its title, the Deep River Hour was a half-hour program. The broadcast consisted of approximately six numbers, some featuring Robison's light, wistful singing and some for orchestra alone. Each number was introduced by plummy-voiced announcer Basil Ruysdael talking over music. The opening of the air check gives an idea of the atmosphere of the program:

   Deep River--a tonal baptism in quiet pools of harmony--restful rhythms
   woven into syncopated sermons--thoughts flowing from the eternal source of
   all reality--songs of the delta land--the cotton fields--the
   people--winging their flight to your home.(8)

There was more spice in the Deep River Hour than this easy-listening intro would suggest, thanks to Robison's taste for Handy-style blues and for those "syncopated sermons." These often were introduced with a sort of aural sleight-of-hand, the announcer's dreamy introduction leading to an up-tempo performance.

The basic orchestra for the Deep River Hour consisted of flute, three "reed men," who normally played two clarinets and bass clarinet,(9) horn (sometimes doubling celesta [!]), three trumpets, strings (violins I-III, viola, cello, double bass), percussion, guitar/banjo, and piano. The piano was usually played by Robison himself, whose authoritative keyboard style contrasted with his wispy voice. Viola and cello have occasional divisi, although there is never more than one physical part; this suggests that all strings except double bass were a full stand. Some arrangements have parts for two stands of first violins.

To this basic orchestra there were occasional additions: oboe/English horn and bassoon (separate parts, not further responsibilities of the switching reed men), a third clarinet/saxophone, and harp. Many arrangements use less than the full force of the orchestra: trumpets II and III and guitar, in particular, are often tacet.

There was no trombone in the Deep River Orchestra.(10) The lack of low brass is usual in arrangements for Robison, whose light voice would be overbalanced by heavy bass instruments. Perhaps for the same reason, the reed men play saxophone only when Robison is not singing.

Percussion is written out when it involves pitched instruments (principally vibraphone) or an important cymbal or gong stroke. Standard rhythm percussion is not written out, but seems to have been decided in rehearsal; it usually shows up as some notation such as "w. br." (wire brushes) in score and part. If we may judge from the air check, most numbers on the Deep River Hour did not use percussion. Nor is there much use of the remainder of the jazz-orchestra rhythm section. The guitar is often tacet, and the double bass seldom plays pizzicato.

There are no spots where improvisation is asked for, although the decorations of the clarinet solo in the air check of "Rockin' Chair" seem to be improvised; we can guess that small-scale decoration was encouraged. Robison's piano, however, is privileged. There are occasional spots for an improvised piano solo, but most of the piano-solo spots are carefully written out, and wherever Robison is to sing and play, a "comping" piano part is written out, usually with the words (but not the tune) in large letters in Robison's hand to remind him of the lyrics. Two orchestrations, "In a Poinsettia Garden" and "Wagon Wheels," contain parts for mixed chorus; but there is no sign that the Deep River Boys, a jubilee group that occasionally recorded with the Deep River Orchestra, ever appeared on the Deep River Hour.

Many of Still's arrangements for the Deep River Hour involve a section of "continuity" meant to be played under the announcer's introduction. (The continuity should not be seen as the "introduction"; many arrangements have a purely musical introduction after continuity--and announcer--have ceased.) When no special continuity was written for a number, an all-purpose "theme"--not by Still--was played under the announcer, usually in the key that was the dominant of that of the number proper.(11)

Often the continuity is fairly skeletal; occasionally it is elaborate. The approximate boundaries can be shown by two examples for strings alone (see Exs. 1 and 2).(12) The continuity does not, in general, share thematic material with the number that it precedes. Example 2 is as close to an exception as can be found in these arrangements; the opening measure is a reharmonization of the first measure of the chorus of "Cabin in the Pines," while the rest of the continuity develops the material of the opening measure in a manner independent of the song.

[Examples 1-2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Still used arrangements that were already in the Deep River Hour library as well as ones he had written. There are several songs in the Ellington Collection for which there is a Still continuity but only a Sisson arrangement; there are also several Sisson scores with the notation "Theme in [appropriate key]" in Still's hand on the cover. When Still used Sisson's arrangements, he most often used them as they were, occasionally writing a part for a new instrument.(13) He did, however, remove one over-busy and over-chromatic break in Sisson's arrangement of "Garden in the Rain" (see Exs. 3a, 3b). Still's own arrangements show the same preference for spare but effective voicing.

[Example 3 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Most of Still's light-classic arrangements for the Deep River Hour are scorings of piano pieces. They are straightforward scorings rather than "jazzings" in the Whiteman sense: reduce Still's scores to a piano version and you get something much like the original. They are interesting to us primarily for their acceptance of timbres associated with jazz. For example, various trumpet mutes are regularly used (e.g., Harmon mute for Erwin Schulhoff's "Boston," "hat over mute" for Cyril Scott's "Columbine," and both Harmon mute and "in hat" for Palmgren's "Coming of Spring"), and the saxophones are duly on board for the "Song" from MacDowell's Sea Pieces (Ex. 4).(14) They are also interesting for the repertoire represented, which avoids "gems" of the "none but the lonely heart" variety in favor of more varied fare. There is even a piece from the world of jazz-influenced European modernism, "Boston" from Schulhoff's 1928 Esquisses de Jazz. The appearance of two pieces from MacDowell's Sea Pieces--"Song," in the Ellington Collection, and "Nautilus," on the air check--is especially interesting when we remember that Still later orchestrated MacDowell's "A Deserted Farm" for Artie Shaw. Several of the playlists penciled onto parts in the Ellington Collection include the title "A Deserted Farm"--presumably MacDowell's rather than Robison's song "`Round My Old Deserted Farm," which was not written until 1935. Arvey (1984, 78) remembers Still as having arranged MacDowell's "To a Waterlily" for Robison.

[Example 4 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

One light-classic arrangement in the Ellington Collection deserves special note. It is an arrangement for unorthodox wind quintet (flute, three clarinets, bass clarinet) of "Miss Malindy," a movement from Still's Log Cabin Ballads, written in 1927 for Georges Barrere and later withdrawn (see Ex. 5). This piece, a bit light for an orchestral suite, works perfectly in its new incarnation. The rhythm of the melody foreshadows precisely the rhythm of the first theme of the Scherzo of the Afro-American Symphony, written three years after Log Cabin Ballads.

[Example 5 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Still's "unique ability and talents as an arranger and orchestrator" were not based on the use of bizarre or eccentric effects. Yet he did sometimes use "effects," including the very occasional use of a "hokum" effect. "Wagon Wheels" gets both "coconut shells"--the standard horse-hoof effect--and "rattle or effect of creaking wagon wheels." (The copyist gleefully misreads "creaking effect" in its later occurrences as "croaking effect.") In other arrangements, such effects respond to a verbal cue in the song: a steamboat whistle for "steamboats on the river" in "When It's Sleepy Time Down South," a bird whistle for "The long evening of a southern summer" in "Beneath the Spell of a Yellow Delta Moon." Techniques from avant-garde music are rare, although there is an effective snap pizzicato ("Bartok pizz.") on the final chord of the continuity for "Truthful Parson Brown." Strings sul ponticello--routine in classical music, rare in popular arrangements of that period--make a brief appearance in "Willow, Weep for Me," cued by the words "whisper to the wind."

Still, who knew and liked flutist Georges Barrere,(15) does show a fondness for flute glissandos. This effect shows up in "Willow, Weep for Me" and, spectacularly, in "A Harlem Lullaby" (see Ex. 6). This gesture, probably the most extravagant of any in the Ellington Collection material, sets up the less extreme glissandos in the second chorus (see Ex. 7).

[Examples 6-7 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Readers will not, I hope, think of muted trumpet as an "effect." The sound of trumpets with their various mutes are blood and bone of the Deep River Hour arrangements. Here, though, it might be appropriate to note one use of wah-wah mute in the Ellington Collection material; in "Deep River Blues," Still lends an especially bluesy tone to the words "If I get the blues, I'll take off my shoes" (see Ex. 8).(16)

[Example 8 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Celesta and vibraphone walk the line between special effects and business as usual in 1930s arrangements. Still uses the vibraphone most often as "frosting" on a chord or two; there are no significant solos in the Ellington Collection material, although there are a few spots, especially in "Georgia on My Mind," that would sound bare without the vibraphone's interjections. The celesta, however, gets more to do. Major celesta solos, such as the recap of the verse in "A Harlem Lullaby," were played by Robison and show up in the piano part; "frosting" and incidental solos were played by either the percussionist or the horn player. One of these incidental celesta solos, a dialogue with low-register clarinet from the introduction to "Stars," is worth quoting (see Ex. 9).

[Example 9 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Radio of that period had its own "effects." Principal among these was the solo at the microphone, the precursor of multitrack balancing in recording sessions of today. Moving players back and forth could be perilous in a tightly run broadcast with a singer-pianist, and Still used the technique only in places where it would cause no traffic problems.(17) The Ellington Collection arrangements contain several important at-mike solos: for solo violin in Cyril Scott's "Dawn," for second violin in the introduction to "(If We Can't Be) The Same Old Sweethearts," for solo viola in "At the Top of the Hill," and for second clarinet in "Wake Up, Chillun, Wake Up."(18) The last of these, a subtone solo in low register, could serve in orchestration books as a classic example of a notated at-the-mike solo (see Ex. 10).

[Example 10 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Work on the Deep River Hour had its limitations as well as its opportunities. As a program built around a light-voiced singer, it had to ration its fortissimos. And as a sustaining--that is, sponsorless--program without a studio audience (and thus without breaks for commercials or applause), it put a higher value on flow than on a sense of finality at the end of each number.(19) Coming to these arrangements after our experience with recordings and shows with a studio audience, we may be puzzled by the endings: Where are the rideouts? Where is the extra push that will bring a song to a definite close? But pencil annotations in scores and parts show that even the modest endings that Still supplied were often usurped by segues. Working out an extended ending was worth doing only under exceptional conditions. (For an example of a very brief ending designed for a segue, see the excellent "Deep Low South" in the Ellington Collection; for an example of an extended ending, see the discussion of "There's Religion in Rhythm," beginning on page 24.)

Most of the arrangements for the Deep River Hour, other than the light classics, involved Robison as singer. There are, however, some purely instrumental arrangements of popular songs among the Deep River Hour material in the Ellington Collection. (If we may judge from that collection, only songs by Robison got this treatment.) Some, such as "Down a Daisy Lane," were essentially for Robison as pianist with orchestral accompaniment; others, such as "Wake Up, Chillun, Wake Up," were orchestral arrangements, with the piano, if present (as it is in "Wake Up"), taking only incidental solos. It is in "Wake Up" that we can best see Still's general arranging technique of the period.

"Wake Up, Chillun, Wake Up" was one of the songs of which Robison was most proud. It served as the theme song--"signature" was the term then--for the early days of the Deep River Hour (it had been replaced by the time of the air check); Robison reworked the tune in the 1950s for the Deep River Boys as "(Home) How Dear Can It Be." The Deep River Orchestra already had a vocal arrangement of "Wake Up" by Sisson; Still's was to be a "concert arrangement" of a major Robison song.

"Wake Up" is a moderately fast, rhythmic song, an eight-measure verse leading to a thirty-two--measure chorus in AABA form. The A phrases of the chorus contrast a smooth opening six bars with a sassy cadence, quoted in Example 11 from just before cue B in Still's arrangement. This example also shows the bass clarinet functioning, as it often does in Deep River Hour arrangements, as surrogate for slap-tonguing baritone sax. In Robison's tune, the cadential phrase--the title phrase, "wake up, chillun, wake up"--starts on the downbeat; Still includes or omits the downbeat as suits his purpose.

[Example 11 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Still's arrangement is for what is essentially the standard Deep River Hour orchestra: flute, two clarinets, bass clarinet, horn (splashing some celesta color during the intro), three trumpets, guitar, strings, and piano. For the second half of the arrangement, second clarinet and bass clarinet switch to saxophones and are joined by a third sax (disposition: two altos and a tenor); flute and first clarinet do not switch. Drums are specifically marked as tacet; guitar and comping piano serve as rhythm. In the "concert" (quasi-symphonic) sections of the arrangement, the guitar lays out while the piano becomes a solo instrument (the composer speaks). The general form of Still's arrangement is shown in Figure 1.

[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Neither the semitone hike in the middle of the arrangement nor the use of the verse as the central section is usual in Deep River Hour arrangements, although they are familiar devices in popular-song arrangements of the period.

Still did not feel bound by the harmonies of a song as published, nor did he feel it necessary to reharmonize whatever he arranged. The harmonies of "Wake Up" are dictated by the flow of the melody; Still makes no attempt to change them, except for the occasional elaboration of a cadential figure (and, of course, for the work of modulation). The A sections of the chorus are treated alternately as section solos in block harmony and as solos for individual instruments. In Example 10, we have seen an example of an individual solo; cue D in "Wake Up" (see Ex. 12) serves both as an example of a block-harmony section in this particular arrangement and as an example of Still's arranging for violin section in general.

[Example 12 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The sax voicings at cue G are essentially the violins' voicings at cue D down a major seventh. Saxes under trumpet at cue H give a rare example of a Still sax section serving as rhythmic accompaniment in early 1930s style (see Ex. 13). Tenor sax gets a melodic solo--rare in Deep River Hour arrangements--for the bridge of the second chorus (see Ex. 14). Violins are finally in unison, playing a counter-theme, in the all-out final A section of the second chorus (see Ex. 15).

[Examples 13-15 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It is typical of Still's careful scoring that the clarinet lays out in this allbut-tutti; it would either get in the way of that cheery, high-register flute or would make the violin counter-theme too shrill. As it is, it is saved for the final wistful echo of the tune's raffish cadence (see Ex. 16).

[Example 16 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Arrangements for Robison as a singer tended to follow the well-known form of verse (vocal), chorus 1 (vocal), chorus 2 (instrumental), with voice returning either at the bridge or for the final A. Still was lucky to have in Robison an excellent musician who could work with minimal accompaniment. Sometimes Still supplied only a counter-theme, letting Robison's voice and his comping piano do the remainder of the work. Still seldom failed to write something, in favor of leaving everything to Robison; he had, after all, been hired to arrange. The parts could always be marked tacet in rehearsal. ("There's Religion in Rhythm," as we shall see, is an exception to this rule.) Even in fuller accompaniments, the voice is seldom doubled. Occasionally the voice alone is responsible for important harmonic details; for instance, Robison's voice alone supplies the major seventh on which the A sections of the song "When It's Sleepy Time Down South" begin (see Ex. 17).(20)

[Example 17 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The instrumental choruses are often particularly inventive. Take, for example, the bridge in the second chorus of "Georgia on My Mind." He takes the image "other arms reach out to me" and builds from it a climax of chromatic lines "reaching out" to call the singer from Georgia; this and the return to the tranquil A section (and to the voice) are worthy responses to this great song (see Ex. 18).

[Example 18 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Occasionally Still's collaboration with Robison went deeper than the mere arranging of a song. The depth of his involvement is not always signalled by the elaborateness of his arrangement; it can be revealed as well by a few small and effective gestures. Still's arrangement of Robison's song "There's Religion in Rhythm" shows the depth of cooperation between the two artists.

"There's Religion in Rhythm" is one of Robison's "syncopated sermons." The more common term for this style of music is "rhythmic spiritual," a term established in 1932 with the publication by Joe Davis of Folio of Paul Whiteman's Favorite Modern Rhythmic Spirituals, which included, with seven other numbers, "There's Religion in Rhythm" and the two rhythmic spirituals recorded by Bessie Smith, "On Revival Day" and "Moan, You Moaners." The rhythmic spiritual of the 1920s and 1930s (Still's Three Rhythmic Spirituals of 1956 borrow the adjective but not the style) is the lesser-known twin of the style I call the "Broadway jubilee," exemplified by such songs as "Clap Yo' Hands," "Hallelujah!" and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow."

Like the Broadway jubilee, the rhythmic spiritual is an enthusiastic description (or enactment--one merges with the other) of a down-home religious experience. Often the verse is some kind of distancing mechanism to assure the listener that this is entertainment, not the true fire from heaven. For example, Andy Razaf's "On the Revival Day" (1930) begins, "Have you ever seen a church begin to rock? ... Then follow me and see just how it's done." The experience is often identified in some way as being southern; although race is almost never mentioned, there is a heavy implication, through dialect and other means ("a sundown deacon preaching to his flock" [Razaf 1930]), that the experience is black. (The radio announcer's scripts were less reticent in identifying race than were the songs themselves; a sketch in the Ellington Collection for an announcer's intro describes Truthful Parson Brown as "dusky.")

One of the earmarks of the rhythmic spiritual is its transparent insincerity. Bessie Smith's "On Revival Day" is no more a sacred performance than is Judy Garland's "Get Happy."(21) But working on Willard Robison, one gradually realizes that for him this was a serious genre capable of a genuine message. What others had said in parables, he attempted to say in thirty-two-bar AABA form. At the least, Robison's songs speak to us of people whom we should emulate--his Truthful Parson Brown and Aunt Phoebe Law ("'Tain't So, Honey `Tain't So") are folk heroes, not figures of fun like the "sundown deacon and his flock" of "On Revival Day." But there is often a hope of teaching a moral lesson, as well. Even Kohler and Bloom's lightweight "Stay on the Right Side, Sister" (1933), whose verse is quite specifically a distancing mechanism (and a racial identification: "Down in Jimtown, Tennessee / Deacon Amos `Lowdown' Lee ..."), comes out in Robison's performance on the air check as a sincere, if light-hearted, admonition, and Robison's own songs occasionally move deeper.

This is a humbling discovery for those of us who enjoy the Broadway jubilee repertory at least partly for its blatant insincerity. But the very name "Deep River Orchestra" proclaims Robison's intent to find a spiritual meaning--a "tonal baptism"--in the music that he performs. And Still, whose scores bear the inscription "With humble thanks to God, the source of inspiration," would have understood Robison's intentions. (So, I think, would Haydn, whose symphonies bear the heading "in nomine Domini"; and so would John Coltrane.)

"There's Religion in Rhythm" is Robison's plea for the legitimacy of the rhythmic spiritual. The plea is made most strongly in the bridge of the chorus:

   Come down from your dignity And reason things out with me: What can this
   rhythm be But the good Lord talkin' to His children?

When Still became arranger for the Deep River Hour, there were already two Kenn Sisson arrangements of "There's Religion in Rhythm" in the Deep River Orchestra library: one for the radio program, made during the first month of the show, and a "vaudeville" arrangement (that is, an arrangement for live performance) made the next month. Still's arrangement, then, was made not to add a number to the Deep River repertory but to improve on an extant arrangement. (Still had at least considered using Sisson's arrangements; there are pencil parts in his hand to augment the vaudeville arrangement.) Still's arrangement improved on Sisson's in one practical aspect: Sisson's are in C major, the key of the published music, while Still's is in D major, a key more appropriate to Robison's high and wistful voice.(22) But Still's arrangement shows a much more fundamental change of relationship between arranger and songwriter-performer.

We have seen in Example 1 the continuity for "There's Religion in Rhythm," written for strings alone; the arrangement proper is for a scaled-down, stringless group of instruments: three clarinets, bass clarinet, trumpet, and celesta, played by the otherwise tacet percussionist. Did Still, like the Stravinsky of the Symphony of Psalms and the Mass, see the winds--instruments that "have breath"--as most proper for the praise of the Lord? Much of the work is left to Robison and his piano, with the simple but cleanly written harmonies of the published song. The preacher and his instrument hold forth, with support from the congregation.

Between the continuity and the song proper, there is a brief interlude introducing the sonorities other than voice and piano (see Ex. 19). Robison's song consists of a sixteen-bar verse in D minor followed by a thirty-two-bar AABA chorus in D major.(23) Still's arrangement of the verse uses the innocent but effective piano left hand of the published music; the added parallel-triad clarinets (with their b [natural] suggesting the Dorian mode) give a hint of the transcendental to Robison's opening statement and then are silent to let him make his point by himself (see Ex. 20).

[Examples 19-20 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The opening A of the chorus is for Robison and his piano alone. Trumpet and bass clarinet provide a simple octave fill leading to the second A, which transfers Robison's flowing piano lines to the reeds but otherwise stays out of the way (see Ex. 21).

[Example 21 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The beginning of the release finds the reeds even more subdued--low-register held chords with comping piano maintaining the rhythm. Trumpet adds a counter-theme as Robison asks his question, "What can this rhythm be / But the good Lord talkin' to His children?" (see Ex. 22).(24) Apart from a brief, sassy flourish after the words "break old Satan's hold," the final A is all Robison and his piano.

[Example 22 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

At this point, we would expect a second, instrumental chorus in which Still, who has so far held back so extremely, can show his stuff. But this "syncopated sermon" is a message, and Still does not dilute it by taking a chorus that would suggest that it's "just a tune." Instead, a measure of arpeggiated chords on the celesta leads to a slightly altered repeat of the interlude between continuity and song (see Ex. 23). This is followed by a musing two-bar coda, giving Robison's words the final say. The voice part, with its new, blues-tinged line, brings us to the conclusion: now Robison's definition of rhythm is a statement, not a question.

[Example 23 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This is Still's arranging at its simplest. I hope the musical examples shown will convince readers of Still's virtuosity and versatility. They are arranging of a very high order.

Still and Robison were both very proud of the Deep River Hour. In 1938 Still wrote Robison that some of his arrangements for the program were "the best I ever made" (Still 1938). And in an earlier letter to Still, written after Still's departure to Los Angeles, Robison wrote:

   There is a crying need for our type of program--with you directing and God
   back of us--we could go far--somehow  I have felt very strangely about
   "Deep River" [and of] yourself and I as being instruments for some great
   good healing music. (Robison 1935)

To anyone who has looked closely at Still's arrangements for the Deep River Hour, that remark about "healing music" will seem quite natural.

Far more people have been helpful in the writing of this article than can possibly be thanked here, but I must at least thank the staff of the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, especially Ann Kuebler, whose eye for spotting Robison material in the Ellington Collection made this paper possible.

(1.) Strictly speaking, the contract was to run until November 2, 1932--not quite a year.

(2.) The month of February is documented by notes on two Kenn Sisson arrangements in the Ellington Collection: "On Revival Day" and "Wake Up, Chillun, Wake Up." (Sisson's arrangement of "There's Religion in Rhythm," also in the Ellington Collection, mentions the date but not the program.) The earliest listing I have found for the program in the New York Times Sunday radio page is for November 11, 1931 (as "Robison orchestra"). But the number of Kenn Sisson arrangements in radio format in the Ellington Collection (there are also Sisson "vaudeville" arrangements) suggests that Sisson did arrangements for the Deep River Hour for a good period of time.

(3.) The first listing for the show on WJZ in the New York Times is for Tuesday, January 3, 1933. The show ran on WJZ until at least mid-July, the date of the script in Judith Still's collection. I am assuming, in default of evidence to the contrary, that the Deep River Hour did not broadcast from sometime in 1933 through January 1934. The first 1934 listing in the Times is for Wednesday, February 14, on WOR. The last listing in this series is that for August 17, 1934. I have not attempted to trace the further history of the Deep River Hour, though from Robison's letter to Still (1935), it is clear that the program was still broadcasting in February 1935.

(4.) "Robinson" is probably the result of Modern Music's somewhat haphazard proofreading rather than a mistake of Lieberson's.

(5.) Listeners should remember that these programs used arrangements already in Robison's library as well as new arrangements by Still. It seems possible to attribute to Still all of the arrangements in the air check, although the instrumental opening of "Rockin' Chair"--at-mike clarinet for an entire chorus, with boom-chick accompaniment--is more routine than anything in the Ellington Collection documents.

(6.) There is no sign that Duke Ellington and Robison were in contact. The Ellington Collection stems partly from the Nachlass of Tom Whaley, Ellington's long-time copyist and librarian. The Nachlass includes some material from other aspects of Whaley's professional life (including a few Eubie Blake manuscripts). My theory--which I have been unable to prove--is that Whaley was the conductor for the 1934 Deep River Hour broadcasts on WOR.

(7.) Alexander Goedicke's "Miniature" and "Harlem Lullaby," both in the Ellington Collection, are mentioned in the script, the former as "March of the Dwarfs." A "Nocturne" by [Charles?] Deacon, which serves as opening and closing music for the air check, is present in another arrangement in the collection. There is also a set of parts for "theme"--the music used for continuity when no special continuity had been written for a particular piece.

(8.) The introduction in the 1933 script is similar; both contain the phrase "tonal baptism." (The punctuation--all those dashes and not much else--is verified by script fragments in the Ellington Collection.) This opening would segue into a narration devised specifically for the first piece. The author of these narrations may have been Ruysdael, who is credited with the similar effusion on the cover of the sheet music for Robison's song "`Round My Old Deserted Farm" (New York: Irving Berlin, 1935), or they may have been written by Robison himself.

(9.) The parts for the reed men are sometimes identified by player rather than instrument. The most common trio of names is Brillhart, Evans, and Feinschmidt.

(10.) The one score with trombone currently in the Robison material in the Smithsonian is an arrangement (not by Still) of "Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee." It has been tentatively included with the Robison material, since it identifies "Willard" as the (silent) second piano. I believe--not merely because of the trombone--that it has no connection to the Deep River Hour.

(11.) The Smithsonian has parts for "Theme" in B-flat; doubtless there were parts readied in all likely keys. The parts are on the verso of the tacet parts for "Garden in the Rain." One of the violin I parts bears the name "Venuti."

(12.) Skeletal as the continuity for "There's Religion in Rhythm" is, it is interesting in two respects. The ninth-rich harmonies suggest "spiritual," while the scoring--strings only--sets up the scoring of the number proper, in which the strings are tacet.

(13.) See, for example, the pencil parts for English horn, horn, and harp to go with the Sisson "vaudeville" arrangement of "There's Religion in Rhythm" in the Ellington Collection.

(14.) Example 4 shows how far Still is willing to deviate from a piano original. The arrangement is in F major to the piano's D major; the saxes are in harmony, while the original tune is a single line. But it remains the "Song" we all played as beginning pianists.

(15.) Barrere is the dedicatee of Africa. As conductor of the Barrere Little Symphony, he gave the premieres of Still's From the Black Belt and Log Cabin Ballads.

(16.) Example 8 is also interesting as a rare example of an elaborate, written-out piano part for a section where Robison is singing. "Deep River Blues" was published by W. C. Handy, for whom Still had once arranged piano parts, and Still may have wanted to show that he was still a master of such piano arranging.

(17.) I mention here only solos specified in the score, or in the parts as originally copied, as at-the-mike solos. Further at-mike solos are indicated in players' pencil in the parts; a good example is the first trumpet solo at cues F-G and H-I in "Wake Up, Chillun, Wake Up." But these represent decisions in rehearsal and may not have been used in all performances.

(18.) The clarinet solo at the beginning of "Rockin' Chair" on the air check also seems to be an at-mike solo. (Note the abrupt end of the final note: the clarinetist must hurry back to his stand.)

(19.) Indeed, a splashy ending without applause creates a difficulty in any performance medium; thus the "throwaway" endings of so many musical numbers in films (the couch falls over, spilling Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O'Connor onto the floor). Radio usually solved that problem with the announcer's "You have just heard ..." But the Deep River Hour never announced what you had heard: it just kept rolling along.

(20.) Still arrangement of "When It's Sleepy Time Down South" does show one miscalculation, rare for Still; the parts have been transposed down a tone to make the song more comfortable for the singer. Example 17 is in the key of the parts.

(21.) Some later performances of "On Revival Day" are genuine gospel, e.g., The Harmonizing Four (Atlantic SDR026) and Elder Hightower and Sister Massey (Savoy MG-14180).

(22.) There are two further arrangements of "There's Religion in Rhythm" in the Ellington Collection. One is a second Kenn Sisson "vaudeville" arrangement, which starts in G major before settling down to the C minor/major of verse and chorus. The second is a somewhat awkward arrangement in D major for singer and piano accompanied by bass clarinet, trumpet, and strings. The parts for this second arrangement, for which we have no score, are by the copyist associated with the Still arrangements (or rather, with those Still arrangements for which Still himself did not prepare the parts). Nonetheless, I cannot imagine that this is a Still arrangement; it is probably by Len Gray, who did the similarly awkward arrangement of "Backsliders" for the same forces with the same copyist.

(23.) For the remainder of this discussion, the transposition from the C minor / major of the published song the D minor / major of the arrangement will be assumed. The piano part of the arrangement, carefully written out in Still's hand, does not invariably copy that of the published music--measures 5-8 of the verse, seen in Example 20, are a good example of a spot where Still's piano part is not that of the published score--but he treats it with considerable respect.

(24.) Neither score nor part suggests a mute for the trumpet. Nonetheless, I suspect the trumpet was muted, the particular mute being chosen in rehearsal. The score has b rather than g# as the last note of the trumpet in the first measure of Example 21; I follow the part.

(25.) "O'er Waiting Harpstrings of the Mind," recorded November 23, 1928, for R.C.A. Victor (Boyd 1990, 20).

(26.) Not the Johnny Mercer-Robert Emmet Dolan tune, which is 1944.

(27.) Still's arrangment attributes the song to "A. Knight Mare"--amusing but not helpful. It is not the Fred Waring theme song.

(28.) I believe that this does not, in fact, belong in the Robison material.

REFERENCES

Air check and broadcast tape. n.d. Available from William Grant Still Music, 4 S. San Franciso Street, No. 422, Flagstaff AZ 86001-5737.

Arvey, Verna. 1984. In one lifetime. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press.

ASCAP [American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers]. 1980. ASCAP biographical dictionary. 4th ed. New York: Cattell.

Boyd, Bryan G. 1990. Willard Robison and his piano: A discography. Toronto: Author.

Davis, Joe, comp. 1932. Folio of Paul Whiteman's favorite modern rhythmic spirituals. New York: Joe Davis.

Ellington, Duke, Collection. 1930-74. Held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Lieberson, Goddard. 1937. Over the air. Modern Music 15, no. 1: 53-55.

Razaf, Andy. 1930. On revival day. New York: Joe Davis.

Robison, Willard. 1931. Contract with William Grant Still, December 17. Held in the Willard Robison file, William Grant Still/Verna Arvey Collection, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

--. 1935. Letter to William Grant Still, February 5. Held in the Willard Robison file, William Grant Still/Verna Arvey Collection, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Still, Judith, Collection. 1895-. Held by Judith Anne Still, William Grant Still Music, 4 S. San Franciso Street, no. 422, Flagstaff AZ 86001-5737.

Still, William Grant. 1938. Letter to Willard Robison, June 12. Carbon copy held in the Willard Robison file, William Grant Still/Verna Arvey Collection, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Willard Robison file. 1931-66. Held in the William Grant Still/Verna Arvey Collection, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

APPENDIX A

Contents of the Air Check and Broadcast Repertoires

1. Air Check

"Signature" music: "Nocturne" ([Charles?] Deacon), played under announcer

"Rockin' Chair" (Hoagy Carmichael, publ. 1930)

Continuity for "In the Engine Room," played under announcer

"In the Engine Room," instrumental (Mel Hulett, unpublished)

"Theme" music, played under announcer

"Beale Street Blues" (W. C. Handy, publ. 1916)

"Theme" music, played under announcer

"Nautilus," instrumental (Edward MacDowell, from Sea Pieces, publ. 1898)

"Theme" music, played under announcer

"Down a Carolina Lane" (words Mitchell Parish, music Frank Perkins, publ. 1933)

"Theme" music, played under announcer

"Stay on the Right Side, Sister" (words Ted Koehler, music Rube Bloom, publ. 1933)

"Signature" music: "Nocturne," played under announcer

2. Program of the Deep River Hour for July 12, 1933 (Composers listed in brackets are not identified in the script)

"March of the Dwarfs" [Alexander Goedicke, "Miniature"]

"A Blue Prelude" [Joe Bishop and Gordon Jenkins]

"Butterflies in the Rain" [Sherman Myers]

"A Harlem Lullaby" [Margaret Millham and Willard Robison]

"Prairie Dusk" [probably David W. Guion's piano piece]

"Stormy Weather" [Harold Arlen]

Afro-American Symphony (William Grant Still, presumably the third movement only)

"To a Mummy" (Bainbridge Crist)

3. Program of Melodoscope for March 4, 1934 (Willard Robison segments only; composers listed in brackets are not identified in the script)

"Rockin' Chair" [Hoagy Carmichael]

"Poor Little Rich Girl" [Noel Coward]

"Down Stream" [probably the piano piece from Eastwood Lane's Adirondack Sketches; the popular song of the same name, written by Harold Lawrence, Barry Niesen, and Jay Milton, was copyrighted in 1938 and is thus too late to be the "Down Stream" of this program]

Afro-American Symphony (William Grant Still, presumably the third movement only)

APPENDIX B

Willard Robison Material in the Ellington Collection, Smithsonian Institution

This is a list, current to August 1998, of titles of material located in the subsection of the Ellington Collection that contains material relating to Willard Robison. The manuscript scores and parts from Tom Whaley's library, which form the nucleus of the Ellington Collection, were not divided by performing group when they were received by the Smithsonian; the separation of the Robison material was part of the work of organizing the collection and was done through the evidence of the manuscripts themselves. There is a chance that some Robison material remains in the main body of the Ellington Collection; there also is a chance that some of the material listed here is not related to Robison (I myself believe that "Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee" does not belong among the Robison material).

Each entry is in two parts. The first is the title of the number, to which are added the names of the composer and lyricist and publication date if such are readily identifiable. The second part lists any material in William Grant Still's hand. The notation "[also copyist parts]" indicates copyist parts for a previously listed score by William Grant Still; these are not necessarily the only parts under that title in the collection. For those pieces that show no trace of Still's activity, the second part of the entry reads merely "No WGS."

I have identified songs when such identification is simple and uncontroversial. The collection as a whole contains arrangements ranging from at least as early as 1928(25) to at least as late as 1934. It does not contain any of the legendary arrangements for Robison by Bill Challis.

"And So to Bed" (words Mack Gordon, music Harry Revel, publ. 1932)(26)

William Grant Still (WGS): score; [also copyist parts]

"At the Top of the Hill" WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Backsliders (A Syncopated Sermon)" (Willard Robison, publ. 1929) WGS: continuity score; continuity parts

"Beneath the Spell of a Yellow Delta Moon" (Willard Robison, publ. 1933) WGS: score; "special parts for instrumental chorus" (wind parts to substitute for saxes); [also copyist parts]

"Boston" (Erwin Schulhoff, from Esquisses de Jazz, publ. 1928) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"By Quiet Firesides" (Willard Robison, piano piece, from Rural Revelations, publ. 1929) WGS: score; score for continuity; parts

"[There's a] Cabin in the Pines" (Billy Hill, publ. 1933) WGS: score (includes continuity); piano score; parts

"Chant" ["R&S, inc.": doubtless Robison and Still] WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Clar' de Kitchen" (ninteenth-century minstrel song) no WGS

"Columbine" (Cyril Scott) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Coming of Spring" (Selim Palmgren) WGS: score; parts

"A Cottage for Sale" (words Willard Robison, music Larry Conley, publ. 1930) WGS: pencil part for vibraphone

"Cuando Llora Me Llama" (Portuguese folk song) WGS: score; [also copyist

parts]

"Dawn" (Cyril Scott) WGS: score; parts

"Deep Low South" (not in copyright catalog for 1898-1937) WGS: score (includes continuity); parts

"Deep River Blues" (words Eddie Green, music Lucile Marie Handy, publ. 1924) WGS: score; piano score; bassoon part; [also copyist parts]

"Deep South [in My Heart]" (words Johnny Mercer, music Archie Bleyer, publ. 1932) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Don't You Let Nobody Turn You `Roun'" WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Down a Daisy Lane," for piano and orchestra (Willard Robison) WGS: score; continuity score; parts

"Garden in the Rain" (words James Dyrenforth, music Carroll Gibbons, pub. 1929) WGS: brief alterations in score, bass clarinet, strings

"Georgia on My Mind" (words Stuart Gorrell, music Hoagy Carmichael, publ. 1930) WGS: score (includes continuity); parts

"Gimme Dat Ole Time Religion" WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Green Pastures" (words Will Morrissey and Andy Razaf, music Eubie Blake, from Blackbirds of 1930) no WGS except note on score

"Harlem Blues" (W. C. Handy, publ. 1923) no WGS

"A Harlem Lullaby" (Margot Millham and Willard Robison) WGS: score; some parts; [also copyist parts]

"Hitch Your Wagon to a Star" (Willard Robison, unpublished, copyright 1928) WGS: score; [no parts]

"Hoein' Taters" WGS: piano score; [no score or parts]

"Hold On" WGS: score-sketch; score-sketch for continuity; piano part for continuity; horn part for "vaudeville" parts

"I'm a Po' Li'l Orphan" WGS: first violin A part for continuity

"In a Poinsettia Garden" (Willard Robison, piano piece, from Inspiration Suite, 1928) WGS: score for continuity; parts for continuity and song proper

"In Pastures Green" (Willard Robison, piano piece, from Rural Revelations, 1929) WGS: score (includes continuity); some parts; [also copyist parts]

"In the Engine Room" (Mel Hulett) WGS: pencil bassoon part

"Lazy Day" WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Lazy Weather" (words Jo Trent, music Peter DeRose, publ. 1927) no WGS

"Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" (actually "Friendless Blues," published later by Handy) WGS: continuity score; continuity parts

"Manhattan Gypsy" (Basil Fomeen) WGS: score

"Miniature" (Alexander Goedicke) WGS: score; part for bassoon; [also copyist parts]

"Miss Malindy" (Still) WGS: score [also copyist parts]

"The Moon Is Low" (Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, publ. 1930) no WGS

"Music of a Mountain Stream" (Willard Robison, publ. 1927) WGS: score; bassoon part; [also copyist parts]

"Muted Lullaby" (reworking of material from "A Harlem Lullaby"; unpublished and uncopyrighted) WGS: parts; parts for E-flat continuity; parts for G major continuity; [no score]

"Night on the Desert" (Billy Hill, publ. 1934) no WGS

"Nocturne" ([Charles?] Deacon) WGS: score (missing p. 1); [also copyist parts, fragmentary]

"O Gambler, Git Up Offa Yo' Knees" WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"O'er Waiting Heartstrings of the Mind" (words Mary Baker Eddy, music Frederick W. Root) no WGS

"On Revival Day" (Andy Razaf, 1930) WGS: continuity score; continuity parts

"Peace of Mind" WGS: score; continuity score; continuity parts; [also copyist parts]

"Philosophical Blues" no WGS

"Pronouns" WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"The Roving Gambler" (folk song) WGS: score; [also copyist parts] (WGS sketches for this arrangement on pencil vocal score)

"Sad Winds" (Willard Robison, unpublished, copyright 1928) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"(If We Can't Be) The Same Old Sweethearts" (words Joseph McCarthy, music Jimmy Monaco, publ. 1915) WGS: score; some parts; [also copyist parts]

"Scandalize My Name" WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Sepia Sorrow Song" (Porter Grainger, unpublished and uncopyrighted under this title) no WGS

Sleep"(27) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Song" (Edward MacDowell, from Sea Pieces) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Song from a Cotton Field" (Porter Grainger, publ. 1927) no WGS

"A Song from the East" (Cyril Scott) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Stars" (words Ted Koehler, music Kaye Parker, publ. 1932) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Sweet Solitude" (words Larry Conley, music Willard Robison, publ. 1930) no WGS

"`Taint So, Honey, 'Taint So" (Willard Robison, publ. 1928) WGS: continuity score; [also copyist parts]

"There's Religion in Rhythm" (Willard Robison, publ. 1930) WGS: score (includes continuity); parts; parts for new continuity; additional parts for Kenn Sisson arrangement

"Truthful Parson Brown" (Willard Robison, publ. 1928) WGS: continuity score; continuity parts

"Tumbleweed" (Willard Robison, publ. 1927) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Underneath a Colorado Moon" WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Wagon Wheels" (words Billy Hill, music Peter DeRose, publ. 1933) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

"Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee" (words L. Wolfe Gilbert, music Lewis F. Muir, publ. 1912)(28) no WGS

"Wake Up, Chillun, Wake Up" (words Jo Trent, music Willard Robison, publ. 1929) WGS: score; score for "signature"; parts for "signature"; [also copyist parts for score]

"Washboard Blues" (Hoagy Carmichael, Fred B. Callahan, and Irving Mills, publ. 1926) WGS: "director" part for Kenn Sisson arrangement

"When It's Sleepy Time Down South" (Leon Rene, Otis Rene, and Clarence Muse, publ. 1931) WGS: score; parts

"Willow, Weep for Me" (Ann Ronell, publ. 1932) WGS: score; [also copyist parts]

WAYNE D. SHIRLEY is music specialist at the Library of Congress. He has written on Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, George Gershwin, Charles Ives, and the Gotham-Attucks Music Co. His article titled "The Coming of `Deep River'" was published in American Music (15, no. 4 [1997])