Still, Johnson & the Harlem Renaissance

Part of TŌN’s Sight & Sound series

In the popular series Sight & Sound, conductor and music historian Leon Botstein explores the parallels between orchestral music and the visual arts. A discussion is accompanied by on-screen artworks and musical excerpts performed by The Orchestra Now, followed by a full performance and audience Q&A.

With the rise of new, urban Black communities both in New York City and abroad, the Harlem Renaissance became the first African American-led movement of international modern art. With that art came developments in visual art, poetry, jazz, and concert music. William Grant Still’s dramatic Lenox Avenue, which was commissioned by CBS for a 1937 radio broadcast, was inspired by street scenes in Harlem. Meanwhile, his orchestration of James P. Johnson’s Yamekraw, A Negro Rhapsody, was a response to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, capturing what the composer felt was a more “authentic” rhapsody about a black neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia.

The exhibition Harlem Renaissance will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue February 20–July 28, 2024 in Gallery 999.