William Levi Dawson (1899–1990) is best known today for his Negro Folk Symphony, but throughout his career he composed a wide range of choral, orchestral, and chamber works. Adagietto reflects Dawson’s lyrical writing style, marked by rich harmonies and expressive orchestral textures. Though less frequently performed than his better-known compositions, the work demonstrates the craftsmanship and melodic warmth that characterize much of Dawson’s music and offers a glimpse into his broader output beyond his celebrated symphony.

William Dawson’s Break, Break, Break is a setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem of the same name, exploring themes of grief, loss, and the passage of time. Written for mixed chorus with tenor and bass soloists, organ, piano, and orchestra, the work remained unpublished for many years and survives in Dawson’s handwritten manuscript.
The score begins Grave and alternates between slow and faster sections, employing canonic vocal writing, carefully detailed dynamics, and expressive tempo changes. At its central key change, Dawson marks the chorus sotto voce and instructs the singers to perform “in an undertone,” creating a striking moment of intimacy before the work builds again. Although the manuscript bears an opus number, no composition date appears, making its exact place within Dawson’s early career uncertain.

Poem: Break, Break, Break by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

Dawson’s setting of Louise Imogen Guiney’s poem Out in the Fields was published in 1929 by the Gamble-Hinged Music Company. The work bears the inscription, “In Memory of my Beloved Wife, Cornella,” honoring Dawson’s first wife, who died early in their marriage.

Scored for vocal soloist, mixed chorus, women’s chorus, and accompaniment by piano, orchestra, or wind ensemble, the composition reflects Dawson’s gift for expressive choral writing. While widely recognized for his arrangements of African American spirituals, Out in the Fields demonstrates his ability to bring the same emotional depth and sensitivity to secular poetry.

Poem: Out in the Fields by Louise Imogen Guiney

The little cares that fretted me,
I lost them yesterday
Among the fields above the sea,
Among the winds that play,
Among the lowing of the herd,
The rustling of the trees,
Among the singing of the birds,
The humming of the bees.
The foolish fears of what might pass
I cast them all away
Among the clover-scented grass,
Among the new-mown hay,
Among the hushing of the corn,
Where drowsy poppies nod,
Where ill thoughts die and good are born —
Out in the fields with God.

Warrant Officer Thor Johnson conducting the Stadium’s Army and Navy program, has furnished the following information about this composition:

“This new work by Mus. 2nd Cl. Lllysses Kay, of the United States Navy, is a vigorous, virile composition, optimistic in character. It plays about seven and three-quarters minutes. This is its first performance anywhere.

“It was written for me at my request for a premiere in mid-August with the National High School Orchestra at Interlochen, Michigan.

“The composer is a student of Paul Hindemith, besides having graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Howard Hanson. I first met him at the Berkshire Music Center, where he spent two summers. Of the younger group of Negro composers he is certainly among the out-standing.”

Mus. 2nd Cl. Kay is at present stationed with the Negro Band at the Naval Air Base at Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

Kay wrote the first scene of his ballet “Danse Calinda,” scored for theater orchestra and based on a story by Ridgeley Torrence, in 1941, while a student at the Eastman School of Music. It received its first performance by the Rochester Civic Orchestra, Kay’s composition teacher Howard Hanson conducting, on April 23, 1941. Kay later added a second scene.
He created the “Suite from the Ballet ‘Danse Calinda'” in 1947, and it won the Bobbit Gardner Award, Boston, for that year.

Born: Tucson, Arizona, January 7, 1917; now living in Englewood, New Jersey.

This work was composed in New York City during 1948. First performance to be given by the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra, James Sample Music Director, April 21 & 22, 1964.

The work is scored for 2 flutes (with piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion, harp and strings.

Upon moving to New York City after World War II, I was impressed by seeing a good deal of art and sculpture that I had never seen before. I recall being especially excited by the work of Jacques Lipschitz, Henry Moore and Ivan Mestrovic. While their work nearly always depicted familiar subjects, it projected immense creative energies and rich imagination.
About this time I had been writing mostly orchestral and chamber music, using quite abstract materials. After seeing much of the sculpture mentioned above, I felt the urge to compose a piece in another vein from my work of that time. And my Portraits was the result.

The piece consists of five sections, designated as follows:

Prologue — Asymmetric
Reclining Figure
Blossoming — Epilogue

Kneeling Woman (1911) and Standing Youth (1913) by Wilhelm Lehmbruch

Reclining Figure by Henry Moore (1938)

Blossoming by Jacques Lipchitz (1941-42)

Missouri-born composer Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981) helped shape the sound of American concert music while also becoming one of Broadway’s most influential orchestrators. He orchestrated landmark productions including Show Boat, Girl Crazy, Oklahoma!, and Annie Get Your Gun, while maintaining an extensive career as a composer of orchestral works.
Bennett composed The Four Freedoms in 1943 to support the U.S. war bond campaign inspired by Norman Rockwell’s famous paintings, themselves based on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address. The symphony received its premiere that year by the NBC Symphony Orchestra at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Structured in four movements – Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear – the work serves as a musical response to Rockwell’s paintings. Bennett draws on hymn-like melodies, popular American musical styles, and vivid orchestral colors to portray each of the four ideals, culminating in a powerful and optimistic finale celebrating resilience and hope.

Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear