Gayle Murchison
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036781
- eISBN:
- 9780252093890
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036781.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This chapter examines the aesthetics underlying William Grant Still's Blue Steel and contextualizes it as a Harlem Renaissance work engaged with the African past and Still's diasporic present. ...
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This chapter examines the aesthetics underlying William Grant Still's Blue Steel and contextualizes it as a Harlem Renaissance work engaged with the African past and Still's diasporic present. Composed in 1934, Blue Steel was envisioned by Still as an African American opera—one that not only treated an African American subject, but was also rooted in African American and African diasporic culture—namely, its syncretic religion, voodoo or voudon. The chapter first takes a look at Still's first exposure to and early attempts at opera before discussing his collaborators in the creation of Blue Steel. It then provides a summary of Blue Steel's plot and characters as well as its use of African music for conceptual approaches to representing Africa and Africanness through musical signifiers. It also examines how voodoo became a means for Still to express himself as a Harlem Renaissance artist by functioning as a multifaceted signifier of African identity within the New World.Less
This chapter examines the aesthetics underlying William Grant Still's Blue Steel and contextualizes it as a Harlem Renaissance work engaged with the African past and Still's diasporic present. Composed in 1934, Blue Steel was envisioned by Still as an African American opera—one that not only treated an African American subject, but was also rooted in African American and African diasporic culture—namely, its syncretic religion, voodoo or voudon. The chapter first takes a look at Still's first exposure to and early attempts at opera before discussing his collaborators in the creation of Blue Steel. It then provides a summary of Blue Steel's plot and characters as well as its use of African music for conceptual approaches to representing Africa and Africanness through musical signifiers. It also examines how voodoo became a means for Still to express himself as a Harlem Renaissance artist by functioning as a multifaceted signifier of African identity within the New World.
Ian Clark
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198273707
- eISBN:
- 9780191684067
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198273707.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter focuses on the new contender for the mantle of the British deterrent, Skybolt. The idea of extending the useful range, and hence life, of the V-bombers by giving them a stand-off ...
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This chapter focuses on the new contender for the mantle of the British deterrent, Skybolt. The idea of extending the useful range, and hence life, of the V-bombers by giving them a stand-off capability had been pursued since the early 1950s and was embodied in the programmes for the Blue Steel powered-bomb and its long-range Mark II variant. Skybolt seemed to offer additional range, the flexibility associated with the bomber and a price that could be afforded.Less
This chapter focuses on the new contender for the mantle of the British deterrent, Skybolt. The idea of extending the useful range, and hence life, of the V-bombers by giving them a stand-off capability had been pursued since the early 1950s and was embodied in the programmes for the Blue Steel powered-bomb and its long-range Mark II variant. Skybolt seemed to offer additional range, the flexibility associated with the bomber and a price that could be afforded.
Naomi Andre, Karen M. Bryan, and Eric Saylor (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036781
- eISBN:
- 9780252093890
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036781.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This book critically examines the intersections of race and music in the multifaceted genre of opera. A diverse cross-section of scholars places well-known operas (Porgy and Bess, Aida, Treemonisha) ...
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This book critically examines the intersections of race and music in the multifaceted genre of opera. A diverse cross-section of scholars places well-known operas (Porgy and Bess, Aida, Treemonisha) alongside lesser-known works such as Frederick Delius's Koanga, William Grant Still's Blue Steel, and Clarence Cameron White's Ouanga! to reveal a new historical context for re-imagining race and blackness in opera. The volume brings a wide-ranging, theoretically informed, interdisciplinary approach to questions about how blackness has been represented in these operas, issues surrounding characterization of blacks, interpretation of racialized roles by blacks and whites, controversies over race in the theater and the use of blackface, and extensions of blackness along the spectrum from grand opera to musical theatre and film.Less
This book critically examines the intersections of race and music in the multifaceted genre of opera. A diverse cross-section of scholars places well-known operas (Porgy and Bess, Aida, Treemonisha) alongside lesser-known works such as Frederick Delius's Koanga, William Grant Still's Blue Steel, and Clarence Cameron White's Ouanga! to reveal a new historical context for re-imagining race and blackness in opera. The volume brings a wide-ranging, theoretically informed, interdisciplinary approach to questions about how blackness has been represented in these operas, issues surrounding characterization of blacks, interpretation of racialized roles by blacks and whites, controversies over race in the theater and the use of blackface, and extensions of blackness along the spectrum from grand opera to musical theatre and film.
