Timeline: Vermont Public Classical

We’re at part six of our ten-part series exploring the life, work and influence of composer Julius Eastman. We’ve talked a lot about Eastman’s past and personality, in this episode we’ll focus on his music.

We’re deep in our series exploring the life and legacy of composer Julius Eastman. We’ve already spoken with authors, composers and musicians who are bringing Eastman’s music and story to a new generation. In this episode, we have the chance to hear more of the story first-hand.

We’re at part four of our ten part series exploring the life and legacy of Julius Eastman, an openly gay, black composer that died nearly forgotten, penniless and homeless in 1990; nearly forgotten that is, until now.

We’re focusing on the life and influence of Julius Eastman, a composer who is just now getting his due attention in the classical world. For decades, Julius’ music was all but forgotten; that is until another composer, a friend of Eastman, got involved.

This is part two of our series on the life and works of Julius Eastman, a deeply neglected composer of contemporary music in the late 70s and early 80s. In fact, he was almost forgotten. I, myself, had barely heard of Eastman in all my musical studies and he certainly wasn’t on my radar, that is until an email appeared in my inbox.

On Timeline, we will be diving into the music, life and legacy of Julius. We’ll look at his development as a musician and an artist. We’ll talk about his reputation and his struggles with being an openly gay, black man in the late 70s and early 80s. We’ll discuss the triumph and tragedy and also discuss the place that Eastman’s music has, or should have, in the canon. Of course, that means talking about the very concept of the classical canon itself.

On September 27, 2017, the nation of Ghana gathered to celebrate the life and music of 96 year old composer Kwabena Nketia. On that day it was declared that, “…Professor Nketia’s life symbolizes the evolution of our nation in the 20th century…a bridge between our indigenous culture and modern culture, non-literate and literate traditions, old and young artists, Ghana and Africa...” The event was also held to raise funds to archive Nketia’s lifelong work of ethnomusicology. According to the University of Ghana, Nketia had collected, “thousands of archival files and field notes on Ghanaian culture, history, language and arts.”

Abdullah Ibraim, also known as Dollar Brand, was born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town, South Africa in 1934. He started taking piano lessons at the age of seven and was performing professionally by the time he was 15. Brand was of mixed-race so under the South African apartheid system, he was considered “colored.”

Justinian Tamusuza is one of the premiere, contemporary African composers today. His music has been compared to American minimalist composers like Steve Reich and John Adams. However, what sets Tamusuza apart is his use of rhythm that calls to mind the pulse of traditional African music.

We continue our series on African composers by exploring the life, music and legacy of Cameroonian composer, Francis Bebey.