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Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004):
A Celebration
Chicago Sinfonietta et al.
Paul Freeman, Conductor
Cedille 90000 087 (2005)

African Heritage Symphonic series, Vol. III
Sinfonietta for Strings No. 2 (Generations)
Katinka Kleijn, cello
Chicago Sinfonietta
Paul Freeman, Conductor
Cedille 90000 066 (2003)

Dark Fires
Sonata for Piano No. 2 (Statements)
Karen Walwyn, piano
Albany Records 384 (2000)

Home -> Composers -> Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor

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Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004)

African American Composer & Conductor
Co-Founder, Symphony of the New World

Table of Contents

1 Birth
2 Youth
3 Music Education
4 Jazz
5 Conducting
6 Musical Scores
7 Positions
8 Death
9 A Celebration
10 Fanfare Magazine
11 Recordings
12 Works
13 Bibliography

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson Conducting the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble
Photo courtesy of the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College, Chicago

Audio Samples:
1 Musicians Showcase 1091 (2003); Senku: Piano
   Music by Composers of African Descent; William
   H. Chapman Nyaho, Piano Scherzo
2 Cedille 9000 066 (2002); African Heritage
   Symphonic Series, Vol. III; Chicago Sinfonietta;
   Paul Freeman, Conductor
   Generations: Sinfonietta No. 2 For Strings
3 Cedille 90000 087 (2005); Coleridge-Taylor
   Perkinson: A Celebration; Chicago Sinfonietta;
   Paul Freeman, Conductor
   Quartet No. 1 based on "Calvary" (Negro Spiritual)

1 Birth
The African American composer and conductor Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was born on June 14, 1932. Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma is a specialist in African heritage in classical music, and has kindly made his research file on Perkinson available to this site. He points out that Perkinson was named for the Afro-British composer
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor:

He was born in New York City, where his mother – already familiar with the music of the Afro-British composer -- was active as pianist, organist, and director of a theater in the Bronx.

2 Youth
We learn from Prof. De Lerma that Perkinson had an interest in dance and music in his youth:

Prior to his entrance in New York’s High School of Music and Art in 1945, he exhibited an interest in dance, studying with Pearl Primus and Ismay Andrews. Mentored in high school by his teacher Hugh Ross, he came to meet Igor Stravinsky. By the time of his graduation
in 1949, when he won the LaGuardia Prize for music, he had begun composing.

Perkinson's 1948 composition And Behold won the High School for Music and Art Choral Competition.

3 Music Education
Prof. De Lerma notes that Perkinson's initial college major was Education, but his Bachelor's and Masters degrees were in Music:

He majored in education for two years at New York University (1949-1951), then transferred to the Manhattan School of Music in 1951 (B.M., 1953; M.M., composition, 1954) where he was a composition major under Charles Mills and Vittorio Giannini, and conducting with Jonel Perlea.

4 Jazz
The research file of Dominique-René de Lerma reports that some of Perkinson's classmates at the Manhattan School of Music increased his involvement in jazz:

His interest in jazz was stimulated while enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music in association with classmates Julius Watkins, Herbie Mann, Donald Byrd, and Max Roach. He has been engaged as arranger and/or music director for Marvin Gaye, Lou Rawls, Barbara McNair, Donald Byrd, Max Roach (as pianist in the Roach Quartet, 1964-1965), Melvin Van Peebles, and Harry Belafonte. Arrangements he made for Hamiet Bluiett appear on the CD, Bluiett blueback, Justin Time JUST 158-2.

5 Conducting
In 1954, Perkinson attended a Summer course in conducting at the Berkshire Music Center, Prof. De Lerma writes:

In the summer of 1954 he studied conducting at the Berkshire Music Center. This was supplemented with additional study with Earl Kim at Princeton University from about 1959 to 1962. During his student days, he roomed with his good friends, Arthur LaBrew and Noel DaCosta. For three summers (1960, 1962, and 1963), he studied in the Netherlands with Dean Dixon and Franco Ferrara in conducting at the Netherlands Radio Union in Hilversum, spending part of the 1960 summer at the Mozarteum. He also studied with Dimitri Mitropoulos, Lovro von Matacic, Franco Ferrara, Dean Dixon
and Clarence Williams.

6 Musical Scores
The website of Leonarda Records, www.leonarda.com, includes an overview of Perkinson's musical scores for stage, film and television:

His ballet scores include works for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey, and the Eleo Pomare Dance Company. He has composed and conducted scores for numerous award-winning theatrical, television, and documentary films such as Montgomery to Memphis (Martin Luther King), Bearden on Bearden (Romare Bearden), A Woman Called Moses (Cicely Tyson), and A Warm December (Sidney Poitier) and has arranged for jazz and popular artists including Harry Belefonte and Marvin Gaye. He conducted orchestras all over the world and served as music director or composer-in-residence for the Negro Ensemble Company, Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem and various theatre groups.

Perkinson also wrote the themes for the television shows Room 222 and Get Christie Love!

7 Positions
Perkinson co-founded the Symphony of the New World, which he conducted from 1965-70 and directed for the 1972 season. Prof. De Lerma lists some of the many teaching, conducting and performing positions he held in his career:

1952-1962 Professional Children’s School

1954-1959 Assistant to Hugh Ross

1956-1957 Assistant Conductor, Dessoff Choirs

1959-1962 Conductor, Brooklyn Community Symphony Orchestra;
Faculty, Brooklyn College

1961-1963 Conductor, New York Mandolin Orchestra

1964-1965 Pianist, Max Roach Jazz Quartet

1965-1970 Co-Founder and Associate Conductor of the Symphony of the New World (serving as its Director for the 1972-1973 season)

1966-1967 Music Director, Jerome Robbins’ American Theater Lab

1968-1969, 1978 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

1997-1998 Indiana University

8 Death
From 1998 until his death in Chicago on March 9, 2004, Perkinson was affiliated with the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago. Prof. De Lerma describes his duties with the CBMR, as well as his other professional activites during the period:

He was appointed Coordinator of Performance Activities at the Center for Black Music Research in 1998 (advisor to Ensemble Stop-Time, then in 1999 as music director of the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble which offered 34 concerts in Chicago, in Washington for Congress, in New York, and for the première of Wendell Logan’s opera, The doxology) and composer-in-residence for the Ritz Chamber Players of Jacksonville. Guest conductor of the Antara Ensemble of the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

9 A Celebration
In the year following the death of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, a wide-ranging overview of his music was issued on Coleridge- Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004): A Celebration, Cedille 90000 087 (2005). Paul Freeman conducts the Chicago Sinfonietta. The works include Sinfonietta No. 1 for Strings (15:17); Grass: Poem for Piano, Strings & Percussion (16:08), Joseph Joubert, piano; Quartet No. 1 based on “Calvary” (Negro spiritual) (17:04), New Black Music Repertory Ensemble Quartet; Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin (7:26), Sanford Allen, violin; Lamentations: Black/Folk Song Suite for Solo Cello (15:38), Tahira Whittington, cello; Louisiana Blues Strut (A Cakewalk) (2:49), Ashley Horne, violin; and Movement for String Trio
(3:56), Sanford Allen, violin; Jesse Levine, viola; Carter Brey, cello. The compositions are in chronological order, beginning with a work written in 1954-55 and ending with one produced in 2004.

10 Fanfare Magazine
The music critic David Wolman reviews A Celebration in the March/April 2006 issue of Fanfare Magazine:

Perkinson’s Sinfonietta No.1 for strings, composed in 1955, might have been considered, if composed by a young Caucasian, the work of a wunderkind.
...
Two years later, Perkinson began to infiltrate into his technique the echoes of his ancestor slaves. Quartet No. 1, based on “Calvary” (Negro Spiritual) weaves together the dualism of his segregated world into one lucid harmonious dream.
...
Blue/s Forms for solo violin (1972) is a deep reverie of black experience as seen through the filter of Paganiniesque writing. Sanford Allen plays it with tender feeling. Equally luscious is Lamentations, a black/folk song suite for solo cello, played by Tahira Whittington.

Just before his death, Perkinson composed the last selection on the disc, Movement for String Trio. It is a profoundly sweet, sad, Barberesque, self-requiem for a man who should have been heard, and one hopes will be heard now — though he won’t be here to enjoy the long overdue recognition.

11 Additional Recordings
The Second and Fourth Movements of the composer's Lamentations are available on The Witness Collection, Clarion 9044 (2004) and on Dance Like the Wind: Music of Today's Black Composers, Clarion 906 (2004). The performers for both CDs are Anthony Elliot on cello and the Vocal Essence Ensemble under Conductor Philip Brunelle.

Perkinson's Sinfonietta for Strings, No. 2 (19:20) can be heard on Cedille 90000 066 (2003), performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta and conducted by Paul Freeman.

Pianist Karen Walwyn made a recording called Dark Fires, Albany Records 384 (2000). The program includes Perkinson's Sonata for Piano No. 2 (Statements).

The Fourth Movement of Perkinson's Lamentations is called Perpetual Motion. Cellist Michael Rudiakov and pianist Ron Levy have included it on their CD Cello Charms, Centaur 2192 (1993).

Many more compositions can be found in the Works list.

12 Works
Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma

A child's grace, for medium voice & piano. Melville: Edward B. Marks, 1977 (Anthology of art songs by Black American composers, ed. by Willis Patterson, p15). Text: Robert Herrick.

CD: Dina Cameryn Foy, soprano; Polly Brecht, piano. DCF Records (1996, Remembrance; African-American songs).

CD: Richard Heard, tenor; Pamela Howland, piano. HM Classics (1998; Ain’t a that good news?).

A short movement for treble instrument and piano (ca. 1952). New York: Tosci Music.

A warm December, his love, her daughter, their story; something to remember, incidental television music for Verdon Productions and National General (1972).

A woman called Moses, incidental television music, co-composed with Van McCoy (1978).

----- Voices, visions.

Alla burletta, to my grandson (1996).

Amazing grace, incidental film music for United Artists (1974).

And behold, for SATB (1948). Won: High School for Music and Art Choral Competition.
Angles

CD: Hamiett Bluiett, saxophone. Just 158-2 (2002, Bluiett blueback).

Attitudes, for tenor, violin, violoncello & piano (1963). New York: Tosci Music. 1. Sinfonia; introduction [text: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson]; 2. Ricercare I, on aloneness [text: Tu Fu, Lawrence Ferlingetti, e. e. cummings]; 3. Ricercare II,on death [text: Dyland Thomas, John Donne, Mei Tao Chen, Langston Hughes; 4. Ground, on love [text: John Drysen, Charles Cotton]; 5 Finale, on freedom [text: Langston Hughes, Thomas Paine, Margaret Walker, e. e. cummings; Boris Pasternak]. Commission: Ford Foundation (1962?), for George Shirley. Dedication: George Shirley. Première: 1964; New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art; George Shirley, tenor.

B. S., for jazz quintet. Instrumentation: trumpet, guitar, 2 percussion & double bass

LP: A&M Records SP-729.(1978)

Barbara McNair show, incidental television music (2 seasons, 1970-1971).

Bearden on Bearden, incidental music for television (1980). Nominated for an Emmy award, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in a Documentary (1985).

Belafonte '73.

LP:

Blues, for violin (1990).

Blue’s forms I, for violin & piano (1972). New York: Tosci Music; Melville: Belwin-Mills. 1. Plain blue/s; 2. Just blue/s; 3. Jettin’ blue/s. Dedication: Sanford Allen. Première:1972; New York, Carnegie Hall; Sanford Allen, violin.

CD: Roger Zahab, violin; Robert Frankenberry, piano (2001/VIII/6).

Blues forms II, for trumpet & orchestra.

Boardwalk, incidental film music (1979).

Brer soul.

LP: Melvin van Peebles.

Buked again. Première: 1994/V1; New York; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Burl’s tune, for flute & piano.

LP: Antara DM 9633.

Carmen, ballet (1973). Commission: Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Centerfold murders, incidental television music.

Ceremonies in dark old men, incidental television music for ABC Television (1974). New York: Tosci Music.

Commentary; a concert piece in two parts based on Troubled waters and the provocation of the age-old quest for equality, or violoncello & orchestra (1964). NewYork: Tosci Music. 85p. Commission: National Association of Negro Musicians. Dedication: Kermit Moore. Instrumentation: 2222 cbsn, 4231, perc, piano, strings. Dedication: Kermit Moore. Première: 1967; New York; Kermit Moore, cello; Symphony of the New World; Benjamin Steinberg, conductor.

Concerto, viola (1954). New York: Tosci Music. Graduate paper (M.M.) Manhattan School of Music, 1954. Dedication: Selwart Clarke. Première: 1964/VIII/11; National Association of Negro Musicians; Selwart Clark, viola; Orchestra of America; Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, conductor.

Concerto, violin.

Concerto, violoncello.

Crossroads Africa, incidental film music for the United States Information Agency (1962). New York: Tosci Music.

Delinkwit deliquent lipeup; 3 eastside miniatures, for flute & piano (1990). Commission: Harold Jones.

CD: Harold Jones, flute; Colette Valentine, piano. Leonarda LE 333 (1993, Let us break bread together).

Dunbar, for medium voice, SATB & orchestra. Text: Countee Cullen, Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dedication: Paul Laurence Dunbar.

9 Elizabethan love lyrics, for low voice & piano(c1952). Melville: Edward B. Marks, 1977 (Anthology of art songs by Black American composers, ed. by Willis Patterson). 1. The faithless shepherd [text: Robert Herrick]; 2. A child's game [text: John Fletcher]; 3. Melancholy [text: John Fletcher].

LP: Gasparo GAS 287.

----- 3. Melancholy.

AC: George Shirley, tenor; Christina Dahl, piano (1995/III/31, Lawrence University, Ben Holt Memorial Concert Series).

CD: Odikhiren Amaize, bass-baritone; David Korevaar, piano. Musicians’ Showcase MS 1011 (2000; The Negro speaks of rivers; Art songs by African-American composers).

Exercise; Dis go dis way, for jazz ensemble.

LP: A&M Records SP-729.(1978)

Fire, foment, ferment.

LP: Leon Bibb.

Forces of rhythm, ballet (1973). New York: Tosci Music. Commission: Dance Theatre of Harlem.

For Bird, with love, ballet (1984). Commission: American Dance Theater Foundation for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Freedom Road, incidental film music (1979).

Freedome-freedom, for SATB & chamber orchestra (1970). New York: Tosci Music, 1970.

----- for SATB & piano. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, Frank Music Corporation, 1970 (T-101). 40p.

----- for SATB, electric bass, percussion & 2 pianos.

From Montgomery to Memphis, incidental music for television.

Get Christive Love, incidental television music.

Gittin’ it good.

CD: Hamiett Bluiett, saxophone. Just 158-2 (2002, Bluiett blueback).

God is a (guess what)?, incidental music for the play by Ray McIver (1968). New York: Tosci Music.

Grass; a poem, for piano, percussion & strings (1956). New York: Tosci Music, 1973. 35p. (#120006-21). After texts by Carl Sandburg.

Happy birthday, Mrs. Craig, incidental film music for Harry Belafonte Enterprises (ca. 1971).

Humpback/

CD: Hamiett Bluiett, saxophone. Just 158-2 (2002, Bluiett blueback).

If he hollers, let him go, incidental film music for Cinerama (1968).

----- So tired.

LP: Tower S-5152.

It's time.

LP: Max Roach.

J. T., incidental television music (1972).

Lament, for viola & piano (c1955).

----- for flute & piano )1994).

Lamentation for JJ; ballad for Babs.

CD: Hamiett Bluiett, saxophone. Just 158-2 (2002, Bluiett blueback).

Lamentations; Black folksong suite, for violoncello (1973). New York: Tosci Music. 1. Fuging tune; 2. Song form; 3. Calvary ostinato; 4. Perpetual motion. Première [partial]: 1973/VI/5; New York, Alice Tully Hall; Ronald Lipscomb, cello.

----- 1. Fuging tune.

CD: Anthony Elliott, cello. Collins Classics 14542 (1996, Witness, vol. 3, Towards the future). Liner notes: Dominique-René de Lerma.

----- 2. Song form. Duration: 2:11.

CD: Anthony Elliott, cello. Clarion CLR 906 CD (2004; The witness collection; Dance like the wind). Liner notes: Dominique-René de Lerma.

CD: Anthony Elliott, cello. Collins Classics 14542 (1996, Witness, vol. 3, Towards the future). Liner notes: Dominique-René de Lerma.

----- 3. Calvary ostinato.

CD: Michael Rudiakov, cello. Centaur 2192.

----- 4. Perpetual motion. Duration: 5:02.

CD: Anthony Elliott, cello. Clarion CLR 906 CD (2004; The witness collection; Dance like the wind). Liner notes: Dominique-René de Lerma.

CD: Anthony Elliott, cello. Collins Classics 14542 == or 14762? But not no. 1(1996, Witness, vol. 3, Towards the future). Liner notes: Dominique-René de Lerma.

CD: Michael Rudiakov, cello. Centaur 2192.

Lena Horne; the lady and her music, music for Brodway production.

Like it is, incidental television music.

Lost in the stars, incidental television music.

Lou Rawls special, incidental television music for Winters-Rosen Production (1971).

Love is not enough, incidental television music (1978).

13 Love songs in jazz settings, for voice & piano (c1968). New York: Tosci Music. 1. Blues with a tag; 2. Blues; 3. Ad lib + tune; 4. Riff, no. 1; 5. Riff, no. 2; 6. To be?; 7. Seventh song; 8. In 4; 9. Nack beat; 10/ Riff, no. 3; 11. Ballad; 12. Ad lib + changes; 13. Abstract blues.

Malcachon, incidental music for the play by Derek Walcott (1969). New York: Tosci Music.

Man better man, incidental music for the play by Erroll Hill (1969). New York: Tosci Music.

McMillan and wife, incidental television music.

Memphis to Mobile, incidental film music.

Mercy, ballet (1986). Commission: Eleo Pomare Ballet Company.

3 Miniatures, for flute & piano. Duration: 7:57.

CD: Harold Jones, flute; Colette Valentine, piano. Leonarda LE 333 (1993, Let us break bread together).

Montgomery to Memphis, incidental film music.

More today than yesterday.

LP: Barbara McNair.

New perspectives.

LP: Donald Byrd.

Nightside, incidental television music (1972).

Mop/Mop, for orchestra.

CD: Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra; Jiri Mikula, conductor. Vienna Modern Masters VMM 3045 (1998, New music for orchestra).

New tune, for jazz ensemble.

LP: A&M Records SP-729 (1978).

Music mines, no. 1. NOT CLEAR==. 13 jazz-pop albums. 4 Bach Brandenburg 4 & 5.

Nightside, incidental television music.

Ode to Otis, ballet, for saxophone, electric guitar, electric bass, percussion, piano, violin & cello. New York: Tosci Music. Commission: Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theater of Harlem. Première: 1971.

Paul Draper on tap.

LP: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, piano. Hoctor Records HLP 4031.

Phoenix rising; birth, ballet (1987). Commission: Dance Theatre of Harlem. Première: 1987.

Plantin’ time. n.p.: MMI Music.

Psalm 23, for SSATB (ca. 1968).

Psalm 100, for SSA, brass & strings (c1949). New York: Tosci Music. Première: 1951; New York, Town Hall; St. Cecelia Club; Hugh Ross, conductor.

Quartet, strings, no. 1 "Calvary" (1951). New York: Tosci Music. Première: 1956.

Riffs, romps, and stomps in the form of prelude, canon, and postlude, for 12 violas.

Room 222, incidental television music for Twentieth-Century Fox, ABC Television.

Scherzo, piano (1952). New York: Tosci Music. Première: 1976.

CD: William Chapman Nyaho, piano (2003/VIII/03/03; Churchill College, University of Cambridge).

Seasons, for jazz ensemble.

LP: A&M Records SP-729.(1978)

Sinfonietta, no. 1, for strng orchestra (1953). New York: Tosci Music. 37p. 1. Allegro [4:00]; 2. Largo [5:00]; 3. Allegro furioso [7:00]. Duration: 16:00. Première: 1966; Hilversum; Radio Kammerorchester.

Sinfonietta, no. 2, “Generations” (1996,). New York: Tosci Music, 1998. 1. Misterioso – allegro; 2. Alla sarbande; 3. Alla burletta; 4. Allegro vivace. Commission: Michel Rudiakov and the Manchester Music Festival, Vermont. Première: 1996. Duration: 19:31.

CD: Chicago Sinfonietta; Paul Freeman, conductor. Cedille CDR 90000 066 (2002; African heritage symphonic series, v3). Liner notes: Dominique-René de Lerma.

Smile, co-composed with Paul Simon.

LP: Warner Brothers 2957-2.

Sonata, flute & piano. 1, Andante; Allegro;Meno mosso; 2. Slowly; 3. Rondo.

CD: Laura Falzon, flute; Mark Ray, piano (2003/VIII/02; Churchill College; University of Cambridge).

Sonata, piano, no. 1 (ca. 1965). New York: Tosci Music. Contents: 3 movements. Based on Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel?.

Sonata, piano, no. 2 .”Statements” (1975). New York: Belwin-Mills, 1977. Commission: Bicentennial Commission of the Washington Performing Arts Society. Première: 1979. 1. Sonata-allegro; 2. Theme and 8 variations, based on Another man don’ gone; 3,Rondo.

Duration: 17:01.

CD: Anthony Padilla, piano. CRI CD 823 (1999; A la par). Liner notes: Dominique-René de Lerma and Robert Schwarz. 18p.

CD: Karen Walwyn & Friends. Albany TROY 384 (2000, Dark fires, vol. 2).

Sonata à la Baroque, for flute & piano (1994). New York: Tosci Music, 1998.

Sonatina, percussion (ca. 1965). New York: Tosci Music. 1. Canons; 2. Song form; 3. Fugue.

Song of the Lusitanian bogey, incidental music to the play by Peter Weiss (1967), for the Negro Ensemble Company.

3 Songs of Robert Hillyer, for voice & piano (ca. 1952). New York: Tosci Music. 1. Serenade; 2. Madrigal; 3. Lullaby. Première: ca. 1952.

Songs to spring, for voice & piano (c1968). New York Tosci Music.

Splendid mummer, incidental music for the play by Lonnie Elder. Première: St. Louis.

Spiritual fantasy on Calvary, for flute & piano (1993).

Symphony of the Sphinx, for soprano, SATB &orchestra 1. The gathering; 2. The query; 3. Finale, the affirmation. Commission: ASCAP and the Texaco-Sphnx Competition. Text: Ego-tripping, by Nikki Giovanni (1970), Heritage, by Countee Cullen (1925). Première: 2002/II/11; Detroit, Orchestra Hall; Brenda Wimberly, soprano; The Brazeal Dennard Chorale, Our Own Thing Chorale, Sphinx Competition Orchestra; Leslie B. Dunner, conductor.

Talk to me, incidental film music (1982).

The Christ child, for SATB [?==] (1949). Première: 1949.

The education of Sonny Carson, incidental film music for Paramount Pictures (1974). 1. Where do I go from here?; 2. The robbery anmd the chace; 3. Exercise run; 4. Girl, girl, girl; 5. Daydreams; 6. The rumble; 7. Funeral; 8. Funeral parlor; 8. Please be there; 9. Flashbulbs; 10. Father and son; 11. The junkies; 13. A new direction; 14. End title.

CD: Paramount PAS 1045.

The Emperor Jones, incidental theater music. Commission: Pepsico Festival.

The great MacDaddy, incidental music for the play by Paul Carter Harrison (1974). New York: Tosci Music. Première: 1974/XII/1.

The legacy, for narrator, voice, chorus & orchestra (1982).

The McMasters, tougher than the West itself; the blood crowd, incidental film music for Jayjean Productions (1969).

The touch of time.

LP: Tamla/Motown M 1087 (1965).

Thomasine and Bushrod, incidental film music for Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers (1974).

To Damascus, incidental music to the play by August Strindberg (1960).

Toccata, piano, C major (1953). Melville: Belwin-Mills, 1973. Dedication: Samuel DilworthLeslie. Première: 1975/VIII/6; Washington, National Gallery of Art, James Pettis, piano. Duration: 2:26.

CD: Michael Kim, piano. CRI CD 823 (1999; A la par). Liner notes: Dominique-René de Lerma and Robert Schwarz. 18p.

CD: William Chapman Nyaho, piano. Musicians Showcase MS-1091 (2003, Senku; Piano music by composers of African descent). Liner notes: Maya Amgelou, William Chapman Nyaho.

Together for days, incidental film music for Independent Productions (1972).

Troubled waters, for SATB & jazz band. Written for Max Roach.

Up, up, up.

LP: Donald Byrd.

6 Variants on a Black folk tune, for flute & piano (1993). Commission: Harold Jones.

CD: Ankara DM 9633.

Variations and fugue on The ash Grove, for violin & piano (early 1950s). New York: Tosci Music.

Vever, ballet (1984).

We’re family fittin’ in, incidental television music.

You’re gonna love my baby, co-composed with Ronald Miller and Barbara McNair.

LP: Tamla/Motown M 1087.

Zippin’

CD: Hamiett Bluiett, saxophone. Just 158-2 (2002, Bluiett blueback).

13 Bibliography
Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma

“Concerto for viola, no. 1; New York” in Music journal, v22 (1964/X) p65.

“Concerto for viola, no. 1; Orchestra of America” in Musical America, v84 (1964/IX) p44-45.

“New Black Music Repertory Ensemble” in CBMR digest, v15n1 (2002/spring) p7,15.

Abdul-Rahim, Raoul. “Spotlight on Black composers” in Blacks in classical music. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1977, p57-59.

Abdul-Rahim, Raoul. Blacks in classical music; A personal history. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1977.

ASCAP biographical dictionary, 4^th ed. New York: Jacques Cattell, 1980.

Baker, David. The Black composer speaks, by David Baker, Lida Belt, and Herman Hudson. Metuchen: Scarecrwo Press, 1978.

Banfield, William C. Landscapes in color; Conversations with Black American composers. Landham MD.: Scarecrow Press, 2003. xvi, 380p. ISBN 0-8108-3706-4.

Berry, Lemuel, Jr. Biographical dictionary of Black musicians and music educators, vol. 1. Guthrie OK: Educational Book Publishers, 1978.

Black music research journal, 1980, p5; 1981-2, p46

Black perspective in music, v3n1, p123; v3n3, [310, 318, 347; v5n2, p239, 237; v6n2, p239; v14n1, p38, 47, 57, 59, 72, 82

Bogle 1989, p114

Breda, Malcolm J. “Perkinaon, Coleridge-Taylor” in International dictionary of Black composers, ed. by Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999, v2, p905-913.

Brooks, Tilford. America’s Black musical heritage. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1984.

Bull 1974,

Bull, Storm. Index to biographies of contemporary composers, vol. 3. Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1987. xxiv, 854p. ISBN 0-8108-1930-9.

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