Broadcast News

• Published in: Women & music (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2001-06, Vol.7 (3), p.62
• Main Authors: Shaffer, Jeanne E, Sunn, Casper
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advertisements; African Americans; Composers; Mental depression; Music; Singing; Spouses; Women
• ISSN: 1090-7505; 1553-0612

The impetus for this article was a note from [Beth Nielsen Chapman]'s mother, Dee Nielsen. While driving home from Birmingham she heard a recording of her daughter singing "Dancer to the Drum" on my program, "Eine kleine Frauenmusik." Chapman was one of the women composers I had chosen to say a musical "Thank You" for mothers on Mothers' Day. In "Dancer to the Drum," in the "You Hold the Key" album, Chapman says each of us comes into the world, "an innocent dancer to the drum of a mother's heart." To celebrate the wonderful diversity of holidays, I hosted a three-hour program on December 25, 2000, which featured music for Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. The works for Winter Solstice included the electro-acoustic Winter by Wendy Carlos, the "Winter Solstice" movement from Kay Gardner's Ouroboros, Red and Green by Maddy Prior, and In the Winter by Janis Ian. The lives and music of two African-American singers, Mahalia Jackson and Odetta, were honored for Kwanzaa with their performance of several traditional Christmas spirituals; and Joan Baez's performance of XLight a Light by Janis Ian was presented to honor the Kwanzaa candles. Songs for Christmas included "Christmas Wish" by Patricia Cathcart Andress, three original Christmas pieces by Liona Boyd, "Christmas" by Violet Archer, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" by Gloria Shaynes, and "As It Fell Upon a Night" by Katherine K. Davis, as well as two different arrangements of her "Little Drummer Boy" (performed by Joan Baez, and also by the Hampton String Quartet). A special feature of the program was the presentation of Shelley Olson's newly released Chanukah Cantata (narrated version) in its entirety. Another Hanukkah selection included the traditional "Hanerot Halalu" performed by Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, and Cindy Mangsen. To honor the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on January 15, the lives and music of five African-American women composers were presented: the spiritual jazz/classical music of Alice Coltrane (including her solo harp and piano pieces as well as her orchestral arrangements); vintage blues and jazz by Lovie Austin; swing band pieces and songs by Lil Hardin Armstrong; classical art songs by Margaret Bonds; and contemporary blues by Gaye Adegbalola (from "Saffire -- The Uppity Blues Women"). It was rewarding to receive calls from fans of John Coltrane and Louis Armstrong who said they had not known about the talents of their less-visible wives. (Lil Armstrong once said that on