William Levi Dawson, born in 1899, was educated at Tuskegee Institute, the Horner Institute of Fine Arts, and the American Conservatory, and wrote his own "Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony" in 1934. He began publishing and recording his arrangements of traditional African-American spirituals in 1955 and they are now considered to be some of the finest examples of the genre. Here are a selection of his finest works for unaccompanied mixed voices. Recommended! |