“Historical Anthology of Music by Women”
The musical style of Julia Perry includes various compositional techniques. Although some of her music reflects her Black heritage, many of her major works, especially the later ones, make liberal use of dissonance and unconventional harmonies. Perry’s compositions include symphonies, operas, chamber works, choral anthems, art songs, and arrangements of spirituals.
Julia Perry was a native of Lexington, Kentucky, but grew up in Akron, Ohio, where she received her first musical training. Her musical sensitivity was strongly shaped by the influence of a local voice teacher. Perry subsequently studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Although composition was the area in which she showed the greatest talent, she also studied piano, violin, voice, and conducting. She found conducting a rewarding means of expressing her artistic ideas. She also earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at Westminster Choir College.
Two Guggenheim fellowships afforded Perry the opportunity to study in Europe. The first was awarded in 1952, allowing her to study with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence (she had studied with him at Tanglewood during the summer of 1951) and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, during which time she received the Boulanger Grand Prix at Fontainebleau for a viola sonata. The second fellowship, awarded in 1955, permitted additional study with Dallapiccola in Italy. In 1957 Perry organized a concert tour of European cities under the sponsorship of the United States Information Agency. The concerts were acclaimed by a number of European critics.
When Perry returned to the United States she continued to compose and teach. She held positions at Florida A. & M. University in Tallahassee and the Atlanta University Center. Among her prizes are a 1964 American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, and a 1969 Honorable Mention in the ASCAP Awards to women composers for symphonic and concert music. An illness necessitated Perry’s early retirement, and her last years were spent in seclusion in Akron.
Perry’s unconventional style is revealed in Homunculus C.F., a chamber work for percussion, harp, and piano in which she fittingly used a logical structure to contain the unorthodox. The work was composed during the summer of 1960 in Perry’s apartment, which was located on the top floor of an office building belonging to her father, a medical doctor. According to Perry’s record jacket notes for this piece, the clinical surroundings reminded her of “the medieval laboratory” in which Wagner, Faust’s young apprentice in alchemy, fashioned and brought to life “a creature he called homunculus (Latin for ‘little man’).”
Perry used percussion instruments for her musical imitation of a test-tube creation. She maneuvered and distilled them “by means of the chord of the fifteenth (C.F.)” and brought her musical test-tube being to life. The structural chord is built on E and consists of a major third, a perfect fifth, a major seventh (with a minor seventh appearing frequently in one section), a major ninth, an augmented eleventh, a major thirteenth, and an augmented fifteenth. Perry described her work as a “pantonal” composition. Homunculus C.F. has four sections: one rhythmic (mm. 1-40), one primarily melodic (mm.61-94), one primarily harmonic (mm.95-105), and one that combines these three elements (mm. 106-80).
The first half of the first section serves as an introductory passage (mm. 1-20). The main feature of this section is a rhythmic canon. Melodic material is introduced by the timpani in a transitional passage beginning at m.41. The third, seventh, and ninth of the structural chord of the fifteenth are also introduced in this transition leading to the second section. The root of the C.F.—the chord of the fifteenth—is presented in the second section. The three tones presented in the transition are continued here, and the fifth is added. A brief chord by the harp (mm.76-80) anticipates the harmonic section.
The third section is based on the E7 and E9 chords. The fundamental idea of the work is further demonstrated here as the chord of the fifteenth continues to build. The final section combines the three elements (rhythm, melody, harmony) and continues the presentation of the tones of the C.F. until the entire chord appears in m.177. Great energy and strength are suggested with the ascending pitches, increasing volume, and rapid tempo leading to a sudden climactic ending, which can be equated with birth and the successful completion of the “experiment.”
Other works of particular note by Perry include Stabat Mater for contralto and string orchestra or string quartet (1951); Ye Who Seek the Truth, an anthem for tenor solo, mixed chorus, and organ with text by the composer (1952); Song of Our Saviour, an anthem for unaccompanied mixed chorus with text by the composer (1953); The Cask of Amontillado, a one-act opera performed at Columbia University in 1954; Symphony No. 1 (1959); Pastoral, for flute and string quartet (1962); The Selfish Giant, a three-act opera and ballet (1964); and Symphony No. 8 (1968).
Perry’s works reflect the variety of sources that formed her musical vocabulary. Her eclectic style makes use of the Black idiom, traditional European techniques, and twentieth-century methods.
Recording
Homunculus C.F. Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Paul Price. Composers Recordings, Inc. CRI S-252.
Further Reading
Abdul, Raoul. Blacks in Classical Music. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1977.
Green, Mildred Denby. Black Women Composers: A Genesis. Boston: Twayne Publishers (a division of G. K. Hall & Co.), 1983. (This essay was adapted from pp. 71-77.)
Southern, Eileen. Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982.
——. The Music of Black Americans: A History. New York: W. W. Norton & . Co., 1983.
Copyright © 1966 by Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
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