April 21 | Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Toccata, performed by Yoshino Toi
Trouble viewing the video? Click here to watch it on IU Media Collections Online.
About the composer and piece
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) was an American composer, conductor, and teacher. His parents named him after the groundbreaking Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) whose compositions in standard European genres as well as African-American idioms inspired younger generations of Black American composers. Particularly notable among the number of ensembles Perkinson helped lead throughout his career is the Symphony of the New World, which he co-founded. Established in the wake of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Symphony of the New World was the first racially integrated orchestra of the United States.
The Toccata (1953) reflects Perkinson’s affinity for Baroque music, modernism, and blues. Phrases packed with perpetual motion, lively dance rhythms, and capricious leaps culminate in thick chords that virtuosically celebrate points of arrival. Melodic fragments drawn from a blues scale add a complementary element of groove.
Perkinson’s music is published by Keiser Southern Music which specializes in contemporary American music. They also publish the piano music of George Walker (listen back to Walker’s Sonata No. 2 performed by Noah Sonderling earlier in our series)! Perkinson’s Toccata was also included in Volume 5 of Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by the Ghanaian-American pianist and teacher William Chapman Nyaho. This sheet music anthology, organized in five volumes by increasing difficulty, is an invaluable resource for piano performers and teachers. In this documentary/concert/interview, Nyaho presents excerpts of dozens of pieces from this anthology and talks about how his anthology came to fruition. Also, check out Nyaho’s excellent recording of the Perkinson Toccata!
About this week’s performer
Yoshino Toi is an active performer, collaborator, and educator. Currently, Yoshino is pursuing a Master of Music degree at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University under the tutelage of Professor Norman Krieger, while serving as an Associate Instructor. Before her graduate studies, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree from The Hartt School while attending on a full scholarship studying with Dr. David Westfall.