William L. Dawson

Musicologist Brown’s (music, Univ. of Puget Sound) contribution to University of Illinois Press’s “American Composers” series brings welcome attention to William Levi Dawson (1899–1990), celebrated for his composed spiritual arrangements, decades of music administration and conducting at Tuskegee Institute, and recent plaudits for the unjustly neglected Negro Folk Symphony of 1934. She combines a straightforward biography with chapters exploring musical selections while skillfully traversing Dawson’s development amid challenges that he and other Black artists of the 20th century faced. Vignettes such as Dawson’s running away from home so he could attend Tuskegee and his trips to West Africa and Spain to expand his horizons contrast with his efforts to defend his copyrights and to be taken seriously as a composer. Charming photographs, reproductions of sheet music, a works list, discography, and an extensive bibliography round out the volume. This well-crafted title about Dawson joins Mark Hugh Malone’s 2023 book William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator, which Brown cites. Malone benefitted from interviews with Dawson, while Brown complements Malone’s work with her focus on details of Dawson’s musical compositions.