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SWANSON, HOWARD (1907 - 1978)
Howard Swanson was born in Atlanta in 1907,
but moved with his parents in 1916 to Cleveland. He saved enough
money to enroll at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he
studied with Ward Lewis and Herbert Elwell. A grant made it possible for him to continue his studies with Nadia Boulanger in
France, but this was terminated by the Nazi invasion. Swanson left
Paris by foot, leaving his music behind, one day before the city fell
to the Nazis. It took him over a year of travels through Spain and
Portugal to make his way back to the United States.
Swanson was virtually unknown until Marian Anderson
included his setting of The Negro Speaks of Rivers at Carnegie Hall
in 1949, and then the New York Critics Circle decided American
composers were now well enough advanced that they could bestow
their annual award on a local composer. Swanson was selected, and
his Short Symphony was acclaimed the best new work performed in
New York during the 1950-51 season. It was during this period that
Joy was composed, soon becoming known by the recordings of
Helen Thigpen, and of Phalese Tassie, and often performed by
baritone Ben Holt
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