Symphony No. 4 "Autochthonous"

Moderately. The symphony opens with a broad, singing theme that leans on the flattened, sighing notes of the blues. Still lets it grow by repetition and reorchestration rather than argument, so the movement feels like a landscape widening out. Watch for the way a solo wind takes the tune and the strings answer underneath.

Slowly. The slow movement is the emotional center: a long, quiet melody carried mostly by strings, with harmonies that lean toward hymn and spiritual without quoting either. Textures stay thin, so individual instruments stand out clearly.

Rather fast. A short, light scherzo driven by dance rhythms, with syncopation of the kind that makes you expect a beat where none arrives. Woodwinds chatter, percussion punctuates, and the whole thing is over quickly.

Moderately. The finale returns to the mood and material of the opening movement, gathering the symphony's melodies into a warm, affirming close rather than a violent one. The last pages build steadily to a full-orchestra statement of the main tune.

The whole symphony runs under half an hour, and the writing is transparent throughout: melody on top, clear accompaniment beneath, little that asks you to untangle it.

Still (1895 to 1978) was the first African American composer to have a symphony played by a leading American orchestra, when the Rochester Philharmonic performed his Symphony No. 1 "Afro-American" in 1931. He went on to write four more symphonies alongside operas, ballets, and a great deal of commercial arranging work in radio and film.

The Fourth Symphony carries the subtitle "Autochthonous," a word meaning native to the soil, indigenous to a place. Still's concern was with an American musical language grown from American sources rather than imported from Europe, and the symphony is his attempt to portray a national character in purely orchestral terms.

Like most of Still's later scores it was overshadowed for decades by the "Afro-American" Symphony. Renewed interest in his catalog since the 2000s has brought the Fourth back onto programs, and it now turns up regularly with American orchestras.