Earl Louis Stewart

• Comment: Lacks citations from secondary sources unrelated to the subject that attest to sustained coverage. — CurryTime7-24 (talk) 23:03, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

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Earl Louis Stewart, DMA
Born	(1950-08-11) August 11, 1950 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Alma mater	The University of Texas at Austin
Occupations	American Composer musicologist author professor emeritus
Awards	Global Music Awards (2018, 2022)
Website	Official Site

Dr. Earl Louis Stewart (born August 11, 1950) is an author, essayist, poet, Professor Emeritus of The College of Creative Studies and the Black Studies department at the University of California Santa Barbara, and an American composer of intellectual jazz as represented by the American Composer's Alliance. In the past fifty years, Stewart has written several hundred compositions for chamber ensembles, chamber orchestras, symphony orchestras, quartets, soloists, and choir.

In December 2003, Stewart experienced a life-altering and near-fatal event when he contracted Guillain–Barré syndrome, a debilitating neurological disorder. The lingering effects of the syndrome have left him with residual paralysis, thereby ending his career as a conductor.

Biography

Stewart’s career began age fourteen when writing head arrangements with pick-up bands headlined by visiting black-soul artists from across the United States, and performing as a trumpeter with notables like Percy Sledge, Syl Johnson, King Floyd, Garland Green amongst others traveling on the Chitlin' Circuit.

Stewart then attended Southern University Baton Rouge’s Jazz Institute, studying jazz composition under the guidance and mentorship of jazz great Alvin Batiste, followed by receiving his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin. There Stewart studied Western-European-classical-music composition with composer Karl Korte, orchestrator and author Kent Kennan, ethnomusicologist Gerard Béhague, and Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwantner.

Stewart's compositions have been performed at venues worldwide, such as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in New York; Heineken Jazz Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel; Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Alabama; the Sixth Annual Biennial International and Symposium Festival on New Intercultural Music at the University of London. Notables who have performed select pieces of Stewart's compositions include saxophonist Cannonball Adderly, clarinetist Alvin Batiste, Actor Moses Gunn, choreographer Chuck Davis, and mezzo-soprano Barbara Conrad.

Stewart has authored three books on music, including African American Music: An Introduction, a comprehensive study of African American music spanning from the Civil War to the present. He has contributed numerous articles examining African American music's aesthetic and theoretical significance. Stewart's publications include “African-American Music” in the Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism "Towards an Aesthetic of Black Musical Expression" in the Journal of Aesthetic Education, "Pan-African Classicism and Scott Joplin" in the Texas Journal, “Otis Redding” in Popular Musicians, and "Coleridge-Taylor: Concatenationalism and Essentialism in an Anglo-African Composer" in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter of Philosophy and the Black Experience.

Compositional style

Stewart's compositional style is built on the cultural foundation of the urban-folk traditions of African-American music dating back to the emancipation of slaves: including spirituals, ragtime, blues, New Orleans jazz, boogie-woogie, swing, be-bop, post-bop, avant-garde jazz, soul, funk, and Neo-soul music. Additionally, Stewart incorporates the rhythmic counterpoint of African and African-derived music and the notational precision of Western classical music's and its pitch counterpoint. Some of his most recent compositions have integrated baroque contrapuntal resources, resulting in the expansion of, and in some cases, the creation of new forms such as double, triple, quadruple, and quintuple jazz fugues, jazz rounds, canonic, and double and triple canonic swings.

Select compositions

Chamber Ensemble

• Rhythm Sonata No. 1-13 (2006-2021) for flute, drum set, harp, and strings
• Baching the Blues (2007) for flute and harp
• Bop'n the Rag Blues (2022) for flute and piano
• Blues Invention (2007) for flute and harp
• Inventions Sacred and Profane (2007) for vibraphone and violoncello
• Rag and Fugue (2003) for violin, violoncello, and double bass
• Three Rags for Flute and Piano (2018) for flute and piano

Chamber Orchestra

• The Portal (2016)
• Elton's Nocturne (2000)
• Corsica (2007)
• Corsica (2007)
• Nakupenda - Identity 19.2 (1989)
• Undulations (1986)
• Vicissitudes of Life (2007)
• Amazing Grace (1997)
• Katrina Lament - Identity 113 (2006) on ACA
• Katrina Lament - Identity 113b (2006)
• Elegy for Mr. Alvin Batiste (2007)
• Canonic Swings Vol 1-7 (2020-2023)
• Budding Rose Rag (2020)
• Dark Beauty (2007)
• Journey to the Seat of the Master (1999)
• The Beautiful Pearl Ragtime (2009)
• Friends Forever (2009)
• The Dawning of Spring (1990)
• Three Rag Offerings (2008)
• Trip of Love Fantasy (1988)
• Jazz Fugue for Flute and Strings (1989)
• Undulations (1986)
• Asante Sana Sana on ACA

Symphony Orchestra

• Glimpses (1981)
• Diminished Fantasy (2011)
• Trip of Love (1988)
• Swing for Violin & Orchestra (2009)
• Double Fugue on a Theme by Duke Ellington (2021)
• Vernacular Variations (1998)
• Blues Prelude and Fugue (2020)

Jazz Symphony

• Symphony
  • No. 1 F minor
  • No. 2 E minor
  • No. 3 D minor
  • No. 4: Juneteenth
  • No. 5 Homage to Swing
  • N0. 6 Ragtimes Vol I&II
  • No. 8 Echoes from a Simpler Time
  • No. 9 Five Musicals Prayers
  • No. 15 New Beginning
  • Jazz Passacaglia (2021)

Piano Works

• Afro-Inventions for Piano: Volume I, II (1993)
• Song for Annell - A Blues Fantasy (1982) for piano on YouTube
• Tangulizi Kabala Ya Nisha Kuu: Preludes before dissertations (1981)
• Afro Fugues in 3 Parts (2012)
• Classic Rags Book 1 (2003)

Piano Rags

• 4 Canonic Rags
• Beauty in Darkness Rag

Oratorio / Cantata

• Al-Inkishafi (1984)
• Chrismons-Jazz Cantata

Chorus

Deep River (Ricercare) (2008) for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass chorus

Symphonic Poem

• Genesis - Identity 175 (2022) for orchestra, SATB choir, and narrator

Other

• Twenty-Eight Spiritual Preludes for Diverse Media

Awards

• The Eccles Centre for American Studies, British Library, London, England, Travel Grant Award, November 2009.
• UCSB Academic Senate, Travel Grant Award, November 2009.
• Outstanding Faculty Member, nominated by residence hall students of UCSB; May 1997.
• Certificate for "Celebration of Black Scholarship in New England," in recognition of distinguished scholastic achievement; sponsored by the University of Massachusetts, Boston, 1992.

• Fulbright Scholarship as senior lecturer with the National Commission on Culture and the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan African Culture, Ghana, West Africa, 1991-1992.
• Two-month extension of the Fulbright Fellowship, 1992.
• Composition Grant by “Meet the Composer,” 1990.
• Global Music Awards 2018 Gold Medal winner for Homage to Swing - Composer Counterpoint Classical/Jazz - 2022 Silver Medal winner for Symphony #2 in E Minor (Identity 54)

Bibliography

Books

• African American Music:  An Introduction, New York:  Cengage Learning (formerly Schirmer Books; London:  Prentice Hall International), 1998. ISBN 10: 0028602943  |  ISBN 13: 9780028602943

• The Art of Soul Music: 1960-1980. A Musicological Perspective (Preliminary Edition) Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, IA, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-7575-9999-6

• Vernacular Harmony: San Diego, CA:  University Readers, an imprint of Cognella, 2010 ISBN: 978-1-60927-783-3

• Eclectic Fables: Seven Tales from the Black Experience, Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse (formerly known as 1st Books Library, San Bernardino, CA), 2002 ISBN: 978-1-40331-940-1

Articles

• “Pan-African Classicism and Scott Joplin,” Texas Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp 12-15, Fall/Winter 1991. Print.*
• “The Black Rhythmic Conception,” Uhuru, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp 68 -69, Ghana, West Africa 1992. Print.
• “A Case For The NSO,” Uhuru,  Vol. 5, No. 6, pp 43-45, Ghana, West Africa 1993. Print.
• “African-American Music,” Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism, pp 1199-1203, Salem Press, Pasadena, California 1993. Print.

• “Celebrating Black History Month,” Progressions (newsletter), pp 1-2, Berklee College of Music, Winter 1993. Print.

• “From the Lone Star to the Black Star,” Berklee Today: A Forum for Contemporary Music and Musicians, pp 8, Berklee College of Music, Spring 1993. Print.
• Duran, Jane and Earl Stewart, “Toward an Aesthetic of Black Musical Expression,” Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 31, No. 1, University of Illinois, Spring 1997.  http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8510(199721)31%3A1%3C73%3ATAAOBM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P
• Duran, Jane and Earl Stewart. “Form and Nigrecence in African and Afro-North American Arts,” Art & Academe, Vol. 9, No. 1, Visual Arts Press, Summer 1997. Print.
• “Otis Redding,” Popular Musicians, pp 890-892, Salem Press, Inc., April 1999. Print.
• Stewart, Earl and Jane Duran. “Black Essentialism:  The Art of Jazz Rap,” Philosophy of Music Education Review," Volume 7, No. 1, Spring 1999. Print. www.iupress.indiana.edu/journals/pmer/pmetoc7.html

• Stewart, Earl and Jane Duran. “Coleridge-Taylor:  Concatenationism and Essentialism in an Anglo-African Composer,” American Philosophical Association Newsletter, Vol. 99, No. 1, Fall 1999.   www.apa.udel.edu/apa/publications/newsletters/v99n1/blackexperience/article-stewart.asp

• Harris, Leonard, editor, Jane Duran, and Earl Stewart, contributors. The Critical Pragmatism of Alain Locke:  A Reader on Value Theory, Aesthetics, Community, Culture, Race, and Education, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999.  www.rowmanlittlefield.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtmlcommand=Search&db=%5EDB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0847688089&thepassedurl=%5Bthepassedurl%5D

• Duran, Jane and Earl Stewart. “Scott Joplin and the Quest for Identity,” Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 94-99, Summer 2007. Print.

Discography

CD

From the Heart: The Music of Earl Louis Stewart (2007)

• Eclectic String Studio Orchestra, Molly Buzick, conductor
  • Inkishafi Records and Publishing: CD Baby / Inkishafi 4004

DVD

• Eclectic Musings: 3rd Annual Nakupenda Valentine's Concert (2006)
  • Piano Compositions, Poetry, and Short Stories, Earl Stewart, music director
  • Regents of the University of California UCTV 4315
• Bach in the Hood: 4th Annual Nakupenda Concert (2008)
  • Eclectic String Studio Orchestra, Earl Stewart, composer
  • UC Santa Barbara Department of Music, Center for Black Studies, College of Creative Studies
  • Regents of the University of California UCTV 15115

External Links

• Official Site

• American Composers Alliance
• Amazing Grace Documentary IMDb
  

Summary

File information

Description	English: Earl Louis Stewart, circa 1984, University of Texas at Austin, for Al-Inkishafi press.
Source	Own work
Date	2023-07-17
Author	Daddy4Nola2017
Permission (Reusing this file)	See below.