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Irene Britton Smith

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Irene Britton Smith (December 22, 1907 – February 15, 1999) was an American classical composer and educator.[1]

Biography

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Childhood and youth

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Irene Britton Smith was born on December 22, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois as the youngest of four siblings.[2][3] She was of African-American, Crow, and Cherokee descent.[3][1] Smith attended Ferron Grammar School, Doolittle Grammar School, and Wendell Phillips High School.[2][3][1][4]

Adult life

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Smith wanted to study music at Northwestern University but her family could not afford to send her there.[3][1] Instead, she attended Chicago Normal School from 1924–1926 to train as a teacher.[3][1][2] In 1930 she began teaching primary grades in Chicago public schools.[5][2][3] She married Herbert E. Smith (d. December 28, 1975) on August 8, 1931.[6] Smith was an advocate of the phono-visual method of teaching reading and Chicago University Press published her monograph on the topic, Methods and Materials for Teaching Word Perception in Kindergarten Through Grade Three, in 1960.[2] She retired from teaching in June 1978 and became a docent for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at elementary schools.[7][2][8][1] In 1994 Smith moved to Montgomery Place Retirement Home in Chicago.[1] She died in Chicago on February 15, 1999.[2][1][9]

Musical activity

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As a child Smith studied piano with V. Emanuel Johnson and took violin lessons.[10][3][1] She was active as a violinist in the all-black Harrison Farrell Orchestra from 1930 to 1931.[3][1] From 1932 to 1943 she was a part-time student at the American Conservatory of Music,[8] where she studied music theory with Stella Roberts and composition with Leo Sowerby.[11][2][3][1] She received a Bachelor of Music degree from the American Conservatory of Music in 1943.[2][1][12]

From 1946 to 1947 Smith took a sabbatical from teaching to complete graduate work at the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied composition with Vittorio Giannini.[2][3][1] In the summer of 1948, Smith studied composition at the Eastman School of Music with Wayne Barlow.[1] The following summer she studied composition with Irving Fine while attending the Tanglewood Music Festival.[1][2] In 1956 Smith completed her Master of Music degree at DePaul University, where she studied composition with Leon Stein.[3][2][1] In the summer of 1958, she studied composition with Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau Summer School in France.[2][13][3][8][1] Smith ceased composing in 1962,[2][8] but her works continued to be performed during her lifetime.[3][14]

Works

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This is a list of works by Smith.[15]

Violin

  • Reminiscence for violin, piano, 1941
  • Sonata for Violin and Piano, 1947 (published by Vivace Press in 1996)

Piano

  • Invention in Two Voices, 1940
  • Passacaglia and Fugue in C-sharp Minor, 1940 (published by Vivace Press in 2001)
  • Nocturne, 1945
  • Variations on a Theme by MacDowell, 1947 (published by Vivace Press in 2001)
  • Two Short Preludes for Piano, 1953 (published by Vivace Press in 2001)
  • Fugue in A Flat Major, n.d.
  • Prelude, n.d.
  • Preludes I and II (arrangement of Béla Bartók), n.d.

Instrumental ensemble

  • Fugue in G minor, for violin, viola, cello, 1938

Orchestra

  • Sinfonietta, 1956
  • Autumnal Reverie, n.d.
  • Sonata No. III (arrangement of Edvard Grieg), n.d.
  • Three Fantastic Dances (arrangement of Dmitri Shostakovich), n.d.
  • Untitled-Variations on a Theme, n.d.

Solo voice

  • Dream Cycle for soprano, piano (song cycle, text by Paul Laurence Dunbar) 1947
  • "Let Us Break Bread Together" for baritone/soprano/mezzo (spiritual), 1948
  • "Trees of the Night" for soprano, piano, 1954
  • "The Angel Roll the Stone Away" for voice, piano (spiritual, incomplete), n.d.
  • "Psalm 121" for voice, piano (incomplete), n.d.

Vocal ensemble

  • "Born Free" for two voices (spiritual), n.d.
  • "Let Us Break Bread Together" for mezzo, soprano, baritone (spiritual), n.d.
  • "Not a Word" for solo voice and four male voices (spiritual), n.d.
  • "Panis Angelicus" for three voices, n.d.
  • "Psalm 25" for three female voices, n.d.
  • "Swing Low" and "Were You There" for three female voices (combined spirituals), n.d.

Chorus

  • "God Is Our Refuge/Psalm 46" for SATB, solo baritone, piano, 1940
  • "Fairest Lord Jesus" for SA, organ, 1945 (hymn, published by G. Schirmer in 1946)
  • "Born Anew" for SATB, solo baritone, organ, 1952
  • "Good Morning" for unison voices, piano, n.d.
  • "It's Me, O Lord" for SSA (spiritual), n.d.
  • "Psalm 130" for SATB, organ, n.d.
  • "The Story of Crosspatch" for SATB, n.d.

Discography

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Bibliography

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  • Methods and Materials for Teaching Word Perception in Kindergarten through Grade Three. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. Reprinted in Albert J. Mazurkiewicz, New Perspectives in Reading Instruction (1964).

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Smith, Irene Britton". AfriClassical. Retrieved 2025-06-02.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Guide to the Irene Britton Smith Collection" (2024). Prepared for the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago. Retrieved 2025-06-02.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Janevic, Sophia (2021). "Irene Britton Smith". Song of America. Retrieved 2025-06-02.
  4. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 193.
  5. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 193.
  6. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 194.
  7. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 196.
  8. ^ a b c d "Irene Britton Smith". Art Song Augmented. 2024-08-26. Retrieved 2025-06-02.
  9. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 197.
  10. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 193.
  11. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 194.
  12. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 195.
  13. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, p. 195.
  14. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, pp. 191–192.
  15. ^ Walker-Hill 2002, pp. 211–213.

Sources

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  • Helen, Walker-Hill, (2002). From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313299471. OCLC 47690158.
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