Clarence Cameron White Biography

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The Prominent Clarence Cameron White Born in Clarksville, Tennessee on August 10, 1880, Clarence Cameron White was a very renowned African American neoromantic composer and violinist. As a child White moved around a bit, moving from Oberlin, Ohio, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to Washington, D.C. At the early age of eight, Clarence began to study violin, and at age fourteen he wrote his first composition for violin and piano. Within four years of studying violin, White was studying with an accomplished violinist, Will Marion Cook who influenced him. After a year of attending Howard University, Clarence enrolled in Oberlin Conservatory in 1896 and graduated in 1901.While studying and traveling across the world, White began to grab the attention …show more content…

Washington, and Harry T. Burleigh.
The style of White’s compositions began to change as he progressed in life. When he first started composing music, his compositions were “neoromantic”. However, as he traveled around the world and his social circle expanded, he gravitated towards so called “black folk” music as inspiration and for music material. Among his many great compositions, his piece “Chant, Op 12, No. 1 "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" is one that has influenced many individuals. The form of the song starts softly with the low pitches of the piano and then the violin accompanies it. Around two minutes into the song, the pitches of the violin changes to very high pitched for about forty seconds, and then the song goes back to its normal texture until the song ends. The texture of the song is polyphonic. As the violin is the instrument that is the main instrument in this piece, the piano accompanies it with its harmony of low and high pitches. When the song starts, the melody is a what catches the audience’s attention. The song starts with low piano