reflect her intensive study of Indian classical music and dance, especially Bharata Natyam dance–drama. During this time she studied and worked with Swati Bhise’s dance company, performing as Nattuvanar (vocalist/rhythmic reciter). These idioms imaginatively enrich Shield’s large-scale vocal works. Apocalypse ( 1994 ), an electronic opera for live and recorded singers, is unique for its combination of standard operatic dramaturgy with a multilingual libretto, electronic “chorus” and accompaniment, and Indian rhythmic structures. Indian ragas are juxtaposed with Nancy
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Sandra Jean Graham
caricatures of crap-shooting, razor-wielding African Americans. Of the few piano solos he published, Johnson was proudest of African Drum Dance no.1 ( 1928 , later scored for orchestra). He created piano and vocal arrangements for more than 150 spirituals, which were published in The Book of American Negro Spirituals ( 1925 ) and The Second Book of American Negro Spirituals ( 1926 ), compiled with his brother, and subsequently in Shout Songs ( 1936 ), Rolling Along in Song: a Chronological Survey of American Negro Music ( 1937 ), Sixteen New Negro Spirituals
