Irene Britton Smith

Irene Britton Smith (December 22, 1907 – February 15, 1999) was an American classical composer and educator.
Biography
Childhood and youth
Irene Britton Smith was born on December 22, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois as the youngest of four siblings. She was of African-American, Crow, and Cherokee descent. Smith attended Ferron Grammar School, Doolittle Grammar School, and Wendell Phillips High School.
Adult life
Smith wanted to study music at Northwestern University but her family could not afford to send her there. Instead, she attended Chicago Normal School from 1924–1926 to train as a teacher. In 1930 she began teaching primary grades in Chicago public schools. She married Herbert E. Smith (d. December 28, 1975) on August 8, 1931. 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. She retired from teaching in June 1978 and became a docent for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at elementary schools. In 1994 Smith moved to Montgomery Place Retirement Home in Chicago. She died in Chicago on February 15, 1999.
Musical activity
As a child Smith studied piano with V. Emanuel Johnson and took violin lessons. She was active as a violinist in the all-black Harrison Farrell Orchestra from 1930–1931. From 1932–1943 she was a part-time student at the American Conservatory of Music, where she studied music theory with Stella Roberts and composition with Leo Sowerby. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from the American Conservatory of Music in 1943.
From 1946–1947 Smith took a sabbatical from teaching to complete graduate work at the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied composition with Vittorio Giannini. In the summer of 1948, Smith studied composition at the Eastman School of Music with Wayne Barlow. The following summer she studied composition with Irving Fine while attending the Tanglewood Music Festival. In 1956 Smith completed her Master of Music degree at DePaul University, where she studied composition with Leon Stein. In the summer of 1958, she studied composition with Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau Summer School in France. Smith ceased composing in 1962, but her works continued to be performed during her lifetime.
Works
This is a list of works by Smith.
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
Sonata for Violin and Piano on Kaleidoscope: Music by African-American Women. Gregory Walker, Helen Walker-Hill. Leonarda Productions CD, LE 339, 1995.
Bibliography
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
Sources
Helen, Walker-Hill, (2002). From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. . OCLC 47690158.
External links
Guide to the Irene Britton Smith Collection, Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago
1907 births
1999 deaths
20th-century American composers
20th-century American women musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century women composers
African-American classical composers
American classical composers
African-American women classical composers
African-American music educators
American Conservatory of Music alumni
American women classical composers
American women music educators
DePaul University alumni
African-American women musicians
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American people
20th-century African-American musicians
American Conservatory alumni