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.[1]
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.[2] She married Herbert E. Smith (d. December 28, 1975) on August 8, 1931.[3] 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.[4] In 1994 Smith moved to Montgomery Place Retirement Home in Chicago. She died in Chicago on February 15, 1999.[5]
Musical activity
As a child Smith studied piano with V. Emanuel Johnson and took violin lessons.[6] She was active as a violinist in the all-black Harrison Farrell Orchestra from 1930 to 1931. From 1932 to 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.[7] She received a Bachelor of Music degree from the American Conservatory of Music in 1943.[8]
"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).
Helen, Walker-Hill, (2002). From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
ISBN0313299471.
OCLC 47690158.