Discovery of the Scores
It is one of those stories layered in mystery and mythology. Johnson’s orchestral pieces were performed in the late 1930s and early 1940s in such prestigious New York venues as Town Hall and Carnegie Hall, as well as internationally, and then simply vanished. For decades, rumors circulated that Johnson’s daughter Arceola had boxes of her father’s papers that might also contain the lost scores. Understandably, she was reluctant to share any of this material, including to Scott Brown during his initial phase of research that produced his first biography of Johnson.
Around the same time that Brown’s book was published in 1987, Marin Alsop and pianist Leslie Stifelman became aware of Johnson’s symphonic works through piano solo recordings of the themes from sheet music. Despite what they thought would be a relatively easy search of publishers and libraries for the full scores, they came up empty handed. Through the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies, which had published Brown’s book, they were introduced to him.
With information from the newly published book, Leslie Stifelman searched the archives of all the organizations that presented Johnson’s works. Once again, no luck. Finally, the three decided once again to reach out to the Johnson family. With published book in hand, the three met with Arceola and her son Barry Glover. Barry and Arceola could see their sincere intentions, and arrangements were made for Marin and Leslie to see what might be in the boxes.
With hands shaking, Arceola opened the boxes. Along with a trove of memorabilia, there they were, Johnson’s symphony, concerto, tone poem and other pieces orchestrated in his hand. After nearly 50 years, the rumor had been proven true. There must have been many opportunities for all this material to have been lost or destroyed, but clearly Arceola knew its importance and protected it during the 35 years since her father’s death and a cross country move. A great American composer’s legacy had been rescued.
Today, new engravings have been produced with the permission of the Johnson estate and in collaboration with Marin Alsop. The music is once again returning to concert halls across the world.