Hale Smith

Born on June 29, 1925, in Cleveland, Hale Smith began studying piano at age 7. He began composing his own works, and by age 16 his compositions caught the interest of Duke Ellington. After serving in the Army (1943-5), he enrolled in the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied composition with the serialist Marcel Dick and music theory with Ward Lewis. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1950 and a Master of Music degree in 1952. That same year his song cycle “The Valley Wind” (originally titled “Four Songs”) won the music licensing organization BMI’s first student composer award. His alma mater eventually awarded him an honorary doctorate for his achievements. Along with notable orchestral and lyrical compositions, Smith created jingles and music for radio, film, television, and theater. 

After moving to New York in 1958, Smith found work as an editor and consultant at several music publishing houses (E.B. Marks, C.F. Peters, Frank Music Corp., and Sam Fox Music Publishers). He taught at the C. W. Post campus of Long Island University until 1970, and spent the rest of his teaching career as a music professor at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. Hale also worked as a consultant on music copyright infringement cases, representing popular artists such as Paul Simon and serving as an expert witness in Lennon v. Levy.

The extensive list of distinguished musicians who have performed Hale Smith’s music extends to opposite poles of the musical world. From jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Chico Hamilton, his arrangements of spirituals have also been performed by sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman. His work has additionally been performed by the notable John Coltrane, Joe Lovano, Ahmad Jamal, Chico Hamilton, Betty Carter and Eric Dolphy, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. 

Smith made it known that he wanted his work, and that of his black peers, to appear on programs with that of Beethoven, Mozart, and Copland. “We don’t even have to be called Black,” he wrote in an article in 1971. “When we stand for our bows, that fact will become clear when it should after the music has made its own impact”. 

—Andrew Smith, Sophia Janevic

This profile was created in 2022 as part of The Savvy Singer, an EXCEL Lab course at the The University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and a collaboration with the Hampsong Foundation via the Classic Song Research Initiative.

This biography was edited in 2023 as part of the Song of America Fellowship Program, a project of the Classic Song Research Initiative between the Hampsong Foundation and the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.

Sources:

Caldwell, Hansonia, and Hale Smith. “A Man of Many Parts.” The Black Perspective in Music 3, no. 1 (1975): 59–76. https://doi.org/10.2307/1214381.

Grimes, William. “Hale Smith, Who Broke Borders of Classical and Jazz, Is Dead at 84.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Nov. 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/arts/music/28smith.html. 

Harris, Marilyn. A Tribute to Composer HALE SMITH, http://marilynharris.com/HaleSmithObitNMB.jpg