https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/a96f570e-d8d3-4de6-94b1-e03ce977c0b4 Help us preserve, scan and post more rare and endangered films on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g/join Website: https://PeriscopeFilm.com "Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life" is musical short produced in 1935 that features Duke Ellington’s early extended piece, "A Rhapsody of Negro Life". The film, Billie Holiday’s screen debut, was directed by Fred Waller and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Symphony in Black represents a landmark in musical, cultural, and entertainment history as well as significant progress in Ellington’s own biography. It is a member of the first generation of non-classically arranged orchestral scores and perhaps most importantly, one of the first films written by an African American describing African American life to reach wide distribution. The film won the Best "musical short subject" Academy Award for its year. Symphony in Black depicts black life in America and the composition itself (A Rhapsody of Negro Life) is divided into four parts: “The Laborers,” “A Triangle”, “A Hymn of Sorrow” and “Harlem Rhythm”. “A Triangle” features the vocals by Holiday and solos by jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Barney Bigard and Ellington Orchestra regular, trombonist 'Tricky Sam' Nanton. It is important to note that while Symphony in Black is the title of the Paramount film, A Rhapsody of Negro Life is the actual title of Ellington's composition. The piece has been largely overshadowed by its successor, perhaps Ellington’s most best known extended composition, "Black, Brown, and Beige" and thus significantly less documentation exists concerning it. Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit https://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGoGC5M6Op8 Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Thu, 11 Jun 2026 06:25:20 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/a96f570e-d8d3-4de6-94b1-e03ce977c0b4 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.