27 February 2009
Singer/Composer Stevie Wonder Honored at White House Ceremony
Music legend receives Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song
Washington — At the onset of his career, when he was hailed as a music prodigy before he’d even reached his teens, the word “little” preceded his name.
But Stevie Wonder — newest recipient of the Library of Congress’ prestigious Gershwin Prize for Popular Song — is “little” no more, neither in age nor in terms of his global influence across the musical landscape.
As his fans can attest, the 58-year-old Wonder — who has been blind since birth — has evolved from the rhythm-and-blues tempos of his youthful effort “Fingertips (Pt. 2),” the song that topped the charts when he was just 13. From the soulful Motown sound of those and subsequent years, he made the creative leap in his early 20s to experimenting with a wide variety of instruments and styles.
As he grew creatively, his popularity expanded as well. A Number 1 hit with a strong percussive groove, “Superstition,” cemented his status as a fixture on rock radio stations. Wonder’s fan base also increased exponentially during the 1980s and 1990s, a period in which he composed some of his best-known romantic numbers and social commentaries — songs like “I Just Called to Say I Love You” and the collaborative “Ebony and Ivory,” composed with Paul McCartney as a call for racial harmony.
Self-taught on the harmonica and drums, and drawn to pop rhythms, Wonder has been a dominant presence on musical charts, at awards ceremonies and on “greatest album” lists — with dozens of Number 1 singles and Grammy awards to his credit. Above all, though, it has been his ability to move seamlessly from one musical genre to another that has made him the beloved artist that he is.
At a White House ceremony and concert February 25 that featured an array of artists drawn from the different musical worlds that Wonder has enhanced through his craft, President Obama underscored the breadth of Wonder’s reach.
“Stevie has always drawn on an incredible range of traditions in his music, and from them he’s created a style that is at once uniquely American, uniquely his own and yet somehow universal,” the president said. “Indeed, this could be called the American tradition — artists demonstrating the courage, the talent to find new harmonies in the rich and dissonant sounds of the American experience.”
For the president — a longtime fan, along with first lady Michelle Obama, of the singer/composer — the salute was personal. Wonder’s songs “became the soundtrack of my youth,” he said. “Through them I found peace and inspiration, especially in difficult times. And I’m not alone. Millions of people around the world have found similar comfort and joy in Stevie’s music, and his unique capacity to find hope in struggle, and humanity in our common hardships. This is the gift that music affords us, transporting us from the here and now, relieving us of our burdens, even if it’s just for the length of a song.”
The Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize is among the rarest honors on America’s musical scene. Named for George Gershwin — the legendary 20th-century composer of everything from symphonies to Broadway show tunes — and his brother Ira, a noted lyricist, it has been awarded only once before: to singer/composer Paul Simon, in 2007.
According to Librarian of Congress James Billington, the award was created “to honor an artist whose creative output transcends distinctions between musical styles and idioms, bringing diverse listeners together, and fostering mutual understanding and appreciation.” Added Billington: “Stevie Wonder’s music epitomizes this ideal.”
Along with the honor came a commission from the library for a musical piece, “Sketches of a Life.” Wonder debuted the 20-minute concerto in nine movements at the Library of Congress on February 23, playing several instruments, with a 21-piece chamber orchestra accompanying him. Although the piece was written between 1976 and 1994, it never had been publicly performed until now. Wonder said he was waiting for just the right occasion to unveil it.
Writing in the Washington Post, J. Freedom du Lac described the piece as a musical landscape that shifts among pop show tunes, jazz, chamber funk and blues-jazz instrumental. “Wonder seemed comfortable with the form,” the reviewer observed, “and even displayed impressive restraint for a newcomer in the classical sandbox, staying away from bombast and saving the musical flyover for the triumphal, regal finale, which was full of horn fanfare.”
Speaking at the White House at the culmination of a week of ceremony and celebration, Wonder expressed appreciation for the honor, saying he accepted the award in memory of his mother.
“I know that Lula Mae is smiling right now,” he said. “I know that if she were here, Mr. President, she’d say, ‘Let me get him a peach cobbler.’”
