Florence Price
![]() | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (November 2020) |
Florence Price | |
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![]() Photograph of Price from a publication, c. 1942. | |
Born | Florence Beatrice Smith April 9, 1887 Little Rock, Arkansas, United States |
Died | June 3, 1953 Chicago, Illinois, United States | (aged 66)
Occupation |
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Years active | 1899–1952 |
Spouse(s) | |
Children | 3 |
Signature | |
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Florence Beatrice Price (née Smith; April 9, 1887 – June 3, 1953) was an American classical composer, pianist, organist and music teacher. Price is noted as the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra.[2] Price composed numerous works: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works, plus art songs, and music for chamber and solo instruments.
Biography[]
Early life[]
She was born as Florence Beatrice Smith to Florence (Gulliver) and James H. Smith on April 9, 1887, in Little Rock, Arkansas,[3] one of three children in a mixed-race family. Despite racial issues of the era, her family was well respected and did well within their community. Her father was the only African American dentist in the city, and her mother was a music teacher who guided Florence's early musical training.[4] She gave her first piano performance at the age of four and had her first composition published at the age of 11.
Attending school at a Catholic convent, by the time she was 14, Florence had graduated as valedictorian (scholar) of her class. After high school, she later enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts with a major in piano and organ. Initially, she passed as Mexican to avoid racial discrimination against African Americans, listing her hometown as "Pueblo, Mexico."[5] At the Conservatory, she studied composition and counterpoint with composers George Chadwick and Frederick Converse.[2] Also while there, Smith wrote her first string trio and symphony. She graduated in 1906 with honors, and with both an artist diploma in organ and a teaching certificate.[6]
Career[]
Smith returned to Arkansas, where she taught briefly before moving to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1910. There she became the head of the music department of what is now Clark Atlanta University, a historically black college. In 1912, she married Thomas J. Price, a lawyer. She moved back to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he had his practice.[4] After a series of racial incidents in Little Rock, particularly a lynching of a black man in 1927, the Price family decided to leave. Like many black families living in the Deep South, they moved north in the Great Migration to escape Jim Crow conditions, and settled in Chicago, a major industrial city.
There Florence Price began a new and fulfilling period in her composition career. She studied composition, orchestration, and organ with the leading teachers in the city, including Arthur Olaf Andersen, Carl Busch, Wesley La Violette, and Leo Sowerby. She published four pieces for piano in 1928. While in Chicago, Price was at various times enrolled at the Chicago Musical College, Chicago Teacher’s College, University of Chicago, and American Conservatory of Music, studying languages and liberal arts subjects as well as music. Financial struggles and abuse by her husband resulted in Price getting a divorce in 1931. She became a single mother to her two daughters. To make ends meet, she worked as an organist for silent film screenings and composed songs for radio ads under a pen name. During this time, Price lived with friends. She eventually moved in with her student and friend, Margaret Bonds, also a black pianist and composer. This friendship connected Price with writer Langston Hughes and contralto Marian Anderson, both prominent figures in the art world who aided in Price's future success as a composer. An important early success occurred at the twelfth annual convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), when pianist-composer Margaret Bonds premiered Price's Fantasie nègre [No. 1] (1929) in its original version titled "Negro Fantasy." Of this performance, Carl Ditton wrote for the Associated Negro Press: "The surprise of the evening was a most effective composition by Mrs. F. B. Price, entitled 'A Negro Phantasy,' played by the talented Chicago pianiste, Margaret Bonds. The entire association [i.e., NANM] could well afford to recommend this number to all advanced pianists."[7]
Together, Price and Bonds began to achieve national recognition for their compositions and performances. In 1932, both Price and Bonds submitted compositions for the Wanamaker Foundation Awards. Price won first prize with her Symphony in E minor, and third for her Piano Sonata, earning her a $500 prize.[8] (Bonds came in first place in the song category, with a song entitled "Sea Ghost.") Early in 1933 leading Arts advocate Maude Roberts George, president of the Chicago Music Association, music critic of the Chicago Defender and eventual national president of the National Association of Negro Musicians, paid $250 (about $5,093 in 2021 dollars) for Price's First Symphony to be included in a program devoted to "The Negro in Music," with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Frederick Stock, as part of the Century of Progress World's Fair.[9] Although this concert, like the Fair in general, was unmistakably tainted by the racism that characterized Chicago and the U.S. in general in the 1930s,[10] George's underwriting made Price the first African-American woman to have her music played by a major U.S. orchestra.[8][11][12][13] Later in that same season the Illinois Host House of the World's Fair devoted an entire program to Price and her music, a striking invitation given that Price had adopted Illinois as her home state only five years earlier.[14]
A number of Price's other orchestral works were played by the WPA Symphony Orchestra of Detroit, the Chicago Women’s Symphony,[4] and the Women's Symphony Orchestra of Chicago.[15] Price wrote other extended works for orchestra, chamber works, art songs, works for violin, organ anthems, piano pieces, spiritual arrangements, four symphonies, three piano concertos, and two violin concertos. Some of her more popular works are: "Three Little Negro Dances," "Songs to the Dark Virgin", "My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord" for piano or orchestra and voice, and "Moon Bridge". Price made considerable use of characteristic African-American melodies and rhythms in many of her works. Her Concert Overture on Negro Spirituals, Symphony in E minor, and Negro Folksongs in Counterpoint for string quartet, all serve as excellent examples of her idiomatic work. Price was inducted into the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers in 1940 for her work as a composer. In 1949, Price published two of her spiritual arrangements, "I Am Bound for the Kingdom," and "I'm Workin’ on My Buildin'", and dedicated them to Marian Anderson, who performed them on a regular basis.
Death[]
On June 3, 1953, Price died from a stroke in Chicago, Illinois, at age 66.
Personal life[]
In 1912, Price married attorney Thomas J. Price[1][16] upon returning to Arkansas from Atlanta. Together, they had two daughters and a son; Florence (d. 1975[17]), Edith and Thomas Jr.[17] The Price children were raised in Chicago. Florence Price divorced Thomas Price in January 1931, and on February 14, 1931, she married the widower Pusey Dell Arnett (1875–1957), an insurance agent and former baseball player for the Chicago Unions some thirteen years her senior. She and Arnett were separated by April 1934; they apparently never divorced.[18]
Discovery of manuscripts[]
Following her death, much of her work was overshadowed as new musical styles emerged that fit the changing tastes of modern society. Some of her work was lost, but as more African-American and female composers have gained attention for their works, so has Price. In 2001, the Women's Philharmonic created an album of some of her work. Pianist Karen Walwyn and The New Black Repertory Ensemble performed Price's Concerto in One Movement and Symphony in E minor in December 2011.[19][20] Three settings of her work Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight were rediscovered in 2009 (a setting for orchestra, organ, chorus, and soloists, premiered on April 12, 2019 by the Du Bois Orchestra and in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[21]
In 2009, a substantial collection of her works and papers were found in an abandoned dilapidated house on the outskirts of St. Anne, Illinois.[22] These consisted of dozens of her scores, including her two violin concertos and her fourth symphony. As Alex Ross stated in The New Yorker in February 2018, "not only did Price fail to enter the canon; a large quantity of her music came perilously close to obliteration. That run-down house in St. Anne is a potent symbol of how a country can forget its cultural history."[23]
In November 2018, the New York-based firm of G. Schirmer announced that it had acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to Florence Price's complete catalog.[24][25]
Composition style[]
Even though her training was steeped in European tradition, Price's music consists of mostly the American idiom and reveals her Southern roots.[4] She wrote with a vernacular style, using sounds and ideas that fit the reality of urban society. Being a committed Christian, she frequently used the music of the African-American church as material for her arrangements. At the urging of her mentor George Whitefield Chadwick,[26] Price began to incorporate elements of African-American spirituals, emphasizing the rhythm and syncopation of the spirituals rather than just using the text. Her melodies were blues-inspired and mixed with more traditional, European Romantic techniques. The weaving of tradition and modernism reflected the way life was for African Americans in large cities at the time.
Legacy and honors[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/aa/Price_School%2C_Kenwood%2C_Chicago.jpeg/220px-Price_School%2C_Kenwood%2C_Chicago.jpeg)
In 1964, the Chicago Public Schools opened Florence B. Price Elementary School (also known Price Lit & Writing Elementary School) at 4351 South Drexel Boulevard in the North Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois in her honor.[27] Price's student body was predominately African-American. The school operated from 1964 until the school district decided to phase it out in 2011 due to poor academic performance which ultimately led to its closing in 2013. The school housed a piano owned by Price. The school building currently houses a local church as of 2019.[28] In February 2019, The University of Arkansas Honors College held a concert honoring Price.[29][30] In October 2019, the International Florence Price Festival announced that its inaugural gathering celebrating Price's music and legacy would take place at the University of Maryland School of Music in August 2020.[31][32] From 4–8 January 2021 Price was the BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week.
Works[]
Florence Price composed numerous works: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works, plus art songs, and music for chamber and solo instruments.
Symphonies[]
- Symphony No. 1 in E Minor (1931–32); First Prize in the Rodman Wanamaker Competition, 1932
- Symphony No. 2 in G Minor (c. 1935)
- Symphony No. 3 in C Minor (1938–40)
- Symphony No. 4 in D Minor (1945)
Concertos[]
- Piano Concerto in D minor (1932–34); often referred to as Piano Concerto in One Movement although the work is in three separate movements
- Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major (1939)
- Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor (1952)
- Rhapsody/Fantasie for piano and orchestra (date unknown, possibly incomplete)
Other orchestral works[]
- Ethiopia's Shadow in America (1929–32)[33]
- Mississippi River Suite (1934); although labelled as a "suite", the work is cast in one continuous large-scale movement, in which several famous Mississippi River Songs are quoted, such as “Go Down, Moses”, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” and "Deep River".
- Chicago Suite (date unknown)
- Colonial Dance Symphony (date unknown)
- Concert Overture No. 1 (date unknown); based on the spiritual "Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass"[34]
- Concert Overture No. 2 (1943); based on three spirituals ("Go Down Moses", "Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit", "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen")[35]
- The Oak, tone poem (1943); sometimes referred to as Songs of the Oak
- Suite of Negro Dances (performed in 1951;[36] orchestral version of the Three Little Negro Dances for piano, 1933;[37]); also referred to as Suite of Dances
- Dances in the Canebrakes (orchestral version of the homonymous piano work, 1953)
Choral[]
- "The Moon Bridge" (M. R. Gamble), SSA, 1930;
- "The New Moon", SSAA, 2 pf, 1930;
- "The Wind and the Sea" (P. L. Dunbar), SSAATTBB, pf, str qt, 1934;
- "Night" (Bessie Mayle), SSA, pf (1945)[38]
- "Witch of the Meadow" (Gamble), SSA (1947);
- "Sea Gulls", female chorus, fl, cl, vn, va, vc, pf, by 1951;
- "Nature's Magic" (Gamble), SSA (1953);
- "Song for Snow" (E. Coatsworth), SATB (1957);
- "Abraham Lincoln walks at midnight" (V. Lindsay), mixed vv, orch, org;
- "After the 1st and 6th Commandments", SATB;
- "Communion Service", F, SATB, org;
- "Nod" (W. de la Mare), TTBB;
- Resignation (Price), SATB;
- "Song of Hope" (Price);
- "Spring Journey", SSA, str qt
Solo vocal (all with piano)[]
- "Don't You Tell Me No" (Price) (between 1931 and 1934)[39][40]
- "Dreamin' Town" (Dunbar), 1934;
- 4 Songs, B-Bar, 1935;
- "My Dream" (Hughes), 1935;
- "Dawn's Awakening" (J. J. Burke), 1936;
- Four Songs from The Weary Blues (Hughes) (April 26, 1935): "My Dream,"[41] "Songs to the Dark Virgin," "Ardella," "Dream Ships.[42]"[43][44] [Note: The Weary Blues here refers to the anthology volume, not the title poem itself]
- Monologue for the Working Class (Langston Hughes) (Oct. 1941)[39][45][46]
- "Hold Fast to Dreams" (Hughes), 1945;
- "Night" (L. C. Wallace), (1946);
- "Out of the South Blew a Wind" (F.C. Woods), (1946);
- "An April Day" (J. F. Cotter), (1949);
- "The Envious Wren" (A. and P. Carey);
- "Fantasy in Purple" (Hughes);
- "Feet o' Jesus" (Hughes);
- "Forever" (Dunbar);
- "The Glory of the Day was in her Face" (J. W. Johnson);
- "The Heart of a Woman" (G. D. Johnson);[38]
- "Love-in-a-Mist" (Gamble);
- "Nightfall" (Dunbar); "Resignation" (Price), also arr. chorus;
- "Song of the Open Road; Sympathy" (Dunbar);
- "To my Little Son" (J. J. Davis);
- "Travel's End" (M. F. Hoisington);
- "Judgement Day" (Hughes)[38]
- "Some o' These Days"[39]
- about 90 other works
Instrumental Chamber Music[]
- Andante con espressione (1929)[38]
- String Quartet (No. 1) in G major (1929)[47]
- Fantasie [No. 1] in G Minor for Violin and Piano (1933)[38]
- String Quartet (No. 2) in A minor (published in 1935)[48][49]
- Fantasy [No. 2] in F-sharp Minor for Violin and Piano (1940)[39]
- Piano Quintet in E minor (1936)
- Piano Quintet in A minor (1936?)
- Five Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet
- Suite (Octet) for Brasses and Piano (1930)[50]
- Fantasy [No. 2] in F-sharp Minor for Violin and Piano (1940)[39]
- Moods, for Flute, Clarinet and Piano (1953)
- Spring Journey, for 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass and piano
Works for piano[]
- Tarantella (1926)[39]
- Impromptu No. 1 (1926)[39]
- Valsette Mignon (1926)[39]
- Preludes (1926–32): No. 1 Allegro moderato; No. 2 Andantino cantabile; No. 3 Allegro molto; No. 4 [“Wistful”] Allegretto con tenerezza; No. 5 Allegro[39]
- At the Cotton Gin (1927); published by G. Schirmer (New York), 1928
- [Six Descriptive Pieces]: [No. 1] Little Truants (Oct. 7, 1927); No. 2. Two Busy Little Hands; No. 3. Hard Problems (Oct. 9, 1927); [No. 4.] Tittle Tattle; [No. 5] In Romance Land (Oct. 24-25, 1927); [No. 6.] Hilda's Waltz (Oct. 26, 1927).[51]
- Pensive Mood (March 3, 1928)[51]
- Scherzo in G (May 24, 1929 [?])[39]
- Song without Words in G Major (1928 or early 1930s)[39]
- Meditation ([ca. 1929])[52][53]
- Fantasie nègre [No. 1] (E minor) (1929, as "Negro Fantasy"; rev. 1931); based on the spiritual "Sinner, please don't let this harvest pass" (original version premiered 3 Sept. 1930 by Margaret Bonds at twelfth annual convention of National Association of Negro Musicians, Chicago).[54]
- On a Quiet Lake (June 23, 1929)[39][55]
- Waltz of the Spring Maid (ca. early 1930s)[56][43]
- Barcarolle (ca. 1929-32)[39]
- His Dream (ca. 1930-31)[39]
- Cotton Dance (Dance of the Cotton Blossoms) (1931)
- Fantasie nègre No. 2 in G minor (March, 1932)[39][57][58]
- Fantasie nègre No. 3 in F minor (March 30, 1932)(inc.)
- Fantasie nègre No. 4 in B minor (April 5, 1932 - [ca. 1937]) (4 versions)[39][59][60]
- Song without Words in A Major (April 21, 1932)[39]
- Piano Sonata in E minor (1932)
- Child Asleep (July 6, 1932)[39]
- Etude [in C major] [ca. 1932][39][61]
- 3 Little Negro Dances (1933); also arranged for concert band (1939); for two pianos (1949); and for orchestra (before 1951)
- Tecumseh (published by Carl Fischer, New York, 1935)[62]
- Scenes in Tin Can Alley (ca. 1937): "The Huckster" (Oct. 1, 1928), "Children at Play," "Night"[39]
- 3 Sketches for little pianists (1937)
- Arkansas Jitter (1938)
- Bayou Dance (1938)
- Dance of the Cotton Blossoms (1938)
- Summer Moon (for Memry Midgett)' (April 6, 1938)[39][63]Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Music FL0019 [2020])</ref>
- Down a Southern Lane (April 29, 1939)[39][64]
- Joy in June (June 27, 1938)[43]
- On a Summer's Eve (June 15, 1939)[39]
- Rocking chair (1939)
- Thumbnail Sketches of a Day in the Life of a Washerwoman (ca. 1938-40).[39] Two versions. First version consists of "Morning," "Dreaming at the Washtub," "A Gay Moment," and "Evening Shadows"; second version omits "Dreaming at the Washtub."[65]
- Rowing: Little Concert Waltz [?1930s].[39]
- [Ten Negro Spirituals for the Piano] [1937-42):[39] Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler; I’m Troubled in My Mind; I Know the Lord Has Laid His Hands on Me; Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho; Gimme That Old Time Religion; Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; I Want Jesus to Walk with Me; Peter, Go Ring dem Bells; Were You There When They Crucified My Lord; Lord, I Want to Be a Christian
- An Old Love Letter [ca. 1941].[43]
- Remembrance (1941 or earlier) (to Mr. Henry S. Sawyer)[39][66]
- Village Scenes (1942): "Church Spires in Moonlight," "A Shaded Lane," "The Park"[39][67]
- Your Hands in Mine (1943) (originally titled Memory Lane)[39][68]
- [Four Pieces for Piano Solo]: "Levee at Noontime -- Barcarolle" (17 November 1943); "Little Miss Perky" (17 November 1943); "Smile, Smile!" (17 November 1943); "Fairy Fun (or Fairies' Frolic)" [originally "Little Toe Dancer"] (19 October 1943).[69]
- Clouds [ca. 1940s][52][70][71][72]
- Cotton Dance (Presto) ([ca. 1940s])[38]
- 2 Fantasies on Folk Tunes (date unknown)
- In Sentimental Mood (1947)[39][73][74]
- Whim Wham (July 6, 1946)[52][75]
- Placid Lake (July 17, 1947)[52]
- Memories of Dixieland (1947); won Holstein Award, 1947
- Sketches in Sepia (September, 1947)[39][76]
- Rock-a-bye (1947)
- [Six Piano Pieces] (11 and 12 November 1947)[43]
- [Three Roses]: To a Yellow Rose, To a White Rose,[77] To a Red Rose (1949)[39][78]
- To a Brown Leaf (1949)[39]
- First Romance(ca. 1940s)[39][79]
- Waltzing on a Sunbeam (ca. 1950[39]
- The Goblin and the Mosquito (1951)
- Snapshots (1952): I. Lake Mirror (13 October 1952), II. Moon behind a Cloud (17 July 1949), III. Flame (14 January 1949)[39][80]
- Until We Meet (1952)[39]
- Dances in the Canebrakes (1953); also orchestrated
- about 70 teaching pieces
Undated:
Arrangements of spirituals[]
- "My soul's been anchored in de Lord", 1v, pf (1937), arr. 1v, orch, arr. chorus, pf;
- "Nobody knows the trouble I've Seen (Philadelphia: Theodore Presser, 1938);[39]
- "Some o' These Days," 1v, pf[39]
- Two Traditional Negro Spirituals, 1 v, pf (1940): "I Am Bound for the Kingdom" and "I'm Workin' on My Buildin'"[81]
- "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?", pf (1942);
- "I am bound for the kingdom", 1v, pf (1948);
- "I'm workin' on my building", 1v, pf job at Florida
- "Heav'n bound soldier", male chorus, 1949 [2 arrs.];
Undated:
- "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (ca. 1950)[39]
- "Peter, Go Ring dem Bells" (undated)[38]
- Variations on a Folksong (Peter, go ring dem bells)", org (1996);
- "I couldn't hear nobody pray", SSAATTBB;
- "Save me, Lord, save me", 1v, pf;
- "Trouble done come my way", 1v, pf;
- ?12 other works, 1v, pf
- MSS of 40 songs in US-PHu; other MSS in private collections; papers and duplicate MSS in U. of Arkansas, Florida
Works for Organ[]
(supplied by Calvert Johnson)
- Adoration in The Organ Portfolio vol. 15/86 (Dec. 1951), Dayton OH: Lorenz Publishing Co., 34–35.
- Andante, July 24, 1952
- Andantino
- Allegretto
- Cantilena March 10, 1951
- Caprice
- Dainty Lass, by November 19, 1936
- Echoes of a Prayer (by July 14, 1950)
- Festal March
- First Sonata for Organ, 1927
- The Hour Glass [formerly Sandman]. Paired with Retrospection as No. 1
- Hour of Peace or Hour of Contentment or Gentle Heart, November 16, 1951
- In Quiet Mood [formerly Evening and then Impromptu]. New York: Galaxy Music Corp, 1951 (dated Aug. 7, 1941)
- Little Melody
- Little Pastorale
- Offertory in The Organ Portfolio vol. 17/130 (1953). Dayton OH: Lorenz Publishing Co., 1953
- O Solemn Thought, by July 14, 1950
- Passacaglia and Fugue, January, 1927
- A Pleasant Thought, December 10, 1951
- Prelude and Fantasie, by 1942
- Retrospection [formerly An Elf on a Moonbeam]. Paired with The Hour Glass as No. 2
- Steal Away to Jesus, by November 19, 1936
- Suite No. 1, by April 6, 1942
- Memory Mist (1949)[38]
- Tempo moderato [no title], seriously damaged and possibly incomplete]
- Variations on a Folksong
- Principal publishers: Fischer, Gamble-Hinged, Handy, McKinley, Presser
Works for Violin (with Piano accompaniment)[]
- Andante Con Espressione
- Deserted Garden
- Elfentanz
- Fantasie in G minor for Violin and Piano (1933)
Discography[]
- Althea Waites Performs the Piano Music of Florence Price. Cambria Records, 1987.[82]
- Art Songs by American Composers, performed by Yolanda Marcoulescou-Stern. Gasparo Records, 1993.
- Black Diamonds, performed by Althea Waites. Cambria Records, 1993.
- Florence Price: The Oak, Mississippi River Suite, and Symphony No. 3 / Women’s Philharmonic. Koch International Classics, 2001. Reprinted 2008.
- Lucille Field Sings Songs by American Women Composers. Cambria Records, 2006.
- Negro Speaks of Rivers / Odekhiren Amaize, David Korevaar. Musician’s Showcase, 2000.
- Chicago Renaissance Woman: Florence B. Price Organ Works; Calcante CAL 014 1997
- Florence B. Price: Concerto in One Movement and Symphony in E minor; Albany TROY1295, 2011.
- Florence B. Price: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 (D major - 1939) and 2 (D minor - 1952) / Er-Gene Kahng, Janacek Philharmonic, Ryan Cockerham. Albany TROY1706, 2018.
- Florence B. Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 (E minor - 1932) and 4 (D minor - 1945) / Fort Smith Symphony, John Jeter. Naxos American Classics, 2018.
- Florence B. Price: Dances in the Canebrakes (Nimble Feet / Tropical Noon / Silk Hat and Walking Cane) / Chicago Sinfonietta, Mei-Ann Chen. Album Project W - Works by Woman Composers. Cedille Records, 2019.
- Beyond the Traveler: Piano Music by Composers from Arkansas (Sonata in E minor) / Cole Burger, piano. MSR Classics, 2019.
- Florence Price: Symphony No. 3 and Concert Overture No. 1 / BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Michael Seal; BBC Symphony Orchestra, Valentina Peleggi. BBC Music Magazine BBCMM454, 2020
- Florence Price: The Deserted Garden (1933) and Elfentanz (undated) / Performed by Dawn Wohn, violin, and Esther Park, piano. Perspectives, Delos Music, 2019, DE 3547
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Biography". Florence Price.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Slonimsky, N. (ed.), The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th edn, New York: Schirmer, 1994, p. 791.
- ^ Slonimsky (1994) gives 1888.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Walker-Hill, Helen (1893). Piano Music by Black Women Composers. Darby, Pennsylvania: Greenwood Press. pp. 76–77.
- ^ Brown, Rae Linda (2020). The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0252043239.
- ^ Slonimsky and biography.com agree on 1906.
- ^ *The Pittsburgh Courier* (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 6 September 1930.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Price, Florence (January 1, 2008) [1932]. Brown, Rae Linda; Shirley, Wayne D. (eds.). Symphonies nos. 1 and 3. A-R Editions. pp. xxxviii–xlv. ISBN 978-0895796387.
- ^ See http://johnmalveauxmusic2.blogspot.com/2013/06/program-notes-on-florence-b-price-for.html
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, "The Problem with Programs: Florence Price’s First Symphony, the 1933-34 World’s Fair, and Three Tribbles, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
- ^ Oteri, Frank J. (January 17, 2012). "Sounds Heard: Florence B. Price—Concerto in One Movement; Symphony in E Minor". NewMusicBox. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
- ^ "The Price of Admission: A Musical Biography of Florence Beatrice Price". WQXR-FM. February 6, 2013. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
- ^ Baranello, Micaela (February 9, 2018). "Welcoming a Black Female Composer Into the Canon. Finally". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ Brown, Rae Linda (2020). The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 149–50.
- ^ Brown, Rae Linda (1993). "The Woman's Symphony Orchestra of Chicago and Florence B. Price's Piano Concerto in One Movement". American Music. 11 (2): 185–205. doi:10.2307/3052554. JSTOR 3052554.
- ^ "Biography". Florence Price. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Who Was Florence Price?". Research Frontiers.
- ^ See Rae Linda Brown, "Lifting the Veil: The Symphonies of Florence B. Price," in Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3, ed. Rae Linda Brown and Wayne Shirley, Recent Researches in American Music, No. 66 [Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, 2008], xxxi,
- ^ "Florence Price: Symphony No. 3, Mississippi River". Women's Philharmonic Advocacy. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
- ^ McQuiston, Bob (February 28, 2012). "Classical Lost and Found: Florence Price Rediscovered". NPR. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
- ^ "The Lost World of Florence Price". . Retrieved 2021-03-06.
- ^ "Florence Beatrice Smith Price (1887–1953) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas". www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
- ^ Ross, Alex, "The Rediscovery of Florence Price", The New Yorker, February 5, 2018.
- ^ "News - G. Schirmer Acquires Florence Price Catalog"
- ^ Michael Cooper, "A Rediscovered African-American Female Composer Gets a Publisher," The New York Times, Nov. 15, 2018
- ^ Baranello, Micaela (2018-02-09). "Welcoming a Black Female Composer Into the Canon. Finally". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
- ^ Price, Florence (January 1, 2008). Symphonies nos. 1 and 3. A-R Editions, Inc. ISBN 9780895796387 – via Google Books.
- ^ "DNAinfo - Bronzeville Pastor Reviving Empty School - September 2013". Archived from the original on 2017-11-18. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ^ "Honors College to Host Performance of Florence Price Violin Concerto and Duos". University of Arkansas News.
- ^ "Florence Price: A Tribute | University of Arkansas". fulbright.uark.edu.
- ^ "International Florence Price Festival". The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Archived from the original on 2019-10-31. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
- ^ "Festival Celebrates Trailblazing Composer Florence Price". International Florence Price Festival. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
- ^ Recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under conductor Daniel Blendulf; broadcast for International Women's Day on BBC Radio 3's Live in Concert program of March 8, 2015.
- ^ "Concert Overture No. 1 | Florence Price". www.wisemusicclassical.com.
- ^ "Concert Overture No. 2". englisch.
- ^ "Priceline". Jordan Randall Smith.
- ^ "Collection: Florence Beatrice Smith Price Papers Addendum | ArchivesSpace at the University of Arkansas". uark.as.atlas-sys.com.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i ed. John Michael Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2019)
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap ed. John Michael Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2020)
- ^ world-premiere recording by Christine Jobson on Nearly Lost: Art Songs by Florence Price (N2A Publishing, 2019).
- ^ Hughes: "Dream Variation"
- ^ Hughes: "Water-Front Streets"
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e ed. John Michael Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2021)
- ^ John Michael Cooper. "Four Songs from The Weary Blues". wisemusicclassical.com. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
- ^ see “Florence Price and Langston Hughes Cast a Ballot for the Working Class.” Journeys (blog), October 27, 2020 https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/florence-price-and-langston-hughes-cast-a-ballot-for-the-working-class
- ^ Perf. Justin Hopkins and Jeanne-Minette Cilliers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uoX_9WMGbo)
- ^ "To Be Rediscovered When You Were Never Forgotten: Florence Price and The "Rediscovered" Composer (Tropes of Black Composers, Part One)". Harry T. Burleigh Society.
- ^ Article on arkansaslife.com
- ^ new edition, ed. John Michael Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2019)
- ^ ""The Musical Artistry of Florence Price: Hidden Figure No More", by Prof. Linda Holzer" (PDF).
- ^ Jump up to: a b ed. John Michael Cooper, in Seven Descriptive Pieces (New York: G. Schirmer, 2020)
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d ed. John Michael "Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2020)
- ^ Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Records FL0018 [2020])
- ^ *The Pittsburgh Courier*, 6 Sept. 1930
- ^ "On A Quiet Lake" – via open.spotify.com.
- ^ ed. Barbara Garvey Jackson (Fayetteville, Arkansas: ClarNan, 2017)
- ^ Recorded by Lara Downes, Flipside Music FL0024 [2020])
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, “Full Circle: On the Recovery of Florence B. Price’s Fantasie nègre No. 2,” Journeys (blog), March 22, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/full-circle
- ^ Posthumous premiere by Lara Downes at New England Conservatory, November 1, 2019
- ^ Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Music FL0017 [2020])
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, “Florence Price, Teacher,” Journeys (blog), July 14, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/florence-price-teacher
- ^ "Florence Beatrice Price, Compositeur afro-américain". chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com.
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, “Summer Moon: Reflections on a Little-Known Gem by Florence Price,” Journeys (blog), May 17, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/summer-moon
- ^ "Down A Southern Lane" – via open.spotify.com.
- ^ Jump up to: a b See John Michael Cooper, “Florence Price and Racist Stereotypes,” Journeys (blog), July 16, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/florence-price-and-stereotypes
- ^ "Remembrance" – via open.spotify.com.
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, “Florence Price and Tranquility,” Journeys (blog), July 13, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/florence-price-and-tranquility
- ^ "Your Hands In Mine" – via open.spotify.com.
- ^ ed. John Michael Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2021).
- ^ premiered by Lara Downes at New England Conservatory, November 1, 2019
- ^ Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Records FL0018 [2020])
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, “Florence B. Price: Clouds,” Journeys (blog), April 8, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/florence-b-price-clouds
- ^ Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Records FL0020 [2020])
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, “In Sentimental Mood: A Mash-Up by Florence B. Price,” Journeys (blog), April 8, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/a-mash-up-by-florence-b-price-in-sentimental-mood
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, “The Joy of Whimsy: Rediscovering Another Facet of Florence Price’s Musical Imagination,” Journeys (blog), August 7, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/the-joy-of-whimsy
- ^ "Sketches in Sepia" – via open.spotify.com.
- ^ Two separate compositions bear the title To a White Rose and were conceived as part of this set.
- ^ Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Records FL0020] [2020]): To a Yellow Rose; To a White Rose (Version B); To a Red Rose
- ^ Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Records 0020 [2020)(
- ^ See John Michael Cooper, “Florence Price and the Art of Musical Storytelling: Snapshots for Piano Solo,” Journeys (blog), August 7, 2020, https://cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/florence-price-and-the-art-of-musical-storytelling
- ^ "MoMA QNS in New York Architects: Michael Maltzan architecture, Los Angeles, Cooper, Robertson & Partners, New York", Building in Existing Fabric, München: DETAIL - Institut für internationale Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co. KG, 2003, doi:10.11129/detail.9783034614894.130, ISBN 978-3-0346-1489-4
- ^ de Lerma, Dominique-René (1988). "Music Review: Althea Waites Performs the Piano Music of Florence Price". The Black Perspective in Music. 16 (1): 117. doi:10.2307/1215135. JSTOR 1215135.
Additional sources[]
- Ammer, Christine. Unsung: A History of Women in American Music. Portland Oregon, Amadeus Press, 2001
- Brown, Rae Linda. "Price, Florence Smith". Accessed March 15, 2007.
- Brown, Rae Linda. "William Grant Still, Florence Price, and William Dawson: Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance." In Samuel A. Floyd, Jr (ed.), Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990, pp. 71–86.
- Ege, Samantha. "Florence Price and the Politics of Her Existence." Kapralova Society Journal 16, no. 1 (Spring 2018): 1–10.
- "Florence Beatrice Smith Price", Biography.com. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
- Mashego, Shana Thomas. Music from the Soul of Woman: The Influence of the African American Presbyterian and Methodist Traditions on the Classical Compositions of Florence Price and Dorothy Rudd Moore. DMA, The University of Arizona, 2010.
- Perkins, Holly Ellistine. Biographies of Black Composers and Songwriters; A Supplementary Textbook. Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1990.
- "Price, Florence Beatrice", Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. December 1, 2014.
- Slonimsky, Nicolas (ed.) (1994), The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th edn, New York: Schirmer, p. 791.
Further reading[]
- Brown, Rae Linda (1987). Selected orchestral music of Florence B. Price (1888–1953) in the context of her life and work. Yale University.
- Brown, Rae Linda (2020). The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252043239.
- Green, Mildred Denby (1983). Black women composers : a genesis (1. print. ed.). Boston: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 9780805794502.
- Phelps, Shirelle; Smith, Jessie C. (1992). Notable Black American women. Detroit: Gale Research.
External links[]
- Florence Price − American Heritage
- Florence Price − Violin Concerto No. 2 (1952)
- Florence Beatrice Smith Price (1888–1953), Correspondence, musical scores, and other papers, 1906–1975, University of Arkansas, Special Collections, Manuscript Collection 988:
- Free scores by Florence Price at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Florence Price at Music of the United States of America (MUSA), edited by Rae Linda Brown and Wayne Shirley
- Florence Price and the Politics of Her Existence in Kapralova Society Journal, 16, no. 1 (Spring 2018): 1–10.
- Symphony No. 1 in Em, From the Archives
- Symphony No. 1 in Em (video; 38:35) on YouTube
- 1887 births
- 1953 deaths
- 20th-century American composers
- 20th-century American women musicians
- 20th-century classical composers
- 20th-century women composers
- African-American classical composers
- African-American women classical composers
- American classical composers
- American Conservatory of Music alumni
- American female classical composers
- Chicago Musical College alumni
- Classical musicians from Illinois
- Composers for pipe organ
- Musicians from Chicago
- Musicians from Little Rock, Arkansas
- New England Conservatory alumni
- Pupils of George Whitefield Chadwick
- University of Chicago alumni
- African-American women musicians