Incubator escapee wiki

Florence Price

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Florence Beatrice Price (née Smith; April 9, 1887 – June 3, 1953) was an American classical composer, pianist, organist and music teacher.<ref name="NYT-20230407">Template:Cite news</ref> Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music, and was active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. 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.<ref name=Slonimsky>Slonimsky, N. (ed.), The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th edn, New York: Schirmer, 1994, p. 791.</ref> Price composed over 300 works: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works, art songs, chamber music and music for solo instruments. In 2009, a substantial collection of her works and papers was found in her abandoned summer home.

BiographyEdit

Early life and educationEdit

Florence Beatrice Smith was born to Florence (Gulliver) and James H. Smith on April 9, 1887, in Little Rock, Arkansas,<ref>Slonimsky (1994) gives 1888.</ref> one of three children in a mixed-race family. 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.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> Despite racial issues of the era, her family was well respected and did well within their community.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> She gave her first piano performance at the age of four and had her first composition published at the age of 11.<ref name="Brown-HoaW">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

She attended school at a Catholic convent, and in 1901, at age 14, she graduated as valedictorian of her class.<ref name="greeson">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1902, after high school, she enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, with a double major in organ and piano teaching.<ref name="greeson" /> Initially, she passed as Mexican to avoid racial discrimination against African Americans, listing her hometown as "Pueblo, Mexico".<ref name="Brown-HoaW" />Template:Rp At the Conservatory, she studied composition and counterpoint with composers George Chadwick and Frederick Converse.<ref name=Slonimsky /> 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.<ref>Slonimsky and biography.com agree on 1906.</ref>

CareerEdit

In 1910, Smith returned to Arkansas, where she taught briefly before moving to Atlanta, Georgia. 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 gave up her teaching position and moved back to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he had his practice and had two daughters.<ref name=":0" /> She could not find work in the by now racially segregated town.

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.<ref name="Brown-HoaW" />Template:Rp

<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

According to her daughter, Florence really wanted to be a doctor but felt the difficulties of becoming a woman doctor at the time were too formidable. Instead, she became that even greater rarity—a woman composer of symphonies.<ref name="Jackson 1977 pp=29–43">Template:Cite journal</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

}}

{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}

There Florence Price began a new and fulfilling period in her composition career; she was part of the Chicago Black Renaissance. 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.<ref name="Brown-HoaW" />Template:Rp

In 1930, 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.<ref>*The Pittsburgh Courier* (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 6 September 1930.</ref>

In 1931, financial struggles and abuse by her husband resulted in Price getting a divorce at age 44. 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.<ref name="Brown-HoaW" />Template:Rp 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.<ref name="Symphony nos. 1 and 3">Template:Cite book</ref> (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.<ref>See "Program Notes on Florence B. Price for Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 'Rivers' Series by Barbara Wright-Pryor, President, Chicago Music Association, NANM, Inc.". John Malveaux Music.</ref> 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,<ref>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 Template:Webarchive, and Part 3</ref> George's underwriting made Price the first African-American woman to have her music played by a major U.S. orchestra.<ref name="Symphony nos. 1 and 3" /><ref name="NewMusicBox">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Brown-HoaW" />Template:Rp

In 1934, Price represented her class at the Chicago Musical College, performing her Concerto in D minor for Piano and Orchestra as part of the 1934 commencement program. This performance was met with critical acclaim. She would go on to perform this Concerto at the National Association of Negro Musicians in Pittsburgh, gaining further critical praise from The Pittsburgh Press and the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph. The Telegraph specifically praised Price's blending of her African American culture into her work, calling it "real American music."<ref name="Maxile 2008 123–138">Template:Cite journal</ref>

During the 1930s, a number of Price's other orchestral works were played by the Works Progress Administration Symphony Orchestra of Detroit and the Women's Symphony Orchestra of Chicago.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> On October 12, 1934, the Women's Symphony Orchestra of Chicago, a well known orchestra which uplifted women composers and performers, performed the Concerto. This began a long term association between the orchestra and Price. This partnership helped Price to gain recognition, and her Concerto in D minor would go on to be performed by other major symphonies within her lifetime, including the Chicago symphony and the Michigan Works Progress Administration Orchestra.<ref name="Maxile 2008 123–138"/>

In 1940, Price was inducted into the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers 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 BuildinTemplate:'", and dedicated them to Marian Anderson, who performed them on a regular basis.<ref name="pricefest about Florence">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

In 1912, Price married prominent Arkansas attorney Thomas J. Price (also known as John Gray Lucas)<ref name="FP">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> upon returning to Arkansas from Atlanta. Together, they had two daughters and a son: Florence (d. 1975), Edith (d. 1963), and Thomas Jr (d. 1920).<ref name="RF">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>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,</ref>

On June 3, 1953, Price died from a stroke in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 66.<ref name="Brown-HoaW" />Template:Rp

Legacy and honorsEdit

File:Price School, Kenwood, Chicago.jpeg
Price Elementary School, Chicago

In 1964, the Chicago Public Schools opened Florence B. Price Elementary School (also known as Price Lit & Writing Elementary School) at 4351 South Drexel Boulevard in the North Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois in her honor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Price Elementary'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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In February 2019, The University of Arkansas Honors College held a concert honoring Price.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> From January 4 to 8, 2021, Price was the BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week.

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 gained attention for their works, so did Price. In 2001, the Women's Philharmonic created an album of some of her work.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2011, pianist Karen Walwyn and The New Black Repertory Ensemble performed Price's Concerto in One Movement and Symphony in E minor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In February 2025, a crater on the planet Mercury was named in her honor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Discovery of manuscripts in 2009Edit

In 2009, a substantial collection of her works and papers was found in an abandoned dilapidated house on the outskirts of St. Anne, Illinois, which Price had used as a summer home.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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."<ref>Ross, Alex, "The Rediscovery of Florence Price" Template:Webarchive, The New Yorker, February 5, 2018.</ref> Three settings of her work Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight were rediscovered in 2009; a setting for orchestra, organ, chorus, and soloists was premiered on April 12, 2019, by the Du Bois Orchestra and Lyricora Chamber Choir in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In November 2018, the music publisher G. Schirmer announced that it had acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to Florence Price's complete catalog.<ref>"News – G. Schirmer Acquires Florence Price Catalog Template:Webarchive"</ref><ref>Michael Cooper, "A Rediscovered African-American Female Composer Gets a Publisher", The New York Times, November 15, 2018</ref> In 2021, classical pianist Lara Downes initiated a project, Rising Sun Music, to draw attention to the influence of composers from a diversity of backgrounds upon American Classical music, assisted by producers such as Adam Abeshouse, to release newly recorded works of composers such as Price and Harry Burleigh, whose importance often has been lost in historical accounts of the development in the field.<ref>Beaugez, Jim, How Black Composers Shaped the Sound of American Classical Music, Smithsonian, February 5, 2021</ref>

With the 2022 installment in the Catalyst Quartet's ongoing Uncovered series focusing on the music of Black composers comes nearly two hours' worth of Price's chamber music. "The most substantial piece, Price's A-minor Quintet for Piano and Strings got its first recording just last year, courtesy of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. Like that one, this performance impresses for its technical and expressive excellence: everything's beautifully balanced and comes to life just as it should." Also from artsfuse.org's Jonathan Blumhofer: "Taken together, this is an album that's at once musically significant but, more than that, thoroughly enjoyable. How tragic that, largely on account of her race and gender, Price's music was almost erased. Yet how happy it is that revivals do happen – and how exciting that, thanks to the advocacy of groups like the Catalysts and musicians like [Michelle] Cann, we're seeing a deserving composer finally taking her place in the American canon."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReceptionEdit

Price was well received during her time, and she was particularly celebrated in Chicago. However, even her positive reviews were influenced by the common belief of the time that many women were performers, and a woman composer was a novelty. As a result, several of Price's reviews focused more on her performing abilities than her compositional skills.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

She was cognizant of these issues. When writing to a composer she admired, Price prefaced her work with, "I have two handicaps - those of sex and race." She addressed these facts upfront in order to request a review of her work that was free of sexism or racism. Despite these challenges, Price received praise for the blending of both her traditional western education and African American culture in her music, and was seen as a pioneer for both her gender and race.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

WorksEdit

Composition styleEdit

Even though her training was steeped in European tradition, Price's music is in an American idiom.<ref name=":0" /> The strong influence of the composition style of Antonín Dvořák is often noticeable, e.g., in her first violin concerto and more broadly in the two composers' lavish orchestrations of reworked folk melodies.<ref name="Szostak 2022">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (This claim is complicated by the fact that Dvořák in turn was heavily influenced by African-American spirituals<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>.) As a 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,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Price began to incorporate elements of African-American spirituals, emphasizing the rhythm and syncopation of the spirituals rather than just using the text. The melody in her first symphony was inspired by African-American spirituals but solidly rooted in instrumental writing. Compared with Dvorak's 9th symphony, the third movement is titled Juba Dance. This antebellum folk dance had already inspired European art music composers in its later manifestation the cakewalk, such as Debussy's "Golliwogg's Cakewalk" in Children's Corner (1908).<ref name="Brown-HoaW" />Template:Rp

Florence Price composed numerous works: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works, art songs, and music for chamber and solo instruments, organ anthems, piano pieces, spiritual arrangements, a piano concerto, and two violin concertos. In the program notes for her piano piece Three Little Negro Dances, Price wrote: "In all types of Negro music, rhythm is of preeminent importance. In the dance, it is a compelling, onward-sweeping force that tolerates no interruption... All phases of truly Negro activity—whether work or play, singing or praying—are more than apt to take on a rhythmic quality."<ref name="Jackson 1977 pp=30–43">Template:Cite journal</ref>

SymphoniesEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Symphony No. 2 in G minor (c. 1935, presumed lost<ref name="Smith 2018"/>)
  • Symphony No. 3 in C minor (1938–40)<ref name="UA ArchivesSpace Symphony #3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ConcertosEdit

  • Piano Concerto in D minor (in one movement)<ref name="Counts 2023">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major (1939)<ref name="Smith 2018"/>
  • Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor (1952)<ref name="Smith 2018"/>
  • Rhapsody/Fantasie for piano and orchestra (date unknown, possibly incomplete)

Other orchestral worksEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 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")<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • The Oak, tone poem (1943);
  • Songs of the Oak, tone poem (1943);
  • Suite of Negro Dances (performed in 1951;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> orchestral version of the Three Little Negro Dances for piano, 1933;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>); also referred to as Suite of Dances

  • Dances in the Canebrakes (orchestral version of the piano work, 1953)

ChoralEdit

Template:Div col

  • "The Moon Bridge" (Mary Rolofson Gamble), SSA, pf (1930); in Florence B. Price: Two Moon Songs for Women's Chorus and Piano, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan Editions, 2025)
  • "The New Moon" (Follen), SSAA, pf duet (one kbd, 4 hnds) (1930), in Florence B. Price: Two Moon Songs for Women's Chorus and Piano, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan Editions, 2025)
  • "The Wind and the Sea" (P. L. Dunbar), SSAATTBB, pf, str qt, 1934;
  • "Night" (Bessie Mayle), SSA, pf (1945)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • "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), 2 versions: first version for SATB soli, ch, orch, org (March-June 1939) (New York: G. Schirmer, 2019); revised version for SATB soli, ch, pf (June 1939-December 1941), ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan Editions, 2025)
  • "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

Template:Div col end

Solo vocal (art songs and spirituals, all with piano)Edit

Template:Div col

  • "Don't You Tell Me No" (Price) (between 1931 and 1934)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020">ed. John Michael Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2020)</ref><ref>World-premiere recording by Christine Jobson on Nearly Lost: Art Songs by Florence Price Template:Webarchive (N2A Publishing, 2019).</ref>
  • "Brown Arms (To Mother)" (Owens) (1931 or 1932), in Florence B. Price: Seven Songs on Texts of African American Poets, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2024).
  • "Dreamin' Town" (Dunbar), 1934
  • 4 Songs, B-Bar, 1935
  • "My Dream" (Hughes), 1935
  • Four Negro Songs (Dunbar), March 20–21, 1935, in Seven Songs on Texts of African American Poets, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2024). 1. Easy-goin', 2. Summah Night, 3. Dat's My Gal, or The Photograph, 4. Goo'-bye, Jinks.
  • "Four Songs" from The Weary Blues (Hughes) (April 26, 1935): "My Dream",<ref>Hughes: "Dream Variation"</ref> "Songs to the Dark Virgin", "Ardella", "Dream Ships".<ref>Hughes: "Water-Front Streets"</ref>"<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2021">ed. John Michael Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2021)</ref><ref name="Cooper">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> [Note: The Weary Blues here refers to the anthology volume, not the title poem itself.]

  • "Dawn's Awakening" (J. J. Burke), 1936;
  • "God Gives Me You" (Connelly) (ca. 1937), in Florence B. Price: Seventeen Art Songs and Spirituals, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2025)
  • "Fantasy in Purple" (Hughes) (1940)
  • "Life" (Dunbar) (1940) in Florence B. Price: Seventeen Art Songs and Spirituals, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2025)
  • "After the Winter" (McKay) (1941) in Florence B. Price: Seventeen Art Songs and Spirituals, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2025)
  • "Lethe" (Johnson) (1941) in Florence B. Price: Seventeen Art Songs and Spirituals, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2025)
  • Monologue for the Working Class (Langston Hughes) (October 1941)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>see “Florence Price and Langston Hughes Cast a Ballot for the Working Class”Template:Dead link, Journeys (blog), October 27, 2020.s</ref><ref>Perf. Justin Hopkins and Jeanne-Minette Cilliers Template:Webarchive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uoX_9WMGbo Template:Webarchive)</ref>
  • "My Little Dreams (to the memory of my husband) (Johnson) (ca. 1942) in Florence B. Price: Seventeen Art Songs and Spirituals, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2025)
  • "Feet o' Jesus" (Hughes) (1944)
  • "Hold Fast to Dreams" (Hughes), 1945
  • Lullaby (For a Black Mother) (Hughes) (1945), in Florence B. Price: Seven Songs on Texts of African American Poets, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2024).
  • "Night" (L. C. Wallace) (1946)
  • "Out of the South Blew a Wind" (F.C. Woods) (1946)
  • "Beyond the Years" (Dunbar) (ca. 1947), in Florence B. Price: Seventeen Art Songs and Spirituals, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2025)
  • My Soul and I" (Tolson) (1947), in Florence B. Price: Seven Songs on Texts of African American Poets, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2024)
  • "Before This Time another Year" (spiritual) (September 1948), in Florence B. Price: Seventeen Art Songs and Spirituals, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2025)
  • "Rhapsody" (Braithwaite) (ca. 1948) in Florence B. Price: Seventeen Art Songs and Spirituals, ed. John Michael Cooper (Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan, 2025)
  • "An April Day" (J. F. Cotter) (1949)
  • "The Envious Wren" (A. and P. Carey)
  • "Forever" (Dunbar) (1939)
  • "The Glory of the Day was in her Face" (J. W. Johnson) (1935)
  • "The Heart of a Woman" (G. D. Johnson), 1941<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2019"/>
  • "Love-in-a-Mist" (Gamble) (1930)
  • "Nightfall" (Dunbar); "Resignation" (Price), also arr. chorus;
  • "Song of the Open Road; Sympathy" (Dunbar);
  • "To my Little Son" (J. J. Davis) (1950);<ref>John Michael Cooper, "Florence Price, Motherhood, and Loss," Women's Song Forum</ref>
  • "Travel's End" (M. F. Hoisington), 1933
  • "Judgement Day" (Hughes). (Hughes)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2019"/>
  • "Some o' These Days"<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/> (ca. 1940)
  • about 70 other works

Template:Div col end

Instrumental chamber musicEdit

  • Andante con espressione (1929)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2019"/>
  • String Quartet (No. 1) in G major (1929)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Fantasie [No. 1] in G Minor for Violin and Piano (1933)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2019"/>
  • String Quartet (No. 2) in A minor (published in 1935)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>new edition, ed. John Michael Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2019)</ref>

  • Piano Quintet in E minor (1936)
  • Piano Quintet in A minor (1952)<ref name="Harding 2023">Template:Cite thesis</ref>
  • Five Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet (1950)<ref name="Counts 2023-01-12">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Fantasy [No. 2] in F-sharp Minor for Violin and Piano (1940)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Moods, for Flute, Clarinet and Piano (1953)
  • Spring Journey, for 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass and piano

Works for pianoEdit

Template:Div col

  • Tarantella (1926)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Impromptu No. 1 (1926)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Valsette Mignon (1926)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Preludes (1926–32): No. 1 Allegro moderato; No. 2 Andantino cantabile; No. 3 Allegro molto; No. 4 ["Wistful"] Allegretto con tenerezza; No. 5 Allegro<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • At the Cotton Gin (1927); published by G. Schirmer (New York), 1928
  • [Six Descriptive Pieces]: [No. 1] Little Truants (October 7, 1927); No. 2. Two Busy Little Hands; No. 3. Hard Problems (October 9, 1927); [No. 4.] Tittle Tattle; [No. 5] In Romance Land (October 24–25, 1927); [No. 6.] Hilda's Waltz (October 26, 1927).<ref name="ReferenceA">ed. John Michael Cooper, in Seven Descriptive Pieces (New York: G. Schirmer, 2020)</ref>
  • Pensive Mood (March 3, 1928)<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
  • Scherzo in G (May 24, 1929 [?])<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Song without Words in G Major (No definite date)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Meditation ([ca. 1929])<ref name="Cooper 2020">ed. John Michael "Cooper (New York: G. Schirmer, 2020)</ref><ref>Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Records FL0018 [2020]) Template:Webarchive</ref>
  • 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 September 3, 1930, by Margaret Bonds at twelfth annual convention of National Association of Negro Musicians, Chicago).<ref>*The Pittsburgh Courier*, September 6, 1930.</ref>
  • On a Quiet Lake (June 23, 1929)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Waltz of the Spring Maid (ca. early 1930s)<ref>ed. Barbara Garvey Jackson (Fayetteville, Arkansas: ClarNan, 2017)</ref><ref name="John Michael Cooper 2021"/>
  • Barcarolle (ca. 1929–32)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • His Dream (ca. 1930–31)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Cotton Dance (Dance of the Cotton Blossoms) (1931)
  • Fantasie nègre No. 2 in G minor (March 1932)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>Recorded by Lara Downes, Flipside Music FL0024 [2020])</ref><ref>See John Michael Cooper, “Full Circle: On the Recovery of Florence B. Price’s Fantasie nègre No. 2”, Journeys (blog), March 22, 2020.</ref>
  • Fantasie nègre No. 3 in F minor (March 30, 1932)
  • Fantasie nègre No. 4 in B minor (April 5, 1932 – [ca. 1937]) (4 versions)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>Posthumous premiere by Lara Downes at New England Conservatory, November 1, 2019</ref><ref>Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Music FL0017 Template:Webarchive [2020])</ref>
  • Song without Words in A Major (April 21, 1932)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Piano Sonata in E minor (1932)
  • Child Asleep (July 6, 1932)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Etude [in C major] [ca. 1932]<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>See John Michael Cooper, “Florence Price, Teacher” Template:Webarchive, Journeys (blog), July 14, 2020.</ref>
  • 3 Little Negro Dances (1933): Rabbit Foot, Hoe Cake, Ticklin' Toes. Also arranged for concert band (1939);<ref>This band arrangement by Erik Leidzen is first advertised by publisher Theodore Presser in Music Educators Journal, October 1939, 47.</ref> for two pianos (1949); and for orchestra (before 1951)
  • Tecumseh (published by Carl Fischer, New York, 1935)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Scenes in Tin Can Alley (ca. 1937): "The Huckster" (October 1, 1928), "Children at Play", "Night"<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • 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)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>See John Michael Cooper, “Summer Moon: Reflections on a Little-Known Gem by Florence Price”, Journeys (blog), May 17, 2020.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Down a Southern Lane (April 29, 1939)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Joy in June (June 27, 1938)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2021"/>
  • On a Summer's Eve (June 15, 1939)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Rocking chair (1939)
  • Thumbnail Sketches of a Day in the Life of a Washerwoman (ca. 1938–40).<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/> Two versions. First version consists of "Morning", "Dreaming at the Washtub", "A Gay Moment", and "Evening Shadows"; second version omits "Dreaming at the Washtub".<ref name="cooperm55.wixsite.com">See John Michael Cooper, “Florence Price and Racist Stereotypes” Template:Webarchive, Journeys (blog), July 16, 2020.</ref>
  • Rowing: Little Concert Waltz [?1930s].<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • [Ten Negro Spirituals for the Piano] [1937–42):<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/> 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].<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2021"/>
  • Remembrance (1941 or earlier) (to Mr. Henry S. Sawyer)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Village Scenes (1942): "Church Spires in Moonlight", "A Shaded Lane", "The Park"<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>See John Michael Cooper, "Florence Price and Tranquility" Template:Webarchive, Journeys (blog), July 13, 2020.</ref>
  • Your Hands in Mine (1943) (originally titled Memory Lane)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Rock-a-bye (1947)
  • [Six Piano Pieces] (November 11 and 12, 1947)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2021"/>
  • [Three Roses]: To a Yellow Rose, To a White Rose,<ref>Two separate compositions bear the title To a White Rose and were conceived as part of this set.</ref> To a Red Rose (1949)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Records FL0020] [2020]): To a Yellow Rose; To a White Rose (Version B); To a Red Rose</ref>
  • To a Brown Leaf (1949)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • First Romance (ca. 1940s)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>Recorded by Lara Downes (Flipside Records 0020 [2020)</ref>
  • Waltzing on a Sunbeam (ca. 1950<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • The Goblin and the Mosquito (1951)
  • Snapshots (1952): I. Lake Mirror (October 13, 1952), II. Moon behind a Cloud (July 17, 1949), III. Flame (January 14, 1949)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref>See John Michael Cooper, “Florence Price and the Art of Musical Storytelling: Snapshots for Piano Solo” Template:Webarchive, Journeys (blog), August 7, 2020.</ref>
  • Until We Meet (1952)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Dances in the Canebrakes (1953); also orchestrated
  • about 70 teaching pieces

Undated:

  • I'm Troubled in My Mind<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2019"/>
  • Pieces to a Certain Pair of Newlyweds [only No. 1]<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • Three Miniature Portraits of Uncle Ned (originally "Three Miniature Portraits of Uncle Joe"; later "Two Photographs" (second version performed April 15, 1948)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/><ref name="cooperm55.wixsite.com"/>

Template:Div col end

Arrangements of spiritualsEdit

  • "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);<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2020"/>
  • "Some o' These Days", arrangement for voice and piano, date uncertain (likely in the late 1930s or early 1940s).[1]
  • Two Traditional Negro Spirituals, 1 v, pf (1940): "I Am Bound for the Kingdom" and "I'm Workin' on My BuildinTemplate:'"<ref>Template:Citation</ref> 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.Template:Citation needed
  • "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" (Arranged by Price, ca. 1940s-1950)
  • "Peter, Go Ring dem Bells" (undated)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2019"/>
  • Variations on a Folksong (Peter, go ring dem bells)", org (date uncertain, likely mid-20th century);[2]
  • "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
    • Manuscripts of approximately 40 songs in US-PHu (Philadelphia); other manuscripts in private collections and archives at the U. of Arkansas anfn the U. of Florida.[3]

Works for organEdit

(supplied by Calvert Johnson) Template:Div col

  • Adoration in The Organ Portfolio vol. 15/86 (December 1951), Dayton OH: Lorenz Publishing Co., 34–35.
  • Andante, July 24, 1952
  • Andantino con espressione, 1929
  • 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 August 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)<ref name="John Michael Cooper 2019"/>
  • Tempo moderato [no title], seriously damaged and possibly incomplete]
  • Variations on a Folksong
    • Principal publishers: Fischer, Gamble-Hinged, Handy, McKinley, Presser

Template:End div col

Works for violin (with piano accompaniment)Edit

  • Andante Con Espressione
  • Deserted Garden
  • Elfentanz
  • Fantasie in G minor for Violin and Piano (1933)

DiscographyEdit

Selected recordings of compositions by Florence Price
Year Album Performers Label
1987 Althea Waites Performs the Piano Music of Florence Price<ref name=":4">Template:Cite journal</ref>" Althea Waites Cambria Records
1993 Art Songs by American Composers Yolanda Marcoulescou-Stern Gasparo Records
1993 Black Diamonds Althea Waites Cambria Records
1997 Chicago Renaissance Woman: Florence B. Price Organ Works Calvert Johnson Calcante CAL 014
Here's One [Music for Violin and Piano by American Composers] (The Deserted Garden)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Zina Schiff; violin; Cameron Grant; piano 4-Tay Inc. 4TAY-CD-4005
2000 Negro Speaks of Rivers Odekhiren Amaize; David Korevaar Musician's Showcase
2001 Florence Price: The Oak; Mississippi River Suite; and Symphony No. 3 / Women's Philharmonic Apo Hsu; Women's Philharmonic Koch International Classics
2006 Lucille Field Sings Songs by American Women Composers Lucille Field Cambria Records
2011 Florence B. Price: Concerto in One Movement and Symphony in E minor Leslie B Dunner; Karen Walwyn; New Black Repertory Ensemble Albany TROY1295
2013 Piano Phantoms (The Goblin and the Mosquito)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Michael Lewin; piano Sono Luminus DSL-92168
2018 Florence B. Price: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 (D major – 1939) and 2 (D minor – 1952) Er-Gene Kahng; Janacek Philharmonic; Ryan Cockerham Albany TROY1706
Florence B. Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 (E minor – 1932) and 4 (D minor – 1945)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Fort Smith Symphony; John Jeter Naxos American Classics
2019 Florence Price: The Deserted Garden (1933) and Elfentanz (undated) Dawn Wohn; violin and Esther Park; piano Perspectives; Delos Music DE 3547
Florence B. Price: Dances in the Canebrakes (Nimble Feet / Tropical Noon / Silk Hat and Walking Cane)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

arranged by William Grant Still (1895–1978) for orchestra / Chicago Sinfonietta; Mei-Ann Chen Album Project W – Works by Woman Composers Cedille Records
Beyond the Traveler: Piano Music by Composers from Arkansas (Sonata in E minor)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Cole Burger; piano MSR Classics
2020 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
Pioneers: Piano Works by Female Composers (Piano Sonata in E minor: II. Andante)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Hiroko Ishimoto; piano Grand Piano; HNH International GP844
2021 Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin Deutsche Grammophon
American Quintets: Amy Beach; Florence Price; Samuel Barber (Quintet; c. 1935)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective Chandos CHAN 20224
Florence Beatrice Price: Symphony No. 3 in C minor (1940); The Mississippi River (1934); Ethiopia's Shadow in America (1932)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra; John Jeter Naxos Naxos 8 559897
Florence Price – Virtuoso and Poet Alan Morrison; organ ACA Digital Recordings; Inc. CM 20132
2022 Uncovered, Vol. 2: Florence B. Price Catalyst Quartet; Michelle Cann, piano Azica Records
2023 Wander-Thirst: The Choral Music of Florence Price University of Arkansas Schola Cantorum; Dr. Stephen Caldwell Hill Records
2024 Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price Karen Slack; soprano & Michelle Cann; piano Azica Records

AdaptationsEdit

Orchestral worksEdit

  • Adoration (1951/2024), arranged for orchestra by Kai Johannes Polzhofer<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

Additional sourcesEdit

  • Ammer, Christine. Unsung: A History of Women in American Music. Portland Oregon, Amadeus Press, 2001
  • Brown, Rae Linda. Grove Music 2001. 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 readingEdit

External linksEdit

|CitationClass=web }}

|CitationClass=web }} Downes' mini-album features music by Florence Price and Harry T. Burleigh. The interview discusses Florence Price.

Template:Florence Price Template:Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Florence_Price&oldid=797997"