Life is a Symphony... In E Minor Of Course: The Life and Music of Florence Beatrice Price

Florence Price was the first African-American woman to have her symphonic compositions performed by a major American orchestra.

Florence Smith (1887- 1953) was born to a dentist and music teacher, in Little Rock, Arkansas, on April 9th. She went to elementary school in Little Rock and was classmates with another great symphonic composer, William Grant Still.

Florence received her early musical training from her mother and published compositions while still in high school.

New England Conservatory and Beyond

After graduating as valedictorian, she went on to study music at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1906 she graduated with teaching certificates in both organ and piano.In 1907, Florence began teaching music at Shorter College in Arkansas and in 1910, she became the head of the music department at Clark University, in Atlanta, Georgia.

After marrying Thomas Price in 1912, Florence Price's musical activites became primarily confined to her private teaching studio in Little Rock Arkansas. According to UXL Encyclopedia, from time to time she would enter her compositions into contests. In 1925 and 1927, Florence placed second in and Opportunity Magazine contest. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, she was denied membership to the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association because of her race.

Discovering The Good Life in Chicago

By 1926, the racial climate in Little Rock had deteriorated to a point where there was a lynching in a middle-class black neighborhood, and the Price's moved to Chicago. Florence took advantage of this opportunity and enrolled in Chicago Musical College, Chicago teacher's College, the University of Chicago, Central YMCA College, the Lewis Institute, and the American Conservatory of Music. 

A flurry of musical events in Chicago, is what fed her growing fame. In 1928, G. Schirmer, a major publishing firm, published Price's At the Cotton Gin, and several other of her compositions.

Symphony in E Minor

In 1932, Price won the Rodman wanamaker competition for her Symphony in E Minor, which attracted the attention of the conductor Frederick Stock. June 15, 1933, it premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and later with the orchestras of Detroit, Michigan, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and Brooklyn, New York.

Because this was the first time an African-American woman had presented her work on such a stage, she was able to share a similar accomplishment with William Grant Still and William Dawson, whose works had been performed by leading orchestras in the 30's and 40's.

According to Helen Walker-Hill's From Spirituals to Symphnoies, Florence Price's musical style could be characterized as conservative and late-roamntic. Musch like Antonin Dvorak, she did not always quote black folk melodies, but rather sought to imbue much or her work with characteristic black idiomatic nuances, such as melodic falling thirds, the cakewalk, and juba rhythms, In fact, the third movement of Price's Symphony is entitled Juba Dance.

Price's other Important Compositions

Price's art songs and spiritual arrangements were often performed by famous singers. Most notably was contralto Marion Andersoon, who sang Price's arrangement of My soul's been anchored in de Lord, in her famous performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. In 1932, Price's Sonata in E Minor took first prize in the Wanamaker competition, the same year Margaret Bonds won top prize, in the song category, for her Sea Ghost.

In all, Florence Price composed over 300 pieces for solo piano, voice, orchestra, and chorus. According to Walker-Hill, her music is Negroid in character and expression yet was never intended to project black music in a traditional sense. Price's music skillfully blends classical forms and techniques with black folk idioms.

Sources

1. Walker-Hill, Helen. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. University of Chicago Press; Chicago. 2007.
2. "Florence Beatrice Price (1887- 1953)," Africlassical.com. 06, Febuary 2006.
3. "Price, Florence Beatrice". UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography. Findarticles.com. 05, June 2005.
4. "Price, Florence Beatrice Smith (1887-1953)," The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Encyclopediaofarkasas.net. 29, January 2009.