A few (more) words about Florence Price

When I first came across Florence Price's "Adoration" I was surprised that she wrote it in 1951. If you were a composer in 1951 it was not "cool" to write tonal music. Manipulating dodecophonic tone rows was considered by influential twentieth-century European composers as the "next phase" of music after Wagner and Brahms. Price, who studied in America with George Chadwick, was a traditionalist. She was still writing tonal music during a time when tonal composers were rarely taken seriously. Thank goodness we have moved beyond the influence of the mostly male and academic "gatekeepers" who dismissed what they had never heard as not being worth hearing.

I am so happy that Price's music is now, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, being performed and recorded. I also hope that this recent Price "frenzy" (I am speaking in relative terms here) lasts into the next decades and through the twenty-first century because of the quality of her music, and the immaginative way she uses the traditional orchestra. I hope that a twentieth century composer she will be considered an important voice, and that people of the future (near and distant) will talk about her music and play it because of its quality, and not only because they want to avoid just playing music by composers who are male and/or white.

Wouldn't it be great if in the future people listening to the radio might hear a piece by Florence Price that they had never heard before and recognize her compositional style? There are ways of keeping Price's music in the public ear, but in ordet to do so broadcasters, teachers, and people who present concerts will have to take risks.

For starters you can find entries for Florence Price in the WorldCat, including a 1929 String Quartet, and an undated String Quartet No. 2, Five folksongs in counterpoint for string quartet, lots of songs (many set to poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Langston Hughes), a Quintet for Piano and Strings, two Fantisies for violin and piano, two violin concertos, three symphonies (some of her better-known works), a lot of piano music, a lot of organ music, some religious music, and some educational music.

Musicologists take note: there are pieces that are still in manuscript. University librarians take note: having Price's music in your library means that it will be available for present and future generations of students to study and perform.