Post by erik on Mar 19, 2022 18:00:12 GMT -5
The First Lady of African-American composers Florence Price is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight with her Third Symphony, a work first heard as America was slowly but surely coming out of a deep economic and historical downturn.
Florence Price: SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN C MINOR
Near the end of the 20th century and into the first years of the 21st century, there was an explosion of appreciation for African-American composers, notably William Grant Still and William Levi Dawson. But there was also, in the second decade of the 21st century, a larger appreciation for the mid-20th century female African-American composer Florence Price, who lived from 1887 to 1953, and who, in retrospect, was as influential as her male compatriots. Although her life was surprisingly short, she managed to compose four impressive roots-inspired symphonies that owe their existence to the same African-American musical dialect that informed both Dawson and Still; and like them, her impressive achievements are given credit really only in retrospect due to the inherent sexism and racism of the time. Her Third Symphony was commissioned by the Works Project Administration’s Federal Music Project in 1938 as the nation was coming out of the nearly decade-long Great Depression. Ms. Price worked over this particular work over the next two years until it got its premiere on November 6, 1940 by the Detroit Civic Orchestra under the direction of Valter Poole. What differentiates that from its companions in Ms. Price’s output is the lessening of the use of African-American themes for themes more redolent (and shockingly so) of Wagner and Shostakovich. It is structured, in its thirty-one minute shape, as a traditional four-movement work, though with a lively Juba (a traditional style of the African-American sound) serving as its third movement, and a Scherzo serving as its finale. Ms. Price’s works have undergone a strong revival in the 21st century, as the reality of the African-American musical experience, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, has gained credence in the concert halls.
Philadelphia Orchestra/YANNICK NEZET-SEGUIN (Deutsche Grammophon)
Included:
SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN E MINOR
Florence Price: SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN C MINOR
Near the end of the 20th century and into the first years of the 21st century, there was an explosion of appreciation for African-American composers, notably William Grant Still and William Levi Dawson. But there was also, in the second decade of the 21st century, a larger appreciation for the mid-20th century female African-American composer Florence Price, who lived from 1887 to 1953, and who, in retrospect, was as influential as her male compatriots. Although her life was surprisingly short, she managed to compose four impressive roots-inspired symphonies that owe their existence to the same African-American musical dialect that informed both Dawson and Still; and like them, her impressive achievements are given credit really only in retrospect due to the inherent sexism and racism of the time. Her Third Symphony was commissioned by the Works Project Administration’s Federal Music Project in 1938 as the nation was coming out of the nearly decade-long Great Depression. Ms. Price worked over this particular work over the next two years until it got its premiere on November 6, 1940 by the Detroit Civic Orchestra under the direction of Valter Poole. What differentiates that from its companions in Ms. Price’s output is the lessening of the use of African-American themes for themes more redolent (and shockingly so) of Wagner and Shostakovich. It is structured, in its thirty-one minute shape, as a traditional four-movement work, though with a lively Juba (a traditional style of the African-American sound) serving as its third movement, and a Scherzo serving as its finale. Ms. Price’s works have undergone a strong revival in the 21st century, as the reality of the African-American musical experience, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, has gained credence in the concert halls.
Philadelphia Orchestra/YANNICK NEZET-SEGUIN (Deutsche Grammophon)
Included:
SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN E MINOR