Post by erik on Aug 12, 2023 19:25:20 GMT -5
The recent revival of the female African-American composer Florence Price has led to many of her works finally being given their due in concerts and on recordings. This week's Classical Works Spotlight looks at another work of hers that highlights the great musical aspects of her ethnicity.
Florence Price: MISSISSIPPI RIVER SUITE
The 21st century has seen an explosion in the revival of a lot of 20th century American works, particularly those by African-American composers; and most important among the composers whose work has generated new attention are the orchestral works of Florence Price, the first African-American woman to get her music played by American orchestras. Although her death in 1953 when unnoticed at a time when Jim Crow was still the law of the land, the deep dive a lot of American music scholars have taken has resulted in her music getting a whole new kind of airing. Three of the four symphonies she composed (the Second is sadly believed to have been lost) have been recorded with great success. One of Price’s other works to have gotten a hearing is her 1940 composition “Mississippi River Suite”. Not to be confused with the similarly named travelogue suite by Ferde Grofe, Price’s suite, composed in 1934 and, like so much of her orchestral music, is rooted in native African-American music forms and spirituals. It is a seven-movement suite performed in an unbroken chain that consists of the following spirituals: “Stand Still Jordan”; “Deep River”; “Go Down Moses”: Laloette”; Steamboat Bill”; “River Song”; and “Nobody Knows Da Trouble I Seen”. Though influenced as much by the popular style of George Gershwin as that of her own African-American contemporaries (William Grant Still; William Levi Dawson), Ms. Price showed herself on all of her compositions, including the “Mississippi River Suite”, to be her own woman; and though the revival of her music came more than a half century too late for her to reap the whirlwind benefits, the American music scene is clearly better for having composers like her and works like hers becoming a new part of the American classical music landscape.
Women’s Philharmonic Orchestra of San Francisco/APO HSU (Alto)
Included:
THE OAK
SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN C MINOR
Florence Price: MISSISSIPPI RIVER SUITE
The 21st century has seen an explosion in the revival of a lot of 20th century American works, particularly those by African-American composers; and most important among the composers whose work has generated new attention are the orchestral works of Florence Price, the first African-American woman to get her music played by American orchestras. Although her death in 1953 when unnoticed at a time when Jim Crow was still the law of the land, the deep dive a lot of American music scholars have taken has resulted in her music getting a whole new kind of airing. Three of the four symphonies she composed (the Second is sadly believed to have been lost) have been recorded with great success. One of Price’s other works to have gotten a hearing is her 1940 composition “Mississippi River Suite”. Not to be confused with the similarly named travelogue suite by Ferde Grofe, Price’s suite, composed in 1934 and, like so much of her orchestral music, is rooted in native African-American music forms and spirituals. It is a seven-movement suite performed in an unbroken chain that consists of the following spirituals: “Stand Still Jordan”; “Deep River”; “Go Down Moses”: Laloette”; Steamboat Bill”; “River Song”; and “Nobody Knows Da Trouble I Seen”. Though influenced as much by the popular style of George Gershwin as that of her own African-American contemporaries (William Grant Still; William Levi Dawson), Ms. Price showed herself on all of her compositions, including the “Mississippi River Suite”, to be her own woman; and though the revival of her music came more than a half century too late for her to reap the whirlwind benefits, the American music scene is clearly better for having composers like her and works like hers becoming a new part of the American classical music landscape.
Women’s Philharmonic Orchestra of San Francisco/APO HSU (Alto)
Included:
THE OAK
SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN C MINOR