Florence Price, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, was a pioneer black American composer who distinguished herself early on. Most notably, she is remembered as the first black American woman to garner success as a composer of symphonic music. Her first symphony is perhaps her best-known work. Winner of a national prize, it was given its première in 1933 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—a social and cultural milestone in this country at that time.
As a young woman she journeyed north to Boston to study at the New England Conservatory, and afterwards returned to Arkansas and Georgia to teach at various small black colleges. After marriage she and her husband left a racially troubled Arkansas in 1927 for Chicago and her further study at the American Conservatory of Music. Her career blossomed, and recognition for her art led to the afore-mentioned symphony in 1931, followed by two more symphonies, concertos, and other works for orchestra. She composed in a variety of other genres: chamber works, piano music, and vocal compositions--over three hundred in all! Her songs and arrangements of spirituals were perhaps her most performed compositions, but they are not necessarily her distinguishing works. Sadly, little of her œuvre has been published, but with her increasing popularity today, that situation is rapidly changing. Now, her renaissance is owed in large part to the discovery not long ago of a substantial treasure trove of her compositions in a derelict house, including major works for orchestra. Included in this remarkable find was the short work for organ, Adoration.
Price played the organ, and earlier in her life had spent some time playing it in church, as well as in movie theatres. Her life as a composer was understandably fraught with difficulties, so it is not surprising at all that many of her works were never registered under copyright. And thus it is with Adoration. So, today we enjoy many arrangements of the piece in great variety—from ‘cello choir to piano and solo viola. Tonight’s version is an arrangement for string orchestra.
Adoration, written in the early 1950s, is couched in a lush, late romantic style that defies time, place, as well as personal qualities of the composer. The twentieth century that Price lived and worked in had yielded a remarkable avalanche of newer ways of composing, playing, and hearing music—led by familiar names like Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartók, Shostakovich, and a host of others. But, here in this little gem by Price, that contemporary world does not exist. Rather, here is an eloquent, lyrical repose of pure traditional musical beauty. Simple in its three-part form and straightforward in texture, it evidences the innate musicality of a composer who was equally gifted in the large form challenges of the symphony and the concerto. Speaking of his compositions, near the end of his life, Gustav Mahler famously said, “My time will come.” And so it is with Price. Though she achieved laudable recognition during her life, her star faded, only to resurge more luminously a half century after her death.
--Wm. E. Runyan
©2023 William E. Runyan