Race, Gender, and Rediscovery: The Life and Works of Florence Price
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 18. 05. 2021
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Special thanks to Katharine H. Henry for her assistance on this video.
This was requested by bob blues, Joseph Alvarez, and Dennis Johnson. See all requests at lentovivace.com/classicalnerd....
đ Sources/further reading:
âThe Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Priceâ by Rae Linda Brown (2020, University of Illinois Press)
âThe Aesthetics of Florence Price: Negotiating the Dissonances of a New World Nationalismâ by Samantha Hannah Oboakorevue Ege (Ph.D. thesis, University of York, 2020): etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/27318...
âFlorence Price and the Politics of Her Existenceâ by Samantha Hannah Oboakorevue Ege (A Journal of Women in Music Vol. 16 Iss. 1, Spring 2018)
âThe Poet and Her Songs: Analyzing the Art Songs of Florence B. Priceâ by Marquese Carter (DM dissertation, Jacobs School of Music, 2018): core.ac.uk/download/pdf/21385...
âFlorence B. Priceâs Compositional Style to Song Settings of Paul Laurence Dunbarâs Dialect Poetry: A Performance Guideâ by Daniel Joseph Hunter Jr. (DMA dissertation, UNLV, 2019): digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/c...
âFlorence Price: An Analysis of Select Art Songs with Texts by Female Poetsâ by Christine Jobson (DMA essay, University of Miami, 2019): scholarship.miami.edu/discove...
ââSong to the Dark Virginâ: Race and Gender in Five Art Songs by Florence B. Priceâ by Bethany Jo Smith (MM thesis, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, 2007)
www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
nmbx.newmusicusa.org/plus-ca-...
www.wqxr.org/story/florence-p...
agatetype.typepad.com/agate_t...
www.jstor.org/stable/990613?s...
www.steinerag.com/flw/Artifact...
www.appraisercitywide.com/con...
www.thegreatblackmusicproject....
openhousechicago.org/sites/si...
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Classical Nerd is a video series covering music history, theoretical concepts, and techniques, hosted by composer, pianist, and music history aficionado Thomas Little.
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Music:
- Florence Price: Ethiopiaâs Shadow in America, performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Daniel Blendulf [original upload: zBEJhGaGMks]
- Thomas Little: Dance! #2 in E minor, performed by Rachel Fellows, Michael King, and Bruce Tippette
- Florence Price: The Goblin and the Mosquito, performed by Arun Garg [original upload: XRkWzJveu3c]
- Florence Price: Hold Fast to Dreams, performed by Louise Toppin [original upload: 0c1AyYTcq_w]
- Florence Price: The Oak, performed by the Womenâs Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Apo Hsu [original upload: ql11_plbaTM]
- Florence Price: Mississippi Suite, performed by the the Womenâs Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Apo Hsu [original upload: wfdvCrqzTm0]
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Contact Information:
Questions and comments can be directed to:
nerdofclassical [at] gmail.com
Facebook:
/ classicalnerd
Instagram:
/ the_classical_nerd
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All images and audio in this video are for educational purposes only and are not intended as copyright infringement. If you have a copyright concern, please contact me using the above information.
![[excerpt] The Caged Bird: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/93BYQ7Cex7M/mqdefault.jpg)
While not the highest in the request pool, I think Price is a genuinely interesting figure, and I had done quite a bit of research into Florence Priceâs Symphony No. 1 as a part of an analysis class in the final year of my MFA-so, instead of putting Rae Linda Brownâs biography back on the shelf, I decided I would make use of my research to begin a video on Price. Many hours of reading and a road trip to Natick, MA later, and here it is.
Thank you.
Thank you for this! Are there any known audio or video recordings of Price herself, preferably speaking, not performing (although that would also be welcome)?
She's not highly requested because they made sure no one knew of her. She was a black woman in White America.
Thank-you for your work in putting together this video - Price and her music set me on a quest to seek out and perform as much of the incredible oeuvre of works by African American women...what a travesty that in my undergrad, master's, and doctoral programs, their names were never mentioned, their music never heard. Thank-you for continuing the work of fighting our educational ignorance and prejudice!
I saw the notification and I RUN here
Lol same. Ever since I heard her concerto in person before the pandemic, I've loved her music
Excellent work! The most replete biography of this amazingly talented and gifted woman I have seen to date. Thanks for the hard work and passion you invest in your videos. Your love of music shines through like a beacon.
My undergrad advisor was commissioned to reconstruct the bits of Priceâs rediscovered work that were damaged it was so cool. Thanks so much for this video.
How very cool!
Thank you so much for sharing Composer Florence Price's life. I humbly appreciate this inspiration and lesson in history.
Thank you for bringing Florence Price to my notice. I'm sorry to say that I had never heard of her!
I appreciate that work that went into this video! Thank you for the work and research!
Thank you so much for making this video and for shining the spotlight on a composer who deserves way more acknowledgment for her groundbreaking accomplishments. I love your work, please keep up the amazing videos, God bless.
Well done young man. I have been teaching African American music history for over 15 years. Florence Price is one of my composer/performers of interest, especially for her piano works and Art songs.
Continue your research. It is difficult to present aspects of Florence Price's life as a Black American female musician/composer in an understandable context, especially in our current 2024 socio-cultural climate
This biographical presentation presents information that was not easily available in the early 2000s. It gives those who are interested in extra musical research an accessible background for future research.
My first interest in Florence Price started almost 20 years ago. Much work remains to be done on her as an American composer, for example, musical studies including score discoveries, actual score analysis, performnce practices. Also more Critical Musicology studies of Price and more methodological analysis from an Africana Studies and Women's Studies perspective.
However, your comments at the end should indeed cause reflection for those who perform her music on the "why" of their performance.
Thank you for this wonderful video with so much information about this extraordinary woman, distilled and edited beautifully. I learned so much. I grew up in 1950's Arkansas, and coincidentally got my undergrad degree from NEC, but I had never heard of her until last year! Now I play keyboard for our small Episcopal church in Great Barrington, MA,(birthplace and childhood home of W.E.B. Du Bois) and I will be playing two of her (recently) published spiritual arrangements for the prelude and postlude this Sunday. Again thank you for all your and your team's work.
Thank you for your kind words! Great Barrington is a lovely place, and I'd love to visit your church next time I'm in the area.
I would pass the thanks along if I had a team! Aside from the occasional camera-holder, it's just me.
Our symphony director gave a lecture on her a couple years ago. Always seemed strange to me that American classical music canon is rather small compared to Europe. Weâre (US) still a rather country compared to our elder European brethren. Going to recommend Priceâs first symphony as part of a returning program.
I have been checking out the music of African-American composers - so far I have listened to a bit of William Grant Still and want to get into Nkeiru Okoye - AND THEN YOU DROP THIS. I ran here when I saw this notification. Your videos are hands-down the best in the classical music CZcams world.
Look into the classical period composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. He was a fascinating individual born in Guadeloupe. His mother was a slave and father being the plantation owner. Despite such, he became a well-respected composer in Europe in the mid to late 18th century.
I did a video on him way back in the day.
There is a string orchestra in Soweto, South Africa that has performed several of his works. They have a channel here on YT. They are an AMAZING ensemble. I have seen/heard professional orchestras from around the world that did not play with as much precision and sensitivity as this group.
I discovered Florence Price when I was looking up Grofés "Mississippi Suite" a couple of years ago finding that she had her own composition of the same name. I've been a fan of her work since.
Thank you so much for this comprehensive and engaging talk about Florence Price and her situations during the more socially primitive and unjust times of our country. Ultimately she *has* persevered (and THIS white boy is very happy for this).đ
Thank you for all the work on this. I had never heard of this composer until your video.
Great video! Such an interesting person and composer. Was introduced to her music recently and itâs cool to learn more about her life.
Absolutely enjoyable video. Iâm not a musician (thought I sing in the shower đ ) I find myself often fascinated by topics like this. Cannot imaging there number or other Florence prices that experiment similar events or worse. Excellent work!
10:41 Glad you used the word "inchoate" so that I could hear it out loud! I always stumble when I encounter this word in text, not because I don't understand its meaning, but because I never figured out how to pronounce it, so it sounds really awkward and stands out within a sentence when read by my mind's voice. But no longer, thanks to you!
This is the most detailed account of Florence Price's life. Thank you for your work. Question: What does 'copy out' mean?
I believe this is in the context of making the parts to a symphony? I could also have said "wrote out," but it really is _copying_ the parts from the score and formatting them in a way most readable to players. There's some artistry to it, especially (and she and her friends did) when done by hand.
@@ClassicalNerd
Thank you, Thomas. Particularly touching to me as an AfAm (female) Jazz musician. Beautifully presented. I appreciate your insights, opinions and sensitivity. Long-time Subbie đčđčđčđ„đ
Thank you,Thomasđčđčđč
I was honestly shocked that you havenât done a video on Luciano Berio yet...would you consider having any plans to? Quite a big pillar of new-music influence, he was...
People use the phrase "would you consider" in making requests a lot, when it really comes down to what's been requested a lot and what I've had time to get around to! Berio's rather high on the list, and now higher still: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html
This was really educational and engaging to watch and I'm not even halfway done.
Wonderful work making light of Mrs. Price; thank you for this and all of your previous work! Iâve just discovered a Russian composer from the early twentieth century named Nicolai Mayakovsky, who composed a substantial number of symphonies and other music that, from what Iâve read, seems to be worth checking out. Iâm requesting some lovely words about him from you if you deem his music worthy. If youâve already highlighted this composer, I apologize. Again, thank you for this video on Price!
Myaskovsky was discussed somewhat briefly in my video on Aram Khachaturian, but no, I've not done a video on him yet. (All my composer videos are compiled alphabetically on my "Great Composers" playlist, for future reference.) Your request has been duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html
Haha I knew it!
Thanks for yet another great video, Mr. Nerd, sir!
Thank you so much for sharing.
very knowledgeable this channel gives me a rich dose of history and culture
Great video - thorough and intriguing
Eventually you should do a video about David Manslanka! He's considered to be one of if not the best wind band composer to ever exist
Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html
@@ClassicalNerd if you haven't already done research on him look into Ä°lhan MimaroÄlu. Imagine John Cage but more electronic
Thanks for this video! Can you please do a video on Thomas Tallis, too? And Hildegard of Bingen. Thanks!
I did a Hildegard video over four years ago. Tallis has been duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html
Thank you for this sir.
Over the past few years, my orchestra has played works by several African-American composers, including the Price Symphony 1, as well as works by Coleridge-Taylor and Grant Still. I'm ashamed to say that at the time we played each work, I had never heard of the composer. My music history background is obviously somewhat lacking.
Thanks!
Really well done. I was completely ignorant.
Thanks bro for doing this.
Great video. I wasn't aware of any of these non white composers until recently. Maybe everyone will now stop saying "Classical Music So White". Watching from the UK.â€
38:48 Rediscovery section.
Could you make a video on Heitor Villa-Lobos
Already have.
What about a video on Alfred Schnittke?
He already did it:
czcams.com/video/Pitl8Kl_nb8/video.html
@@simonrodriguez4685 never mind then
Nec should fix they damn jordan hall organ
Her stuff is pretty basic and neo-romantic, much more revolutionary modernists were creating bone-chilling works at the same time she was composing her conservative work
Do you think this makes her music lesser than that of the modernists?
@@ClassicalNerd well compare what she's doing to what Charles Ives was doing on the weekends in the 1900s or Erik Satie. There's a mad rush to undo history and change statuses. This stuff is mild not wild-- she was conservative. If the curriculum needs more POC's to be focused upon why not look at the incredible and innovative compositions of Villa Lobos?
@@hortleberrycircusbround9678 Spending time talking about a neo-Romantic when more avant-garde artists existed is not a "mad rush to undo history."
@@ClassicalNerd Europeans dominated classical music because they invented it --stop trying to dilute it with unheard voices that are basic. During the same exact time Price was composing Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were making incredible- more innovative compositions. She was timid and conservative and you can hear that in her compositions. The fact is a great deal of Black Jazz composers would would much rather be called Black classical music. Many of these composers believed Jazz was a gross commercial word unfairly forced on the genre.. everywhere in the Arts today, there is a mad rush to dismantle the Western cannon and replace it with weak sauce that in my opinion is what you are doing.
"Classical" music is a much more complicated term than just "Europeans invented it." Every culture has a form of art music which is often called the "classical" music of that culture-so, gamelan is Indonesian classical music, et cetera. Regardless, I don't know what that has to do with your previous comments.
Second, I'm not trying to "dilute" anything. I have done videos on extremely popular, well-known composers from Pachelbel to Ellington (which, as it happens, is my longest biographical video), as well as on some more obscure figures from RÄdulescu to Wetz. The timidness you hear in Price's works is an opinion that you're attempting to pass off as fact. While it is true that Price's works are more stylistically conservative than that of some of her peers (a fact that I discuss at some length in the video itself), that has no bearing on whether or not a listener likes or doesn't like her music.
As far as this "mad rush to dismantle the Western canon," in what way is my having one video on a composer you personally can't seem to stand "replacing" anything in the history of music? This is such a non sequitur.
Nice try. Her music is completely forgettable and that is the only thing that matters⊠the music. This attempt to force mediocrities and sub mediocrities into the repertoire in the name of âinclusivenessâ is laughable, pathetic and will ultimately backfire. There are MANY composers that deserve more attention, Price isnât one of them.
Others respectfully do not agree. Best wishes