Florence Price: neglected and rediscovered composer
The Rodman Wanamaker Foundation sponsored at least five contests in “musical competition for members of the Negro race.” Florence Price submitted two orchestral works and two piano pieces to the fifth of these (1932). Her Piano Sonata in E-minor and Symphony in E minor won the top prizes. The other works both received honorable mention: Fantasie nègre No. 4 in B minor in the piano competition and Ethiopia’s Shadow in America in the orchestral competition. News of her triumph spread nationwide. Frederick Stock, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, took notice of it and decided to perform the symphony at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair on June 15, 1933. She therefore became the first Negro woman to have a composition performed by a major American orchestra. [Why do I write Negro instead of black or African American? The term “black” became current only in the 1960s, after Price’s death. Many of her contemporaries, including William Grant Still, objected to being called black. “African American” came even later. Both terms are therefore anachronistic in describing Price’s life and times.] Childhood Florence Beatrice Smith Price, born April 9, 1887, in Little Rock, Arkansas, was the youngest of the three children of … Continue reading →
William Grant Still: Dean of Afro-American composers and more
William Grant Still is widely considered as the “Dean of Afro-American Composers,” but that title puts him in a box he sought to escape. It seems more appropriate to regard him as an important American composer who introduced black culture to the American symphonic, chamber, and operatic repertoire. His output also includes multicultural works that celebrate other American ethnic groups.
Continue reading →Beloved Christmas carols: O Little Town of Bethlehem
Plenty of Christmas carols emphasize the regal and supernatural aspects of the day or evoke the emotions that Christians have long felt when contemplating the birth of Jesus. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” emphasizes the quietness surrounding the birth of the Christ child in a little town. No one noticed except angels, who in this text don’t appear to people. American preacher Philips Brooks visited Bethlehem largely because of exhaustion after the Civil War. Once he wrote the text, he asked his organist Lewis Redner to compose a tune for it. They lived to see what they thought was just a carol for the children in their Sunday school became nationally famous. Later, it became known around the world.
Continue reading →Symphony no. 3, Rhenish, by Robert Schumann
In all, Robert Schumann composed and published four symphonies. The last of them in order of composition is what is known as the Third Symphony, or Rhenish Symphony. His publisher had declined to accept the second of his symphonies. Schumann revised it in 1851 and so it was published as his Fourth Symphony. The Rhenish Symphony acquired its nickname from letters to his publisher and some friends. In them, Schumann spoke of the Rhine River as his inspiration.
Continue reading →Patrick S. Gilmore: pioneering American bandmaster
Patrick S. Gilmore was born Christmas Day 1829 in Ballygar, County Gallway, Ireland, near Dublin. He attended the village school and learned to play fife and drum. When he was 14, he started an apprenticeship in Athlone, headquarters of as many as four English regiments. They all had bands, and Gilmore fell in love with band music. One regimental bandmaster, the renowned Patrick Keating, taught the young boy musical notation, composition, instrumentation, and conducting. Gilmore put together his own thirty-piece band to play at the masses in Athlone’s St. Peter’s church. At the end of each service, he hurried out to listen to whatever the parishioners said about the music. In 1849, Keating advised Gilmore to move to America.
Continue reading →The sacred music of Anton Bruckner
We think of Anton Bruckner as a symphonist and devout Wagnerian. In fact, he had long experience as a composer of church music before he ever heard Wagner’s music or attempted to compose a symphony. He had apparently experimented with chromatic harmonies, too. His best-known large-scale sacred music includes three masses and the Te Deum. He also composed motets throughout his career. Many of them are performed much more frequently than the larger works. Several include trombones, continuing a long-standing Austrian tradition.
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