The Symphony in E minor is the first symphony written by the American composer Florence Price. The work was completed in 1932 and was first performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Frederick Stock in June 1933. The piece was Price's first full-scale orchestral composition and was the first symphony by a Black woman to be performed by a major American orchestra. [1] [2] [3]
The symphony was composed between January 1931 and early 1932 while Price recovered from a broken foot. In February 1932, Price entered the symphony in the Rodman Wanamaker Competition, in addition to three other concert works that she composed. While all of Price's entries received recognition, her Symphony in E minor won the first place $500 prize for a symphonic work. The award brought Price national recognition and caught the attention of the conductor Frederick Stock of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Stock later premiered the symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on 15 June 1933 at the Auditorium Theatre, Chicago. [1]
In this symphony, Price calls upon multiple sources of inspiration from both the Western classical tradition and Black musical idioms. Most obvious is her replacement of the conventional third-movement scherzo with a Juba dance, but similarly the influence of African-American spirituals can be heard in many of the pentatonic themes used throughout the work. [4] [5] Additionally, Price drew inspiration from Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World”, with Rae Linda Brown noting that:
Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony and the spiritual inspiration of Coleridge-Taylor were creative influences on Price’s work. … an examination of Price’s symphony reveals that she had thoroughly studied Dvorak’s score as well. To judge from its overall content, formal organisation, orchestration, and spirit, she seems to have taken quite personally the Bohemian composer’s directive to create a national composition. [6]
The work is scored for the following orchestra:
Most performances of the work use tubular bells for the ‘Cathedral Chimes’ in the first and second movements; however, the organ at the Auditorium Theatre had cathedral chime stops that may have been used at the premiere. [7]
The symphony has a duration of roughly 40 minutes and is composed in four numbered movements. [8]
The first movement is written in a sonata form, with deviations in the recapitulation. [9] The main themes of the exposition are predominantly based on the pentatonic scales of E minor and G major. Following the development section, a traditional recapitulation of the opening material is declined, and instead the themes are fragmented and combined to bring the movement to a striking close.
The second movement opens with a hymn-like theme played by a brass choir. The theme is composed in the verse-refrain form and features interjections by the flutes and clarinets. A contrasting section in C♯ minor marked Poco più mosso functions as an interlude between statements of the hymn theme. [10] After a long developmental section, the hymn theme returns again, this time decorated with a clarinet obbligato and cathedral chimes. The movement comes to a gentle close on an E major chord played by the strings.
In this movement Price evokes the musical accompaniment to the Afro-American Juba dance, an American derivation of the African Djouba and the Caribbean Majumba dances. [11] [12] This type of dance music features the use of lively body percussion and upbeat melodies played on the fiddle. The spirit of this dance is captured in the opening bars with the syncopated pentatonic melody in the violins, the pizzicato ‘oom-pah’ accompaniment in the lower strings, and the inclusions of the African drums, replacing the body percussion. [13] This movement is in Rondo form.
The stormy main theme of the final movement is in E minor and uses the whole orchestra. The movement is written in a loose rondo form, with repetitions of the main theme broken up by calmer passages with reduced orchestration and texture. [14] The movement builds to a frantic prestissimo coda which brings the work to a dramatic close.
The initial critical response to the symphony was positive. Eugene Stinson wrote about the work in the Chicago daily News: “It is a faultless work … a work that speaks its own message with restraint and yet with passion. Mrs. Price's symphony is worthy of a place in the regular symphonic repertoire.” [15] However, the work has since fallen into relative obscurity. [1] In 2012, Bob McQuiston of NPR called it "an early American symphony worthy of being rediscovered." He further remarked:
The opening movement has melodies and rhythms typically found in Afro-American folk music, and recalls Dvorák's New World Symphony, while the following slow movement features a moving hymn tune of Price's design. Both concluding movements are fast and return to the juba dance concept. They contain hints of fiddles and banjos, antic slide whistle effects, and a recurring three-against-two melody which end this loveable work on a whimsical note. [16]
The Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World", Op. 95, B. 178, popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1892 to 1895. It premiered in New York City on 16 December 1893. It is one of the most popular of all symphonies. In older literature and recordings, this symphony was – as for its first publication – numbered as Symphony No. 5. Astronaut Neil Armstrong took a tape recording of the New World Symphony along during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969. The symphony was completed in the building that now houses the Bily Clocks Museum in Spillville, Iowa.
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Florence Beatrice Price was an American classical composer, pianist, organist and music teacher. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music, and was active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. Price is noted as the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Price composed over 300 works: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works, art songs, chamber music and music for solo instruments. In 2009, a substantial collection of her works and papers was found in her abandoned summer home.
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The Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, is the last solo concerto by Antonín Dvořák. It was written in 1894 for his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, but was premiered in London on March 19, 1896, by the English cellist Leo Stern.
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The String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, nicknamed the American Quartet, is the 12th string quartet composed by Antonín Dvořák. It was written in 1893, during Dvořák's time in the United States. The quartet is one of the most popular in the chamber music repertoire.
The Symphony No. 100 in G major, Hoboken I/100, is the eighth of the twelve London symphonies written by Joseph Haydn and completed in 1793 or 1794. It is popularly known as the Military Symphony.
The Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, is a concerto for violin and orchestra composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1879. It was premiered in Prague on October 14, 1883. by František Ondříček, who also gave the Vienna and London premieres. Today it remains an important work in the violin repertoire.
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The Symphony No. 3 in C minor is a symphony for orchestra composed by Florence Price in 1938. The work was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Music Project during the height of the Great Depression. It was first performed at the Detroit Institute of Arts on November 6, 1940, by the Detroit Civic Orchestra under the conductor Valter Poole. The composition is Price's third symphony, following her Symphony in E minor—the first symphony by a black woman to be performed by a major American orchestra—and her lost Symphony No. 2.
The Symphony No. 4 in D minor is an orchestral symphony by the American composer Florence Price. Composed in 1945, the work was never performed during Price's life and was presumed lost until it was discovered among a stash of manuscripts in her former summer home outside of St. Anne, Illinois, in 2009. These manuscripts, along with journals, books, and other documents that were discovered, are now preserved at the University of Arkansas. The symphony was given a belated world premiere by the Fort Smith Symphony under the direction of John Jeter in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on May 12, 2018.
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