Composer Florence Price

Prodigious Talent and Formidable Intellect

As I have been learning about the life, work and legacy of Black American composer Florence Price (1888-1953), two particular aspects of her creative life resonate deeply with me: her work as a piano pedagogue and also her prowess as a keyboardist (especially as an organist).

Born Florence Beatrice Smith in Little Rock, Arkansas to two highly-educated mixed race parents, “Bee” (as she was called throughout her childhood) early on was a voracious reader, spending hours on end in her father’s library reading whatever she could get her hands on. At the same time, Bee started her piano studies at the age of three and played her first public recital at four. Her curious mind lent itself to learning about music and the piano through improvisation, in additional to her formal studies.

This love of creating her own pieces would later manifest in the creation of over seventy teaching pieces for her students.

Bee’s intellect and work ethic resulted in her graduating high school in Little Rock at the age of fourteen as valedictorian of her class. One year later she entered the New England Conservatory of Music and graduated three years later at eighteen with two degrees, Piano Pedagogy and Organ Performance and Composition. During her time at NEC she not only composed her own works for the organ, but premiered a number of new works by faculty and students. Of the three hundred-plus works that Price composed during her life, twenty-six were for organ, several of which were quite popular during her lifetime and are becoming increasingly familiar to contemporary organists today (along with her piano, vocal, chamber, and symphonic works).

One of her best-known works for the organ is Adoration. Watch this video for an arrangement of this musical meditation for violin and piano as well as my performance of Price’s Tarantella, first published in 1926:

It is Price’s teaching legacy, however, which really speaks to me. Immediately after her graduation from NEC, Price returned to Little Rock and became the coordinator of the music program at Shorter College for two years. During this time she delved into creating general music and piano-specific curricula for students grades K through college. After the death of her father, Price then accepted a similar post at Clark University in Atlanta. It was during this time that Price composed the bulk of her instructional pieces, all written in the guise of character pieces and focusing on various aspects of musical and technical challenges. Many of these pieces have narrative titles, meant to capture the imagination of students, The Goblin and the Mosquito being one of the most popular.

Towards the end of her life, after having moved to Chicago and becoming a strong presence in the Black musical community there and far beyond, Price and her two daughters resided in the Abraham Lincoln Center of Chicago, an artists’ colony which housed a variety of creative artists. Teaching upwards of seventy students per week, Price solidified her teaching legacy and passed on her love of teaching to many who still benefit from her vision and teaching today.

I hope that you are inspired by this amazing woman. I encourage you to seek out her music, perhaps starting with her Piano Concerto In One Movement. Learn more about Florence Price on her website.

Cheers!
—Rick Ferguson