Full Description
Book Prize Winner of the International Alliance for Women in Music of the 2022 Pauline Alderman Awards for Outstanding Scholarship on Women in Music
The Heart of a Woman offers the first-ever biography of Florence B. Price, a composer whose career spanned both the Harlem and Chicago Renaissances, and the first African American woman to gain national recognition for her works.
Price's twenty-five years in Chicago formed the core of a working life that saw her create three hundred works in diverse genres, including symphonies and orchestral suites, art songs, vocal and choral music, and arrangements of spirituals. Through interviews and a wealth of material from public and private archives, Rae Linda Brown illuminates Price's major works while exploring the considerable depth of her achievement. Brown also traces the life of the extremely private individual from her childhood in Little Rock through her time at the New England Conservatory, her extensive teaching, and her struggles with racism, poverty, and professional jealousies. In addition, Brown provides musicians and scholars with dozens of musical examples.
Contents
CoverTitleCopyrightContentsForeword by Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.AcknowledgmentsSourcesIntroductionPart I: Southern Roots1. Family Ties2. Little Rock: "The Negro Paradise"3. The Pursuit of Education: Elementary and High School4. The New England Conservatory of Music5. Return to Little Rock6. Clark University and MarriagePart II: The "Dean" of Negro Composers of the Midwest7. VeeJay and the Black Metropolis8. "My Soul's Been Anchored in de Lord"9. Black Satin Clothes at the Fair10. Spirituals to Symphonies: A Century of Progress11. The Symphony in E Minor12. O Sing a New Song13. The Piano Concerto in One Movement14. Performing Again15. Professional Recognition: Reconciling Gender, Class, and Race16. The WPA Years17. The Chicago Renaissance18. The Symphony No. 319. Final Years: The Heart of a WomanPostscriptAfterword by Carlene J. BrownNotesSelected BibliographyDiscographyFor Further ReadingIndexBack Cover
