2 plus 7 = Visibility?

Here are two things you might already know about Florence Price: 1) Her music was lost. 2) Her music was found.

Here are seven things you almost certainly don’t know about Florence Price. 1) She graduated from New England Conservatory in three years, at the top of her class. 2) As an African American, she was part of a very small flock among American Composers. As an African American Woman she was a rare bird indeed. 3) Out of 58 degrees awarded in 1906 at NEC, Price was the only student to receive two degrees: one a Teachers Diploma, the other a Soloist Diploma (organ). 4) Deeply rooted in her family and the life of her Little Rock community, she went home to teach and did not start her career as a composer until 1927.  5) Her career flourished during the 1930’s after she left Little Rock for Chicago during a time when Jim Crow held sway and racial tensions made the city too dangerous for black folks. She also had the good fortune of association and friendship with Harlem Renaissance luminaries Langston Hughes and Marion Anderson.  6) Her fame did not outlive her death in 1953, however, unlike the fortunes of other great black artists of that period. Despite the efforts of the black community in Chicago to maintain Price’s visibility with organizations such as the National Association of Negro Musicians, and the Florence B. Price Music study Guild, and a Chicago Elementary school named after her, she quickly disappeared and her music never entered the canon. 7) She was “rediscovered” in 2009 in a dilapidated house near Chicago when a large number of her scores were found. In the last 10 years she has become something of a darling within the orchestra world. How serious is this resurgence of her music? Time will tell.

2+7 equals nine. I guarantee you that equation has absolutely no significance to this posting whatsoever other than to hopefully catch your eye. But how much does it take to achieve lasting visibility? If you have nine ways to remember something, does that mean that information goes beyond the twitchings of a fad to become something deeper and more enduring? Can we guarantee that a great but forgotten composer will gain entry into the canon? As an orchestra, we can only try by presenting the music that makes our hearts sing. You, the audience, will be the ones to accept, ratify, and make permanent a new canon of home grown symphonic legacy. Together, and only together, we will strengthen our common culture.

Come hear the beautiful string quintet by Florence Price performed by CommonWealth Orchestra Jan. 17, 18 and 19. Check our Facebook listings for venues and times.