- Florence Price composed this work in 1934. Its full title is Mississippi River (The River and the Songs of Those Dwelling upon Its Banks).1
- Price dedicated this piece to Arthur Olaf Anderson,2 her composition teacher at the Chicago Musical College.3
- This work was probably never performed during Price’s lifetime.4
- In this work, Price quotes six African-American folk themes, or themes influenced by folk music: four spirituals and two secular songs. The themes are “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” “Stand Still Jordan,” “Deep River,” “Go Down Moses,” “Lalotte” (a Creole folk song from New Orleans)5 and “Steamboat Bill River Song.”6
Sources
- Rae Linda Brown, The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2020), ebook.
- Ibid.
- Rae Linda Brown, “Price [née Smith], Florence Bea(trice),” Grove Music Online (March 30, 2020), accessed May 5, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-90000367402.
- Brown, The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price, ebook.
- Douglas W. Shadle, liner notes to Florence Price: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, John Jeter, Naxos 8.559897, CD, 2021.
- Brown, The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price, ebook.
Cut IDs
24486