Florence Price, a Black female composer, had her Symphony No. 1 premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933, a significant achievement given the racial and gender prejudices of the time.
Recording & Production
The Avalon Quartet performed Leo Sowerby's String Quartet in G minor from a pencil copy that lacked dynamics or articulations, using an archival recording of a 1936 performance to inform their interpretation.
Recording & Production
This recording includes the world premiere recording of Leo Sowerby's String Quartet in G minor, which had languished in obscurity.
Compositional Technique
Florence Price's String Quartet No. 2 in A minor features lyrical themes drawn from Black vernacular idioms, combined with a highly chromatic harmonic language.
Compositional Technique
In her Five Folksongs in Counterpoint, Florence Price merges traditional folk melodies with intricate polyphony, featuring each melody against various counterthemes.
Composer Biography
Leo Sowerby, known for his organ and sacred choral works, composed over 500 works across various genres and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1946 for a cantata.
Composition History
Many of Florence Price's compositions remained unpublished at her death, and a large collection of lost pieces was only discovered in 2009 in an abandoned summer home.
