#doloreswhite — Public Fediverse posts

Musicologist-pianist Samantha Ege: ‘The music of Florence Price was a revelation!’

Samantha Ege did not know any black composers until she heard music by Florence Price in 2009. In 2020 she completed her musicology studies with a thesis on Price, a year later saw the release of her CD Fantasie nègre, featuring all 4 Fantasies.

The album is named after the first piece Samantha Ege (1989) ever heard by Florence Price (1887-1953). ‘That was in 2009, when I was studying at McGill University in Canada on an exchange scholarship. During a lecture about the early twentieth century, our teacher played her Fantasie nègre No. 1 in E minor.’ Ege was deeply impressed by this piece for solo piano from 1929: ‘So refined, expressive and colourful! I had never heard anything like it in the classical world.’

Suppressed musical heritage

‘My education had overemphasised George Gershwin as the only composer who drew influence from Black creativity. When I heard Price’s music, this illusion was completely shattered. Although I have been playing the piano since I was three and have always been interested in classical music, it was only in 2009 that I first came across a female composer with African roots. It was also my first encounter with classical repertoire that goes back to Black folk music from a period before jazz and the blues: Price incorporated influences from the spiritual songs of the enslaved.’

The discovery was an eye-opener: ‘It was important for my view of classical music, Florence Price became a role model. It turned out that there is a long history of Afro-American composers who incorporate their cultural heritage into their work. They drew inspiration from slave songs and wanted to give an uplifting voice to an incredibly painful past. Their history had always been suppressed in my musical education. – When I heard Price’s Fantasie nègre No.1, I did not even know there were three more fantasies. I only found this out once I had decided to devote my PhD research to her.’

Stars not yet aligned

This was about six years ago: ‘I was so impressed by her music that I wanted to learn to play it myself. Moreover, I had enormous admiration for Price, because she was a pioneer. In 1933, she was the first black woman to have her work performed by a national orchestra, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered her First Symphony. As I studied her Fantasy, I soon decided to devote the dissertation for my doctorate at York University to her. But somehow I was not yet “ready” for this piece. – Sometimes it’s as if the stars have to align in a certain way when I choose my repertoire.’

Instead of the Fantasy, she turned to the Sonata in E minor from 1932. ‘I studied it extensively and recorded it on my Four Women CD. I also performed the Sonata in cities like Chicago, Arkansas and Boston, which were important to Price. That is how I came to understand her pianistic voice, the way she approaches form, melody and modulation.’

BLACK Renaissance

‘Her music has a distinctly romantic sound, which resonates with Schumann, Liszt and Chopin. This also goes for black contemporaries such as Samuel Taylor-Coleridge, Nora Holt and Margaret Bonds, who also incorporated Negro spirituals. This anchors her firmly in the aesthetics of the Black Renaissance, a movement in the 1920ies that celebrated the beauty of Afro-African folk traditions.’

Ege played the Fantasy No. 1 in Chicago for the first time in the spring of 2019, at the local Cultural Centre: ‘A place with a rich history, where Price had often spent time herself in the past. I had a wonderful audience, many of whom were familiar with her music. Additionally, I programmed works by Chicago composers Dolores White and Regina Harris Baiocchi, who attended the concert. The atmosphere was magical, and I felt very much part of this history. I think this was the beginning of my next chapter as a musicologist-pianist, for at that moment the stars began to align for an album of all four Fantasies.’

SCATTERED Manuscript pages

That sounds more obvious than it was, because for decades only the First Fantasy had been known. The other three were only found by chance in 2009 in a dilapidated house in Illinois. ‘They had never appeared in print, and were partly scattered around the room as loose manuscript pages.’ Thanks to her thorough knowledge of music theory and Price’s style, Ege managed to reconstruct the pieces in their original form.

All four Fantasies are based on a pentatonic theme, a feature of much folk music. Ege: ‘The First is based on the negro spiritual Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass, the music continuously circles around the five notes E-G-A-B-D. For the Second, Price chose her own five-note theme, in which she links the melancholy of the spiritual to romantic figurations. All four Fantasies have majestic chords, but the Fourth is the most impressive. Price immediately builds up tension with a ceremonious opening, followed by a folk theme that is worked out in expansive variations.’

With substitute pride, Ege concludes: ‘This Fantasy No. 4 in B minor best reflects the diverse and unfettered palette of Price’s artistic expression. It was not without reason that she received an honourable mention for it in 1932.’

This article first appeared in the May issue of the Dutch music magazine Luister.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByWhkwFwOfo

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