UW Symphony An American in Paris Concerto in D Minor

Concerto in D Minor (1934) Florence Price
(b. 1887, Little Rock, Arkansas; d. 1953, Chicago)
Florence Price was the first female African-American composer to establish a significant reputation. Her Symphony No. 1 was premiered by the Chicago Symphony in 1933, and her songs have been performed by important American singers including Leontyne Price (no relation) and Marian Anderson. This concerto followed the symphony by a year, with the composer herself as soloist in Chicago. In addition to her orchestral works and some 100 songs, she composed chamber music, solo piano works, and more.
Price’s influences are certainly far-flung. One hears echoes of Brahms in the concerto, yet Black Spirituals are heard as well, in style if not actually quoted. The concerto sounds quite traditional in its first two movements, but the finale is certainly a surprise. It’s in the style of a Juba, a dance that was popular in southern plantations in the years leading up to the Civil War. It’s highly syncopated, like the rags that followed from it, and was brought over the Atlantic by enclaved peoples from what is now Angola, the Congo, and Gabon.
Officially named Concerto in One Movement, the piece certainly falls into the three traditional sections we associate with a concerto. After a slow introduction and cadenza, the first “movement” is moderately fast and quite dramatic. A beautiful slow adagio follows. The orchestra then creates a bridge from this mood into the exuberant finale. Even the dance-like finale has historical antecedents: Mozart and others often ended concertos with a lively movement in 6/8 that comes from the Gigue of Baroque Suites and ultimately derives from the Irish jig. Substitute the Juba dance for the Jig dance and there you have it.