String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor (score and parts) by Florence Price
Published by Schirmer
This is a print-on-demand edition and will have the date of printing on the cover.
Florence Price (1887-1953) was an American composer and an influential figure in Chicago's Black Renaissance. Born and raised in Arkansas, she enrolled at Boston's New England Conservatory at age 15 and showed incredible promise. She eventually moved to Chicago, where she wrote most of her works and became the first African-American woman to be programmed by a major orchestra.
In 2009, a substantial catalogue of her compositions was rescued from an abandoned Illinois house slated for demolition. Since then, her music has rapidly re-entered the wider classical canon. Beautifully romantic and infused with the rich cultural heritage of African-American idioms, her music represents an integral part of America's musical history and, as Alex Ross of the New Yorker asserts, ''deserves to be widely heard.''
Florence Price's String Quartet No. 2 in A minor (1935) is her largest scale piece of chamber music currently extant. Though her characteristic influences from romanticism, spirituals, and blues are here, so are more modern elements, including extensive chromaticism, shifting tonal areas, and quasi-improvisitory sections in the final movement. This is one of her most adventurous and emotionally-charged works, a worthwhile addition to any serious ensemble's repertory. Advanced level, Grade 5. Includes score and parts.
