Fantasy No. 2 in F-sharp minor for Violin and Piano; Florence Price (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.''
Price's Fantasy No. 2 in F-sharp minor for violin and piano was composed in 1940, around the peak of her career. It is a more substantial piece than the first and is based on what scholars believe is a slave song. It combines the European concert fantasy with blues influences, with chromatic melodies in the solo violin. At once pensive and dramatic, it is a perfect addition to the serious violinist's collection. Edited by John Michael Cooper.
