This past Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020, Dr. Elizabeth Hill performed the estimable Florence B. Price’s recently unearthed and published Fantasie nègre No. 4 in B Minor (1932-37) for piano solo, along with the likewise rarely heard Seven Traceries (1940) by William Grant Still. The occasion was a virtual concert from Grace Church, where Dr. Hill is Artist-in-Residence, in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The performance was remarkable in several ways. For one, in less than half an hour it offered an extraordinary amount of music – something possible because of the skill that both Price and Still brought to bear in writing music that was usually brief, but also quite concentrated: both eschewed dilatory material and made the most of every moment of musical time, every bar, every note. It was also remarkable because both works, though more than sixty years old, are rarely heard today. Still’s Traceries were actually published by the composer in 1940 (New York: J. Fischer) and then re-published, ed. Richard Crosby, by William Grant Still Music in 2000; they have been recorded several times, beginning with excerpts done by Gordon Manley back in 1948 and then a complete recording by Frances Walker (Orion, 1978).
Price’s Fourth Fantasie nègre is a rather more complicated story. To begin with, until quite recently no one seemed to realize that Price had even written four works in that genre – a genre that, as I pointed out in the foreword to my edition of the piece, Price herself invented. What’s more, it – not the E-minor Fantasie nègre, as is widely assumed and implied – is the work that won Honorable Mention for Price in the 1932 Wanamaker Competition, and the one in that genre that she returned to latest – with a thoroughgoing revision five years later, in 1937. This is also the only Fantasie nègre that originally bore the cryptic but telling pseudonym “Out of the Crucible” where Price’s name as composer belonged, and the only one to have been revised (at least) four times. And it’s the only one of the Fantasies nègres to have received its posthumous premiere at Price’s own alma mater, the New England Conservatory – this by Price champion Lara Downes on November 1, 2019.
And now there’s Dr. Hill’s performance – a welcome addition to the work’s discography. This recording, too, is essentially the final version (Version D), but it includes some material from Price’s earlier thoughts on the work. (Tantalizingly, the version that actually won the Wanamaker Prize is still unheard.)
Check out both of these remarkable works on Dr. Hill’s YouTube page: you’ll be glad you did!