A Recitation of Her Unpublished Song of Hope
[updated Feb. 28, 2021]
Sometime in 1930, Florence B. Price (1887-1953) wrote a poem titled Song of Hope and set it to music as an expansive composition for soprano solo, baritone solo, chorus, and large orchestra. The score runs to thirty-two pages and perhaps twelve minutes, and it pre-dates her oft-discussed First Symphony by three years and thus stands as her first major orchestral composition (with chorus). The work is not mentioned in Dr. Rae Linda Brown’s recently released biography of the composer, and the circumstances of its composition remain obscure. Despite its obvious significance (a point to which I’ll return presently), it – like most of Price’s output – has been hiding in plain sight in the Special Collections division of the University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville (shelfmark MC 988a Box 11, folder 8), neither discussed, nor published, nor performed, nor studied in the ninety-one years since Price penned it.
And now, this Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021, soprano Angela Arnold will recite the poem of Florence Price’s Song of Hope as part of a service titled Singing Hope: Praise through a Pandemic, presented by City of Refuge United Church of Christ and First Church Berkeley UCC. The service will take place at 4:00-6:00 P.M. PST, and, according to the webpage, "will lift up the work of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity as well as Albergue Las Memorias hospice in Tijuana, Mexico."
“Obvious significance”: any mature orchestral work by a composer whose reputation rests not least on her symphonies is obviously significant – even if this work is not a symphony, concerto, or concert overture per se. But the Song of Hope claims special stature in this regard because it was written during Price’s early years after moving to Chicago – as she was teaching piano and playing gigs on The Stroll to make ends meet, before the renown that she achieved when three of her compositions won or placed in the Rodman Wanamaker Contest in Musical Composition for Composers of the Negro Race in 1932, and before the public premieres of her First Symphony and First Piano Concerto. That context – that difficulty, personal and professional and cultural, in her newly adopted home city – translated itself into a poem that expresses determination and defiance of adversity as manifestations of faith in God and, therefore, hope: "I dare look up" -- words that are spoken from a position of subjugation, but with courage and strength and self-assurance and faith to look upward. Not once, not twice, but three times. Here’s the text:
One further enigma concerning this bafflingly obscure major work: Price enclosed it in a brown-paper folder and wrote on the cover: “Song of Hope / Words and Music by Florence B. Price.” That much is not unusual, but she later wrote in pencil beneath that title: “Return postage guaranteed.” The enigma: Price herself apparently tried to have the Song of Hope performed or published, and perhaps mailed it – only to have it returned and never published. By whom, we do not (yet) know.
Although G. Schirmer/AMP controls the exclusive international rights to Price’s complete catalog, when they will publish this major work remains unknown, and the Song of Hope consequently remains in manuscript only. But the opportunity to hear the power and beauty of Price’s poetry recited is an extraordinary one. I hope you will attend. Here’s the link.
UPDATE 28 FEB. 2021: The video of last night's service is now archived on YouTube in perpetuity. The introduction of Angela Arnold begins at 51'00", and Angela's recitation of Price's poem begins at 51'58" (here).