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The Florence Price revival continues apace. Long neglected, this African American composer’s work in a variety of genres is rapidly, if posthumously, gaining Price (1887–1953) her rightful place as a leading light of 20th-century American composers.
For many white musicians and concert programmers, this increasingly frequent programming is a form of compensation for a feeling of collective guilt – even if they may not state as much. But the music, which combines sophistication with accessibility, has endeared itself to artists and audiences alike.
My sense is that rediscovering and popularizing Price’s music has been a particular joy for many Black artists. Case in point: A new album by soprano Karen Slack and pianist Michelle Cann that features 19 unpublished songs by Price, most of them in world premiere recordings. And from the sound of it, crafting Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price was a labor of love all around.
A Florence Price Revival
For the most part, Slack’s powerful mezzo suits these compact gems very well. As you listen straight through, her consistency helps makes the album feel almost like a song cycle. Within it, one hears echoes of the late Romantic era; the European (especially French) art song tradition; and a heady influence from American spirituals, as in the title track.
The melodies seem designed to appeal to lovers of opera (“The Dawn’s Awake”), art songs (“Winter Idyl,” “Bright Be the Place”) and even musical theater and American Songbook (“Pittance,” “What Do I Care for Morning”). The poems come from sources as varied as Lord Byron, Irish poet and novelist James Stephens, Harlem Renaissance poets like Helene Johnson, and Price’s own pen.
Among my favorite tracks are the whispery “Ships that Pass in the Night,” the miniature “Youth” with its Chopinesque accompaniment, “Winter Idyl” with its echoes of Rachmaninoff, the charming “Spring” (a setting of a poem of the composer’s own), the satin-soft “Song Is So Old,” and “There Be None” with Slack’s voice at its golden best. Throughout, Slack effectively modulates her dynamics and tone to present the melodies in their best light (except in the case of a few strained-sounding high notes that suggest a song would be more suited to a coloratura voice).
A Team Labor of Love
Beyond the Years is billed as Karen Slack’s first “solo” recording, but Cann gets equal billing, and deservedly so for two reasons: her rich playing, and her years-long history as a preeminent practitioner of, and advocate for, Price’s oeuvre. Her own debut solo album, Revival, featured music by Price and by another long neglected African American composer, Margaret Bonds. Cann has recorded two Price piano quintets with the Catalyst Quartet. Her recording of the Piano Concerto in One Movement with the New York Youth Symphony won a GRAMMY® Award in 2023 for Best Orchestral Performance, and she has premiered the work in more than one city.
All that made Michelle Cann an ideal match for Slack. Her forthright pianism here makes a firm argument for Price’s harmonic mastery even as the vocals do the same for the composer’s melodic skill.
The nonprofit ONEcomposer, which works to “tell the stories of historically excluded musical voices,” was also instrumental in creating this album.
Slack explains that the album title, Beyond the Years, “was chosen because while all of these pieces were written before I was born, they feel fresh and sound as if they were written yesterday.” Good songs are good songs, whatever their birthdate.
Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price from Karen Slack and Michelle Cann is out now on Azica Records.
