The following are the program notes I wrote for the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra’s March 28 concert. Tickets can be purchased here.
Price Symphony No. 1
Florence Price (1887–1953) was an important American composer and pianist. She was born Florence Beatrice Smith to Florence (Gulliver) and James H. Smith on April 9, 1887, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her father was the only African-American dentist in the city, and her mother was a music teacher who guided Florence’s early musical training. Despite the racial issues of the era, her family was well respected and prospered within their community. She gave her first piano performance at the age of four and had her first composition published at the age of 11.
She attended school at a Catholic convent and, in 1901, at age 14, graduated valedictorian of her class. The following year, Price entered the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she studied piano and organ as well as composition with George Whitefield Chadwick and Frederick Converse. Because of the racial climate of the time, she initially presented herself as being of Mexican heritage to avoid discrimination.
After returning to Arkansas to teach, increasing racial violence in the South led Price and her family to relocate to Chicago during the Great Migration. There she became active in the city’s vibrant Black musical community and began composing prolifically.
In 1933 she entered a competition sponsored by the Wanamaker Foundation as part of the musical programming associated with the Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago. Price submitted both her Symphony No. 1 in E minor and her Piano Sonata in E minor to the contest. She won first prize in the orchestral category for the symphony and first prize in the piano category for the sonata. Because of these victories, the symphony received a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Frederick Stock, on June 15, 1933. She thus became the first African-American woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra.
In 2009 a remarkable discovery transformed the understanding of Price’s output. Hundreds of pages of her previously unknown manuscripts were found in a long-abandoned summer house she had owned in St Anne, Illinois, about sixty miles south of Chicago. The house, a modest vacation property that Price purchased in the 1940s, had stood empty for decades after her death in 1953. In 2009 the building was being renovated by its new owners, who began clearing out piles of papers left behind in the attic and closets. Among the materials they discovered were boxes of musical manuscripts, sketches, and parts in Price’s handwriting.
Recognizing that the documents might be historically important, the finders contacted music scholars. What emerged from the house turned out to be one of the most significant archival discoveries in American music in recent decades.
The cache contained hundreds of pages of previously unknown or incomplete works, including two violin concertos (one was essentially complete), a fourth symphony in manuscript form, additional orchestral works and suites, piano pieces, chamber music, art songs, and sketches and drafts revealing her compositional process.
Many of these works had been completely unknown to scholars. Before the discovery, Price’s reputation rested mainly on a small number of published works and the famous Symphony No. 1 in E minor. The manuscripts dramatically changed the picture of Price’s career. They showed that she had written far more orchestral music than previously believed, including large-scale works comparable in ambition to those of her contemporaries.
Musicologists quickly began editing and preparing these works for performance. Since then several orchestras have revived or premiered newly recovered works. The violin concertos and additional symphonies have been recorded. The St Anne discovery revealed that Price was not merely a composer remembered for a single breakthrough symphony, but a prolific and ambitious symphonist whose output had simply been neglected and scattered after her death. Her music has entered the repertory of major ensembles in the United States and Europe.
Price’s musical style is defined by a synthesis of European classical traditions and African American cultural idioms. While she was formally trained in the Western canon, she used her musical imagination to integrate her Southern roots into these structures. She wove together late Romantic techniques reminiscent of composers like Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Dvořák (especially Dvořák) with the melodic and rhythmic language of Black American music.
Her Symphony #1 follows the general structure of the European symphonic tradition, but its thematic material and dance rhythms give it a distinctive American character. It is totally untouched by the musical developments that dominated the first third of the 20th century.
The first movement is written in sonata form. It opens with a dramatic introduction leading to a broad principal theme in E minor. The orchestration and harmonic language are those of the late 19th century, with sweeping melodies and rich Romantic harmonies. A contrasting second theme has a more lyrical character, often suggestive of spiritual-like melodies. The development section integrates these ideas leading to a full orchestral recapitulation and a powerful ending.
The second movement is a largo. It begins with a brass chorale whose solemn, hymn-like character recalls the sound of a church service. Over this foundation, a broad melody unfolds in the strings and winds, resembling the style and expression of African American spirituals.
The third movement is the most original in the piece. It’s a Juba Dance, a traditional percussive dance involving stomping and clapping. She often substituted this rhythmic African-inspired form for the traditional symphonic scherzo.
The last movement returns to a more traditional symphonic style. It develops motifs from earlier in the work while building toward a vigorous conclusion. The last two movements combined are shorter than either of the first two.
In summary, this symphony is a lush, well crafted work rooted in the 19th century romantic tradition, seamlessly mixed with the music of the composer’s African-American heritage.
Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor
Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor is the most famous work that Bach likely never wrote. The piece became popular in the 19th century during the Bach revival. Organists loved it because it sounded grand, dark, and monumental, fitting Romantic tastes perfectly. It became a showpiece for virtuoso organists. The biggest boost came from Fantasia, where the piece opens the movie in an orchestral arrangement conducted by Leopold Stokowski.
Scholars doubt the attribution to Bach for several reasons. There is no surviving manuscript in Bach’s handwriting. The earliest known copy was made by Johannes Ringk, a student of Bach, but copied from an unknown source. Musicologists have pointed out features that are unusual for Bach. The harmonic writing doesn’t match Bach’s normal voice-leading habits. There are parallel octaves and other progressions Bach typically avoided. The fugue subject and treatment feel simpler and less developed than his confirmed fugues. Some passages feel more violinistic than organ-like, and some of them lie awkwardly on an organ, but make sense if played on a string instrument.
Most modern Bach scholars place BWV 565 in one of three categories. Possibly by Bach (early work, experimental style), by someone in Bach’s circle, or misattributed altogether. There is no consensus, but confidence in Bach’s authorship is much lower today than it was 50 years ago.
Nevertheless, it’s a spectacular piece, a staple of the organ (and orchestral) repertoire, and a cultural icon. But its authorship is uncertain.
The piece begins with one of the most recognizable passages in all of classical music – a huge flourish followed by a plunging run. Massive D-minor chords follow. It has a sense of improvisation and theatricality. It immediately grabs attention.
Stokowski’s orchestration (which is what we’ll hear today) was not a literal transcription of the organ piece attributed to Bach, but a Romantic symphonic re-imagining that would reproduce the organ’s power through orchestral color. The organ can produce huge sonorities and sustained tones that an orchestra normally cannot replicate directly. Stokowski solves this by layering instrumental choirs (strings, brass, winds), using extreme dynamic ranges, creating long, sustained textures with strings, and assigning dramatic gestures to solo instruments. The result is less Baroque and more late-Romantic, closer in spirit to Wagner or Strauss than to Bach.
Dvořák Symphony #9 (Movts 3 & 4)
Dvořák’s final symphony, dubbed From the New World, was composed in 1893 during the composer’s stay in the United States. In 1892, Dvořák accepted the position of director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. He was known for building his own compositions on Czech and Slavic folk music. In interviews and lectures he argued that American music should draw on African American spirituals. One of his students, the Black baritone and composer Harry T. Burleigh, sang spirituals for him and helped acquaint him with that repertoire.
Dvořák wrote the symphony between January and May 1893 in New York. He composed much of it at the conservatory and later refined the score during a summer stay in the Czech immigrant community of Spillville, Iowa, where he found an environment reminiscent of home.
Although the work is often associated with American melodies, Dvořák did not quote existing tunes. Instead, he wrote original themes shaped in the style of spirituals, combining them with the form of the Austro-German symphonic tradition he had inherited from composers such as Johannes Brahms.
The symphony was premiered on December 16, 1893, by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Anton Seidl. The premiere was an enormous success. Critics immediately recognized the work as one of the greatest symphonies of the late Romantic era. It quickly entered the international repertoire and remains one of the most frequently performed symphonies ever written.
The third movement is lively and rhythmically energetic. It follows the traditional scherzo and trio form familiar from Beethoven. The scherzo theme is vigorous and dance-like, with strong rhythmic accents. The trio sections introduce lighter, pastoral melodies.
The final movement (in E minor) begins with a commanding theme in the brass. This theme drives the movement forward with intense energy. Dvořák’s recalls themes from earlier movements. Fragments of the Largo (second movement) and the first movement appear during the development, unifying the entire symphony. The symphony closes triumphantly in E major, transforming the dark opening key into a brilliant ending.
Dvořák’s Ninth combines European symphonic structure with melodies and rhythms inspired by America, while the recurring themes across movements give the work a strong sense of unity. The famous Largo and the sweeping finale are key reasons the symphony quickly became one of the most popular and most often performed orchestral works in the repertoire.
Theme From Yellowstone
The Theme from Yellowstone refers to the main title theme of the television series Yellowstone, composed by Brian Tyler. It first appeared when the show premiered in 2018 and serves as the music heard over the opening credits.
Brian Tyler (b 1972) is a prolific, multi-platinum American composer, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist. He is one of the highest-grossing film composers of all time. He is most famous for his scores for film franchises like The Fast and the Furious, Iron Man 3, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, as well as his themes for Formula 1 and the NFL on ESPN. He frequently conducts orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Hollywood Studio Symphony.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Klaus Badelt (b 1967) is a German composer, producer, and arranger primarily known for his work in Hollywood film scores. He is best recognized for composing the score for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, a project he led after being recommended by his mentor, Hans Zimmer, the world’s leading composer of film scores.
The orchestral suite drawn from the film score combines several short cues into a continuous symphonic medley. The overall structure of the music is as follows:
Mystery – “Fog Bound”
Heroic theme introduced – “The Medallion Calls”
Adventure and movement – “To the Pirates’ Cave”
Menace and battle – “The Black Pearl”
Tension before the climax – “One Last Shot”
Triumphant conclusion – “He’s a Pirate”
The medley is a compact orchestral narrative that recreates the film’s dramatic progression while showcasing its memorable pirate themes. Ted Ricketts’ arrangement of Badelt’s music is a rousing short piece for a large symphony orchestra that captures the excitement of both the film and Badelt’s full score. It also suggests the direction symphonic music may be heading as movies, in all their various formats, conquer the cultural world.
