Articles

Dance of the Cotton Blossoms is an early advanced piece written by Florence Price in 1938. This piece is not to be confused with another piece by Price which shares the same title, but was written in 1931. She also wrote a piece called “Cotton Dance (Presto)” ca. 1940. Price’s...

Schuyler’s “Wanchai Road” is mysterious, spontaneous, and chaotic, reflecting the actual Wanchai Road in Hong Kong. It is reminiscent of beeping cars and tramways with a relentlessly consistent left hand rhythm, while the right hand has a syncopated, meandering melody. Although texturally thin, Wanchai Road requires dexterity and technical proficiency...

Rocking Chair, by Florence Price, is a gentle and nostalgic solo piano piece spanning approximately three pages. It effectively captures the sensation of lounging in a rocking chair on a lazy afternoon, while its steady rhythm and simple, lilting melody lend a soothing quality to the composition. With a 6/8...

Rabbit Foot is a playful early intermediate piece by Florence Price. In a repetitive A-B-A I form, Rabbit Foot offers opportunities for discussion about keeping repeats musically interesting through dynamics and shaping. All three sections have tricky articulations that call for a significant level of control, plus ornamentation that is...

The T’Chaka Suite is a set of three dances published in 1927, named after the Zulu king Shaka, who ruled parts of modern-day South Africa from 1816-1828. All three dances contain a strong rhythmic drive and use of open fifths under melodic ideas. The second movement, Monarah, is a gentle...

“Song Without Words (Pleading)”, by Florence Price, is the sixth in a set of “Seven Miniatures” for piano. Reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s own "Songs without Words," this piece opens with a few measures of solo introduction, setting the stage for the “singer” - a lovely, cantabile melody. As the “A” section...

“Memory Mist” is an early advanced piano piece by Florence Price, and was compiled as part of a set titled “Seven Miniatures.” The three-page piece is expressive and romantic in feeling, with the 20th century harmonic language that defines Price’s style. The A section is andante cantabile, with a tempo...

“Wild Flowers” is a late intermediate piano piece by composer Ida M. Larkins, and was first published in 1905 by the Pioneer Music Publishing Company in Chicago. It is a waltz with quite a bit of repeated material throughout, written in the typical style of parlor sheet music. The melody...

Rhapsody by Zenobia Powell Perry is an expansive piece with six distinct sections of varying characters, tempos, and lengths. Sometimes the sections build off of each other, and other times they have sudden, abrupt transitions. The first three sections have a heavy focus on the melody, which soars above an...

"Little Melody in E-flat major" is the fifth of the Seven Miniatures. These Miniatures comprise seven standalone pieces, published in An Album of Piano Pieces and Second Album of Piano Pieces , each of which revealing different facets of Price’s creative personality. "Little Melody," written in a Romantic and tonal...