FREE ESSAY ON FLORENCE PRICE, COMPOSER

FLORENCE PRICE, COMPOSER

Florence Price, Composer
The purpose of a biography is to enhance the reader's knowledge about a particular
person's life, in this case, Florence Beatrice Price, and offer a sort of historical
background focusing on significant events, accomplishments, and personal aspects of that
particular individual's life. Ideally, the writer molds complex biographical facts-birth
and death, education, ambition, conflict, milieu, work, relationship, accident-into a
book [or article] that has the independent vitality of any creative work but is, at the
same time, true to life. Barbara Garvey Jackson, author of the biography on Florence
Price chosen for this class, has noted that the purpose of her article is "...to assess
the cultural world in which she [Florence] grew up, her own life and professional career
in Little Rock and Chicago, and the present states of study about her." In my opinion,
Jackson does an exceptional job in providing the type of information that she purposely
set out to offer such inquisitive readers like myself.
Let me begin by offering a tidbit of biographical information about Florence Price.
Florence Beatrice Smith Price was born April 9, 1888 in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was
the third child born to Dr. James H. Smith, a dentist, and Florence Irene Gull, a
schoolteacher. Previous to studying composition and organ at the New England Conservatory
of Music in Boston, Florence received her first musical training from her mother at age
four. After much musical education, she was soon found teaching in the music departments
at Shorter College in Arkansas (1906-1910), and Clark University in Georgia (1910-1912).
In 1912, she married Thomas J. Price and together they had three children. Florence
successfully established herself as a concert pianist, church organist, composer, and
teacher, which soon became her claim to fame. A prominent composer of the Harlem
Renaissance, Florence Price published her first composition at age eleven, and at age
sixteen began receiving modest fees for her publications. Among her most famous
compositions is the Symphony in E Minor, which received its world premiere at a
performance by the Chicago Symphony in 1933. Florence died on June 3, 1953 of a stroke in
Chicago, Illinois. It wasn't until after her death in 1953, that she became well known
for her miraculous musical talent.
Being that Jackson's article is relatively lengthy, compared to other biographies written
about Price, I seemed to have gathered a better understanding about her personal and
professional life and of whom she truly was. Jackson's article seemed to portray Price as
more than just a composer, but rather as a woman who successfully and honorably acquired
a special talent - music. Her knowledge about Price's life and the events that occurred
during that particular era seemed to be extremely abundant. There were several mentions
of historical events such as the great Chicago fire of 1871, political references, and
World War I, which enhance the ambiance. Unfortunately, it seemed to me that she over did
it a bit. I realize that her objective is to "...assess the cultural world in which she
[Florence] grew up, her own life and professional career in Little Rock and Chicago, and
the present states of study about her", but during the course of the article, I found
myself straying away from the main idea. As if I were loosing track of the importance if
the musician herself, and focusing more on the intimate details that Jackson described. I
assume that her purpose for inserting such irrelevant points or topics and then
elaborating on them is to capture a sense of reality and cultural sympathy. Which, in a
way did exactly that, but I soon became uninterested and had to force myself to continue
reading. 
Within this article, there is a wealth of both personal and professional information.
Much of the information was on Price herself, but there were moments that Jackson
elaborated on rather insignificant topics or people. For example, when Jackson would
mention someone who had made an influence on Price's life or musical career, she would go
into information overload about that person. I can understand that she may want to make
the biography seem more personal, but there is no need to give a mini-biography on every
person who was of some importance in Price's life. It is understandable and expectable
that the writer provides historical background on Price's parents and relatives, but not
necessarily specific details on the life attributes of a school friend or teacher. It
takes the focus away from the primary object of the article - Florence. 
Jackson's emphasis is mainly on the life and attributes of Florence Price in conjunction
with what is going on within the cultural world that she was raised in. At the start of
her article, Jackson formulates a foundation that allows for the reader to be able to get
a sense of the Smith family's personal history as well as a general historical
background. Following these important facts about her family's upbringing was the
introduction of Florence's outstanding accomplishments in music, beginning with the print
of her first composition at age eleven. From there on, the article was filled with
references about her educational background, jobs she acquired, prizes won and received,
performances of her music, and personal quotes about where she got the inspiration for
her music. Jackson includes personal incidents that had a huge effect on Florence's
attempt to gain educational knowledge of music. One particular incident had to do with
the unfortunate problem of racism in America. Jackson acknowledged that, "Mrs. Smith, in
an apparent resolve to protect her talented daughter as best she could from racism,
decided to have Florence "pass" as a Mexican when she entered the New England
Conservatory and gave Florence's home town as Pueblo, Mexico." There is much to be
learned about Florence Price, and Jackson did a tremendous job at making sure that she
did not miss any part of her extraordinary life that would be considered essential to the
biography.
In order to attain a solid biography, the writer must obtain her information from sources
that are deemed reliable. In this case, Jackson formally presents her sources when she
knows them to be concrete. For example, the quotes from Florence herself are taken from
letters she had written, manuscripts, diaries, newspapers, etc. These articles had been
kept by her own daughter, Florence Price Robinson, and had been sent to the University of
Arkansas, were Jackson was preparing this biography. Other more questionable bits of
information that Jackson inserts into the biography, facts that she is not completely
sure about, she follows with, "...these documents on Florence and her work have not been
found," or "...have not been located." By adding these little clauses, she gives the
reader the notion that although most of what she writes is true, some "facts" may be
questionable. This gives Jackson some sort of safety cushion and back up just incase the
information is indeed false.
As far as biographical stories go, this one is particularly informative. Having included
numerous facts that reveal Florence Price's remarkable life and her extraordinary
accomplishments, Jackson makes you yearn for more. This biography has more than one could
ask for. Because this biography is quite a bit longer than any of the others, I found
that there is really nothing missing from it. It contains personal stories, actual
quotes, real life occurrences reported by her own daughter, facts about her prize winning
music, relations with others, and how she is to be remembered. Compared to other
biographies I read about Florence, this one is by far the most complete. It is clear to
me that Jackson did a tremendous amount of research on Florence and her family, and
looked deep into finding out the most prominent facts about her life in order to write
this biography. To make this biography work, Jackson acknowledged every aspect of what is
known to be included in a good quality biography, mold[ing] complex biographical
facts-birth and death, education, ambition, conflict, milieu, work, relationship,
accident-... making sure she did not miss a thing.