Florence Price's "Song of Hope"

Florence Price's Song of Hope represents her first-known attempt at choral-orchestral writing. There was no known performance during her lifetime. The performance put on by my choral director, Steve Spinelli, in March of 2022 (Ithaca College Symphony and Choirs, Ithaca High School, and the Cornell Chamber Singers) is the first recorded performance of the work. Steve will be directing this piece with my choir, the Back Bay Chorale, at Old South Church in Boston this March.

The piece was completed in 1930, and in addition to the music, Price wrote the text, as seen in the above manuscript image.

From an early age, Price rocketed towards success. She graduated high school (as valedictorian) at age 14. She attended NEC at age 16, and graduated 5 years later as the only double major in her class (organ performance and piano pedagogy). She was quickly hired away as a professor at Clark University, Atlanta (where she became department chair within a year). Her return to Arkansas is where the reality of the Jim Crow South hit the Price family on a personal level. A legalized bounty on the lives of her children caused the family to move north (to Chicago) as part of the great migration. Two years into their move, the Great Depression crippled global markets, and her husband lost his law position. He became an alcoholic and there are records of domestic abuse in her home. She would, in 1931, divorce him. This is the circumstance in which Price came up with these words of strength, and the remarkable composition that we will soon be performing.

(Thanks to Steve Spinelli for providing the above information!)