Symphony No. 3 in C Minor

Alternate Title

• None

Composition Year

• ca. 1940

Instrumentation

• 3+pic.2+ca.2+bcl.2-4.3.3.1-timp.5perc-hp-strings

Length

• 22 min.

Manuscripts

• JWJ MSS 35: James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection Manuscript Music, James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
  • Score, complete (undated): Box 2 (oversize), Folder 32
• MC988: Florence Beatrice Smith Price Collection, Special Collections, Mullins Library, University of Arkansas
  • Parts, three fragments (undated): Box 3, Folder 4
• MC988a: Florence Beatrice Smith Price Papers Addendum, Special Collections, Mullins Library, University of Arkansas
  • Parts, three fragments (undated): Box 11, Folder 2
• MC988b: Florence Beatrice Smith Price Papers Second Addendum, Special Collections, Mullins Library, University of Arkansas
  • Scores, complete: Box 1C, Folder 34; Box 5C, Folder 38
  • Parts, miscellaneous: Box 1C, Folder 34
• MC2618: Florence Price Collection, Special Collections, Mullins Library, University of Arkansas
  • Reduced Score (undated): Box 2, Folder 7
  • Parts, miscellaneous (undated): Box 2, Folders 1-6

Premiere Performance

• November 6, 1940; Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit; Detroit Civic Orchestra (Michigan WPA Symphony Orchestra); Valter Poole, conductor

Published Editions

• Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3. Edited by Rae Linda Brown and Wayne Shirley. Music of the United States of America 19. Recent Researches in American Music 66. Middleton, WI: Published for the American Musicological Society by A-R Editions, 2008.
  • OCLC: 277150358
  • Google Books: Introduction only
• Symphony No. 3 in C Minor. New York, NY: G. Schirmer, Inc., 2019.
• Keyboard Reduction by Kyle Gann (2019).
• Transcription for Organ by Benjamin Kjell (2021).

Recordings

• Florence Price: The Oak, Mississippi River Suite, Symphony No. 3. Apo Hsu, conductor; The Women’s Philharmonic. Koch International Classics 3-7518-2 2111, 2007.
• BBC Music Magazine Collection 29, No. 1. BBC Symphony Orchestra; Valentina Peleggi, conductor. BBCMM454, 2020.
• Florence Beatrice Price: Symphony No. 3 - The Mississippi River - Ethiopia’s Shadow in America. John Jeter, conductor; ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.559897, 2021.
• Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Philadelphia Orchestra. Deutsche Grammophon 4862029, 2022.

Thematic Incipits

• Movement I
• Movement II
• Movement III
• Movement IV

Bibliography

1. Brown, Rae Linda. The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price. Music in American Life. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020.
2. Gann, Kyle. “Florence Price: Symphony No. 3 (1940).” American Symphonies. 2019.
3. Jackson, Barbara Garvey. “Florence Price, Composer.” The Black Perspective in Music 5 (1977): 30–43.
4. Shadle, Douglas. “Plus Ça Change: Florence B. Price in the #BlackLivesMatter Era.” NewMusicBox. February 20, 2019.

Entry History

• Submitted June 25, 2024