The Broken Bowl (from Three Short Songs)

Alternate Title

“The Bowl is Cracked”¹

Composition Year

Instrumentation

Piano and voice

Length

Lyricist and Source

Wesley Curtwright (1910–1988)²
“Death.” Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life 4 (Sep. 1926): 284.

Manuscripts

MC988a: Florence Beatrice Smith Price Papers Addendum, Special Collections, Mullins Library, University of Arkansas
- Box 13, Folder 36

Premiere Performance

Illinois Host House, July 1933

Published Editions

Recordings

Nearly Lost: Art Songs by Florence Price. Christine Jobson, soprano; Gregory Thompson, piano; feat. Jane Brendle, violin, and Sarah Markle, cello. Christine Jobson, 2019.

Thematic Incipits

In progress

Bibliography

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.

Notes

At the Illinois Host House performance in July 1933, the song was listed as “The Bowl is Cracked.” Curtwright’s original poem is called “Death.” ↩
Some sources, including the original publication for this poem, spell his surname as “Curtright.” ↩