Liner Notes
Album Art by Grace Underfanger
Florence B. Price (1887-1953) rose to prominence in 1933 when her Symphony in E minor won the
Wanamaker Prize and was subsequently performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the first such
performance by a Black woman in our nation’s history. Her early training was in piano and organ, and
throughout her life and career she was connected to choral music through church positions, and later
through the Chicago based Treble Clef Choir and Florence B. Price A Cappella Chorus. The scope of her
choral music includes sacred and secular works, large scale choral-orchestral music, chamber music, and
small octavos. Though she published a few short choral works during her lifetime, much of her choral
music remained in manuscript and was assumed lost. In 2008, unsuspecting homebuyers found boxes of
music in a dilapidated home outside Chicago that contained a treasure trove of lost Florence Price
materials. Among the materials were the majority of what appears on this recording. Weathers, Poem of
Praise, Summer Clouds, Wander-Thirst, Praise the Lord, and the Communion Service in F have been
recorded from manuscript for the first time here. Price wrote The Presbyterian Communion Service in F
around 1936. Designed for worship service, not concert, it was likely used in situ perhaps at Grace
Presbyterian Church where Price was a frequent attendee.
1. Weathers
2. Wander-Thirst
3. Poem of Praise
4. Summer Clouds
5. Song for Snow
6. Resignation
7. Praise the Lord
8. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: I. Kyrie Eleison
9. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: II. Before the Gospel
10. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: III. After the Gospel
11. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: IV. Credo
12. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: V. Sursum Corda
13. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: VI. Sanctus
14. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: VII. Benedictus
15. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: VIII. Agnus Dei
16. Presbyterian Communion Service in F: IX. Gloria in Excelsis
Wander-Thirst: Choral Music of Florence Price
University of Arkansas Schola Cantorum
Stephen Caldwell, director
Lisa Auten, piano
Johan Botes, organ
Recorded at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Fayetteville, AR, Oct 27-29, 2022
Recorded by Haxton Road Studios, Bentonville, AR
Edited by Ryan Ceola and Stephen Caldwell
Mastered by Stephen Caldwell
Hill Records
Generous Funding provided by the Women’s Giving Circle and the University of Arkansas Provost’s
Office
From The High Ground
Produced by: Anna Draper, Amy Whiteside, Ellie Rhoades, Ellie Black, Emma Clark, Larissa Lucas, Matthew Nelson, Raquel Thompson, & John Lee
Album Art: Ellie Black
Special Thank You To: Ronda Mains, David Hinton, Michael Mertz, Bruce Phillips, Kelli Van Pelt, Kim Jones,