Silk Hat and Walking Cane

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Musical Terms (5)

• canebrake English
  A dense thicket of cane plants — the tall grass and reed habitats common in the American South, particularly in the Mississippi Delta region. In Price's Dances in the Canebrakes, the title evokes the rural Southern landscape and the African American musical life rooted in it.
  The Dances in the Canebrakes should feel rooted in a specific physical place. Nimble Feet is quick and light; Tropical Noon is heavy with heat; Silk Hat and Walking Cane has a wry, dressed-up dignity. Each dance character should be as distinct as the three titles suggest.
• Fantasie nègre French
  Black Fantasy — Price's title for her four concert fantasies based on African American spiritual material. The form combines the improvisatory freedom of the fantasia with the expressive depth of the spiritual, creating large-scale programmatic works that transcend their folk sources while remaining rooted in them.
  The Fantasie nègre requires both the structural command of a concert performer and the expressive intimacy of a spiritual singer. Identify the underlying spiritual melody — in No. 1, 'Sinner, Please Don't Let This Harvest Pass' — and ensure it sings through whatever elaboration surrounds it.
• juba English
  A traditional African American percussive dance, also called 'Pattin' Juba,' in which rhythmic patterns are created by slapping the thighs, chest, and hands. The juba rhythm — a driving syncopated duple pattern — is a direct ancestor of ragtime and a defining characteristic of Florence Price's piano dance writing.
  In Price's dance pieces, the juba-derived rhythms in the left hand should feel physical and grounded. Keep the syncopations crisp and avoid smoothing them into swing. The rhythm is the primary content — never let elaborate right-hand figuration obscure the rhythmic drive beneath.
• pentatonic scale English
  A five-note scale found throughout African and African American folk music. Price frequently uses pentatonic melodic material in her piano works to evoke the character of spirituals and folk songs while embedding them in sophisticated harmonic progressions.
  Pentatonic melodies in Price's music often sit over chromatic harmonic progressions — the tension between the simplicity of the melody and the complexity of the harmony is deliberate and expressive. Let the melody remain pure and folk-like even when the harmony beneath it is sophisticated.
• spiritual English
  A sacred folk song originating in the enslaved African American communities of the South, characterised by call-and-response structure, blues inflections, pentatonic or modal melodic lines, and profound emotional depth. Price's piano arrangements treat spirituals as complete concert works in their own right, not as simple transcriptions.
  When playing Price's spiritual arrangements, sing the melody in your head before playing — these are vocal melodies first, and the piano must imitate a human voice. Shape phrases with the breath of a singer: swell into the high points, taper at phrase ends, and allow the natural rhythmic flexibility of sung speech.