JUBA DANCE (score & parts)

The African-American composer Florence Price (1887-1953) was a real trailblazer. She was the first black female composer to have her work performed by a major American orchestra. After winning a composition competition her Symphony No. 1 (her first large-scale work) was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933. She wrote over 300 pieces of music, but after her death her work was largely forgotten. Happily, her work is now being rediscovered and performed once again.

Price’s work fused two worlds: she combined the traditions of classical music with the sound of spirituals and West African rhythms from her own culture. In the Juba Dance from Price’s first symphony she took inspiration from the African Djouba dance tradition that was brought over to the United States by slaves from West Africa who were forced to work on plantations. Banned from playing musical instruments, the slaves used ‘body percussion’ to make music, creating repeating percussive rhythms by patting and slapping their arms, legs and chest and stamping with their feet. Also known as the ‘hambone’, or ‘pattin’ juba’ the Juba dance is a forerunner to modern day tap dancing.

Price’s Juba Dance is full of Afro-American rhythms and is joyful and incredibly catchy. It even features an (optional) train whistle (to be played by the flute) just to add to the fun!

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