Shakespeare Club meets musically and welcomes new members

Florence Price (1887–1953) (left) and Elvis Presley (1935–1977). These two musicians were the subjects of the November 9 and December 5 Shakespeare Club meetings, respectively.

submitted by Joan Gaughan, Shakespeare Club

Two musical geniuses were the subjects of the Shakespeare Club’s presentations for the last two formal meetings of 2023. An African-American composer, Florence Price (1887–1953), was Joan Gaughan’s subject at the November 9 meeting, and the December 5 meeting featured Barbara Madaj’s discussion of Elvis Presley (1935–1977) using as her base the recent film Elvis, which was nominated for eight Academy Awards.

The differences in the lives of the two artists are obvious. The name “Elvis” needs no identification but, although Price did achieve some professional success, she remains largely unknown. The genres in which they performed are also vastly different. Price’s genre was classical music and Presley’s, of course, was rock ’n’ roll. Nearly half a century after his death, Presley’s music is still known and performed while Price’s legacy almost disappeared until a huge cache of her compositions (she composed more than 300 works) was discovered at a rundown house in St. Anne, Ill., in 2009. 

Their personal stories are also different. Price came from a fairly well-to-do Little Rock, Ark., family and graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music while the boy from a hardscrabble background in Tupelo, Miss., never learned to read music. Although limited by both her sex and her race, Price’s choices in both her personal and professional life were entirely her own. Presley’s, on the other hand, were not. His rise to stardom was largely due to the Svengalian influence of his handler, Colonel Tom Parker, who engineered Presley’s way to fame and fortune but at a cost to Presley himself. Mrs. Madaj suggested that his appearance in rather second-rate films may not have been entirely his own choice, nor indeed, his marriage to Priscilla Ann Beaulieu since his closest female relationship other than with his mother was probably with the singer/actress Ann-Margret. 

Yet the similarities in their two stories almost outweigh the differences. Both musicians were profoundly religious. And it was the music of the South, especially gospel music, and the spirituals and blues of African-Americans that run like a broad thread through the music of both artists so that it is inaccurate to describe Price as simply a “classical” composer and Presley as simply a “rock ’n’roll” singer. Ironically, as one member of the Club pointed out, it was not songs like “Jailhouse Rock” or “Hound Dog” for which Elvis won Grammy Awards but for his albums “How Great Thou Art” (1967) and “He Touched Me” (1972). As Mrs. Madaj noted, not only did Presley always acknowledge his debt to African-American influences but, as fellow musician Little Richard put it, “He opened the door for Black music” to become mainstream. 

The composers of classical music have often been “white, male, and dead,” and the origins of African-American music are either unknown or the works of male composers such as Muddy Waters, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. It is almost inconceivable to imagine a woman proficient in both genres. Yet Price mastered classical forms such as the symphony, piano, and violin concertos, choral and chamber music, fugues, passacaglias, and sonatas, and combined those with spirituals, blues, country, and gospel. At a time when it was rare for a woman of any race, let alone a Black woman, to be taken seriously in any genre, her Symphony No. 1 in E Minor (she composed four symphonies) was the first composition by a Black woman to be performed by a major symphony, the Chicago Symphony, in 1933. While that work illustrates her astonishing command of technique, it also shows her blending classical with African-American motifs. Three of the traditional four movements sound a bit like a Dvorak work whose New World was the inspiration for the Symphony. For the third movement, however, which is usually a scherzo, instead of composing something new, Price used a spirited Juba dance that had been common among slaves especially in the Carolinas. Her Mississippi Suite also shows that blending. Sounding a bit like Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony, one also hears strains from “Deep River,” “Go Down, Moses,” and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.”

Of Elvis Presley, reclusive, addicted to drugs, and resigned to sloppy performances, Mrs. Madaj commented that by the time he died of a heart attack at the age of 42, he had “perhaps just got tired of being Elvis.” On the other hand, when Florence Price’s stroke ended her life at age 66, she had not yet grown “tired” of anything.

At the November 9 meeting featuring Elvis Presley, the Club enjoyed the company of two new members, Linda Breight and Dana Creighton. Guests and new members are always welcome.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.