P-08 Florence Price, Blythe Owne, and Women's Musical Clubs in Twentieth-Century Chicago: A Preliminary Investigation
Presenter Status
Director, Music Materials Center
Preferred Session
Poster Session
Location
Buller Hall Hallways
Start Date
22-10-2021 2:00 PM
End Date
22-10-2021 3:00 PM
Presentation Abstract
Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the life and works of African-American composer Florence Price (1887–1953), with the creation of recordings, score editions, and a music festival all focused on rehabilitating her place in our collective memory-and repertoire lists. One aspect of her life only briefly mentioned in Rae Linda Brown's highly anticipated biography, however, is Price's involvement with many women's musical clubs and sororities during her time in Chicago. These clubs provided invaluable financial, social, and professional support for Price and other female musicians in the Windy City throughout the twentieth century. The papers of Blythe Owen (1898–2000), Price's colleague and friend, hold beneficial information that can clarify their professional relationship as well as their mutual affiliation with organizations such as the Chicago Musicians Club of Women, the Chicago Club of Women Musicians, the Women's Musical Club of Chicago, the Lake View Musical Society, the International Society for Contemporary Music, and the Chicago chapters of the Mu Phi Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Iota musician's sororities.Between 1919 and 1964, Owen sent over 2,000 letters to her mother documenting her musical activities in Chicago, the persons she encountered, and her daily life as a composer, piano teacher, performer, and officer for multiple women's musical clubs. This correspondence is preserved in the Andrews University archives in Berrien Springs, MI along with scores, original musical manuscripts, photographs, concert programs, and other ephemera. These primary documents elucidate not only Owen's life and works, but also those of contemporaries such as Price. Owen's letters highlight the importance of women's musical organizations and professional networks in Chicago throughout the twentieth century. Preliminary investigation of the letters suggests that Owen, in her roles as a club president and officer of various organizations, may have been instrumental in championing interracial integration for Price and other African-Americans into women's musical clubs during an era when segregation was normal. My project explores the life and works of Price and Owen as they intersected in the context of the milieu of women's musical clubs in Chicago during the mid-twentieth century, and suggest further avenues for research.
P-08 Florence Price, Blythe Owne, and Women's Musical Clubs in Twentieth-Century Chicago: A Preliminary Investigation
Buller Hall Hallways
Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the life and works of African-American composer Florence Price (1887–1953), with the creation of recordings, score editions, and a music festival all focused on rehabilitating her place in our collective memory-and repertoire lists. One aspect of her life only briefly mentioned in Rae Linda Brown's highly anticipated biography, however, is Price's involvement with many women's musical clubs and sororities during her time in Chicago. These clubs provided invaluable financial, social, and professional support for Price and other female musicians in the Windy City throughout the twentieth century. The papers of Blythe Owen (1898–2000), Price's colleague and friend, hold beneficial information that can clarify their professional relationship as well as their mutual affiliation with organizations such as the Chicago Musicians Club of Women, the Chicago Club of Women Musicians, the Women's Musical Club of Chicago, the Lake View Musical Society, the International Society for Contemporary Music, and the Chicago chapters of the Mu Phi Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Iota musician's sororities.Between 1919 and 1964, Owen sent over 2,000 letters to her mother documenting her musical activities in Chicago, the persons she encountered, and her daily life as a composer, piano teacher, performer, and officer for multiple women's musical clubs. This correspondence is preserved in the Andrews University archives in Berrien Springs, MI along with scores, original musical manuscripts, photographs, concert programs, and other ephemera. These primary documents elucidate not only Owen's life and works, but also those of contemporaries such as Price. Owen's letters highlight the importance of women's musical organizations and professional networks in Chicago throughout the twentieth century. Preliminary investigation of the letters suggests that Owen, in her roles as a club president and officer of various organizations, may have been instrumental in championing interracial integration for Price and other African-Americans into women's musical clubs during an era when segregation was normal. My project explores the life and works of Price and Owen as they intersected in the context of the milieu of women's musical clubs in Chicago during the mid-twentieth century, and suggest further avenues for research.