Florence Price: Until We Meet

For piano (edited by John Michael Cooper).

Composed on 27 March 1952, Until We Meet is one of a cluster of obviously or implicitly romancethemed compositions for piano solo that Price penned in the last few years of her creative life — a cluster that also includes In Sentimental Mood (22 March 1947), Three Roses (21 September 1949), and First Romance (ca. 1949-52). The works have in common not only their romantic themes, but also a tendency to pass thematic material between the soprano and baritone registers and a remarkably rich harmonic palette that is based on the post-Romantic idioms that were the immediate province of Price's generation but also goes beyond these. The overall tonal design of Until We Meet is conventional, with framing A sections in F major and the central section (mm. 17-33) in its lowered submediant, D-flat major. But both sections also include brief feints into remote keys — all accomplished seamlessly because of Price's sophisticated harmonic technique. Despite these ventures that required considerable intellectual sophistication, however, the work is one of exquisite tenderness and unassuming beauty.

— John Michael Cooper