{"product_id":"price-monologue-for-the-working-class-schirmer","title":"Price: Monologue for the Working Class","description":"\u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eComposer\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003ca href=\"\/zh\/collections\/florence-price\"\u003eFlorence Price (1887-1953)\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cstrong class=\"original-instrumentation-title\"\u003eInstrumentation\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cspan class=\"original-instrumentation\"\u003ePiano, Voice\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eWork\u003c\/strong\u003e: Monologue for the Working Class\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli class=\"binding hidden\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBinding\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eWork Language\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cspan class=\"book-language\"\u003eEnglish\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSize\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cspan class=\"book-width\"\u003e9.0\u003c\/span\u003e x \u003cspan class=\"book-length\"\u003e12.0\u003c\/span\u003e inches\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli class=\"book-pages hidden\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePages\u003c\/strong\u003e: None\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"row\"\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c!-- split --\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"row\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"one-half columns\"\u003e \u003ch4\u003eDescription\u003c\/h4\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"feature_divider\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor voice and piano (edited by John Michael Cooper)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe composition presented here is based on an otherwise unknown poem by Langston Hughes. The autograph shows that Price composed her setting in October, 1941, and at some point she placed it in a binder with a typed title label — suggesting that the song held more meaning for her than the Majority of her works, which she did not have bound. But she never published the \u003cem\u003eMonologue\u003c\/em\u003e , and indeed Hughes never published the poem in this form — probably because about two months after its composition the Empire of Japan bombed the U.S. Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and after the U.S. entry into the World War II (11 December 1941) Hughes rewrote his text as a morale-booster for the wartime American public. But what inspired Price's music was a different national emergency — that of the persistent economic privations and family-rending hardships of the Great Depression — as well as Hughes's decrying of the apathy of the rich (\"the boss man\") toward the plight of the \"poor and unemployed\" and the poet's ringing exhortations to the working class to take courage in the knowledge that they, united, could lift their load (m. 8), destroy their troubles (m. 16), and \"make my country a fine land for me and you\" (mm. 37-38). with understated artfulness, Price sets off the poem's rebuke of the apathy of the rich toward the predicament of the working class's in a kind of blues-inflected unaccompanied soliloquy in the singer's lowest register but turns to the upper register, \u003cem\u003eforte\u003c\/em\u003e , at \"but when I unite with my neighbor we'll make this whole world new\" — and she seems to musically foretell the working class's triumph in trumpet-like fanfare in the final bars. These and other musical features make Price's \u003cem\u003eMonologue for the Working Class\u003c\/em\u003e arguably her most pronounced musical declaration of her political sympathies, as well as a remarkable addition to the considerable list of her works that synthesize the idioms of concert music and Black vernacular styles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— John Michael Cooper\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLyrics\u003c\/strong\u003e\nby Langston Hughes\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's a new wind a-blowin'\nDown on Tobacco Road.\nThere's a new Hope a-growin'\nFor them folks by name o' Joad.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's a new truth we'll be knowin'\nthat will lift our heavy load.\nWhen we find out what the working class can do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's a new day a-comin'\nFor the poor and unemployed,\nNew tunes we'll be hummin'\nFrom our hearts so overjoyed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs we march we'll be a-drummin'\nHow our trouble's been destroyed\nwhen we find out what the working class can do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll day long I've labored\nAll my whole life through\nAsk the boss man for a favor\nHe says he \"no can do.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut when I unite with my neighbor\nwe'll make this old world new\n'Cause we know what the working class can do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo let's get together folks\nThat labor with our hands.\nAnd let's get together, folks,\nwith brains that understand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd let's get together, folks,\nall across this land,\nAnd show ‘em what the working class can do.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"G. Schirmer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42406347767887,"sku":"GSP61318VOC","price":25.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/1828\/files\/8cb66a752e12c71add94345f6dabdef7.jpg?v=1752412257","url":"https:\/\/www.ficksmusic.com\/zh\/products\/price-monologue-for-the-working-class-schirmer","provider":"Ficks Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}