WAPS COMPOSER OF THE WEEK

Florence Price Florence Price was the first African-American female composer to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra! She also was the head of the music department at Clark Atlanta University for many years. Her most well-known compositions include: Symphony No.1 in e minor Piano Sonata No.1 in e minor Dance: Nimble Feet Violin Concerto No.2

Leave a comment. American composer Steve Reich uses Ostinatos in almost all of his music. He took piano lessons as a child but did not decide on a career in music until he was in college. Reich said this about his inspiration: "I became a composer because I'd heard the  Rite of Spring  of  Stravinsky , I'd heard  Bach 's Fifth Brandenburg, I'd heard bebop —  Charlie Parker ,  Miles Davis  — music that had a lot of rhythmic energy, music which was finally harmonic. I know the  Rite of Spring 's harmonic quality is not that of Charlie Parker. Neither are they that of Johann Sebastian Bach. But they all had what Stravinsky called the magnetic attraction, the polaric attraction of sound." (NPR-2016) He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the 20th and 21st century, introducing the use of pre-recorded music in a concert and the use of ostinatos. Radiohead gives him credit for some of their music. He won a Grammy in 1990 an