Florence Price (1887–1953) was one of the most important African American woman composers of the early twentieth century. Price's music is known for combining techniques of Western art music with elements of the African American musical heritage. Although Price composed many works for piano, from large virtuoso pieces to characteristic miniatures, this study will address only her Piano Sonata in E minor. The purpose of this study is to analyze this sonata and discuss her compositional techniques and musical style as a combination of African American elements and Classical European procedures, combined and coordinated yet remaining in tension. Traditional European harmony, tonality, and form are successfully combined with African American characteristics: pentatonic scale, spirituals, syncopations, repetition, and dance rhythms. Indeed, Price's work is a considerable achievement, and she is one of the important African American women composers who should be better recognized today.

In this thesis, I explore the careers and songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds—two African American female composers who were part of the Chicago Renaissance. Price and Bonds were members of extensive, often informal, networks of Black women that fostered creativity and forged paths to success for Black female musicians during this era. Building on the work of Black feminist scholar Patricia Hill Collins, I contend that these efforts reflect Black feminist principles of Black women working together to create supportive environments, uplift one another, and foster resistance. I further argue that Black women's agency enabled the careers of Price and Bonds and that elements of Black feminism are not only present in their professional relationships, but also in their songs. Initially, I discuss how the background of the Harlem and Chicago Renaissances and racial uplift ideology shaped these women's artistic environment. I then examine how Bonds and Price incorporated, updated, and expanded versions of these ideals in their music and careers. Drawing on the scholarship of Rae Linda Brown, Angela Davis, and Tammy L. Kernodle, I analyze Price's "Song to the Dark Virgin," "Sympathy," and "Don't You Tell Me No" and Bonds's "Dream Variation," "Note on Commercial Theater," and "No Good Man" through a Black feminist lens. I contend that although Price and Bonds depicted harsh realities of Black women's experiences, they also celebrated Black women's resistance in spite of intersectional oppression. Ultimately, analyzing Black feminism in these composer's careers and songs opens a path for further exploration of how Black women's agency can facilitate activism through art.