Song Texts: Florence Price’s “The Heart of a Woman”

On May 1, 2026, the Minnesota Orchestra presents More to Hear: The Listening Project, with Music Director Thomas Søndergård conducting music by Zhou Tian, Florence Price, Miguel Farías and William Grant Still. Henry Dorn hosts the program, which features soprano Janai Brugger as soloist in the world premiere performance of The Heart of a Woman, a collection of ten songs by Florence Price orchestrated for soprano and orchestra by Lior Rosner. Read extended program notes and instrumentation lists.

Following are the texts for the ten movements of The Heart of a Woman. 

[Editor's note: Night was added as movement nine of ten after the April issue of the Minnesota Orchestra's Showcase program magazine went to print.]

The Heart of a Woman

Ten Songs for Soprano and Orchestra by Florence Price (orch. Lior Rosner)

1. Dream Ships 
(The spring is not so beautiful there)
Text by Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

The spring is not so beautiful there -
But dream ships sail away
To where the spring is wondrous rare
And life is gay.
The spring is not so beautiful there -
But lads put out to sea
Who carry beauties in their hearts
And dreams, like me.

2. My Dream
(To fling my arms wide)
Text by Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

To fling my arms wide
In some place in the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me, -
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.

3. To My Little Son
Text by Julia Johnson Davis (1889-1961)

In your face I sometimes see
Shadowings of the man to be,
And eager, dream of what my son
Shall be in twenty years and one.
When you are to manhood grown,
And all your manhood ways are known
Then shall I, wistful, try to trace
The child you once were in your face?

4. Beside the Sea
(Longing)
Text by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

If you could sit with me beside the sea today,
And whisper with me sweetest dreamings o'er and o'er;
I should not find the clouds so dim and gray,
And not so loud the waves complaining at the shore.
If you could sit with me upon the shore today,
And hold my hand in yours as in the days of old,
I should not mind the chill baptismal spray,
Nor find my hand and heart and all the world so cold.
If you could walk with me upon the strand today,
And tell me that my longing love had won thine own,
I think all my sad thoughts would then be put away,
And I could give back laughter for the Ocean's moan!

5. The Heart of a Woman
Text by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966)

The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn
As a lone bird, soft winging so restlessly on.
Afar on life's turrets and vales does it roam.
In the wake of those echoes, the heart calls home.
The heart of a woman falls back with the night
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars
While it breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.

6. The Poet and His Song
Text by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

A song is just a little thing,
And yet what joy it is to sing!
In hours of toil it gives me zest,
And when at last I long for rest;
When cows come home along the bars,
And in the fold I hear the bell,
At Night, the shepherd, herds his stars,
I sing my song, and all is well.
My days are never filled with ease;
I till my ground and prune my trees.
When ripened gold is all the grain,
I put my sickle to the grain.
I labor hard, and toil and sweat,
While others dream within the dell;
But even while my brow is wet,
I sing my song, and all is well.
Sometimes the sun, unkindly hot,
My garden makes a desert spot;
Sometimes a blight upon the tree
Takes all my fruit away from me;
And then with throes of bitter pain
Rebellious passions rise and swell;
But - life is more than fruit or grain,
And so I sing, and all is well.

7. Songs to the Dark Virgin
Text by Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

Would that I were a jewel,
a shattered jewel,
That all my shining brilliants
might fall at thy feet,
Thou dark one.
Would that I were a garment,
A shimmering silken garment
That all my folds might wrap about thy body,
Absorb thy body,
Hold and hide thy body,
Thou dark one.
Would that I were a flame,
But one sharp, leaping flame
To annihilate thy body,
Thou dark one.

8. Don’t You Tell Me No
Text by Florence Price (1887-1953)

Always there's something you cannot get,
maybe the girl that you have just met,
or some sweet baby whom you have lost
before you stopped to count the cost.
There's something I want now:
Oh mama, my mama,
don't you tell me "No"
'cause mama you see I'm yearning so
Oh mama, sweet mama,
my hands won't behave.
For your dear charms they creep and crave.
Don't scold me,
just hold me,
and fold me tight. Oh tight!
Say, baby, I'll lose my mind if you don't treat me kind.
So mama, sweet mama,
honey to the bee
is not as sweet as you to me.

9. Night
Text by Louise Charlotte Wallace (1902-1973)

Night comes, a Madonna clad in scented blue.
Rose red her mouth and deep her eyes,
She lights her stars, and turns to where, 
beneath her silver lamp the moon,
upon a couch of shadow lies
A dreamy child,
The wearied Day.

10. Travel’s End
Text by Julia May Folwell Hoisington (1874-1955)

O bed in my mother's house
with sheets as white as May
With blankets wove of carded wool
and scented with new-morn hay
With the poke of the feather down
from her snow-white plumy geese
Oh, bed of mine in my mother's house
With sleep that was dreaming peace
Oh, far have I walked forlorn
Oh, bed that my mother made
I would that your sheet might be my shroud
And I in earth be laid.