On But Not My Soul, the Ragazze Quartet performs works by two female American composers Rhiannon Giddens and Florence Price, combined with the ‘American’ String Quartet No. 12 by Antonín Dvořák.

The album is Exclusively Available in Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound DSD 256, DSD 128 & DSD 64 plus Stereo DSD 512 at NativeDSD.Com

Florence Price was the first African-American woman composer to be recognized for her symphonies. Her String Quartet No. 2 is a mix of European romanticism, her ‘Southern’ roots, the emerging blues and African-American spirituals.

Antonín Dvořák wrote his ‘American’ String Quartet No. 12 in the US, where he was invited to research ‘original American music’. He concluded that there was a wealth of material to be found among the black population – something that was not universally appreciated at the time.

The title of the album derives from a song Rhiannon Giddens wrote after seeing a 19th-century advertisement for a 22-year-old female slave whose 9-month-old baby was also for sale, but ‘At the purchaser’s option’. One of the lines of the song is: “You can take my blood. But not my soul.” The string quartet arrangement was made by Jacob Garchik in 2016, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet’s ‘50 For The Future’ project.

Ragazze Quartet
Rosa Arnold, Violin
Jeanita Vriens-van Tongeren, Violin
Annemijn Bergkotte, Viola
Rebecca Wise, Cello