Margaret Bonds Explained

Margaret Bonds
Birth Name:Margaret Allison Bonds
Birth Date:3 March 1913
Birth Place:Chicago, Illinois, US
Death Place:Los Angeles, California, US
Occupation:Composer, pianist
Alma Mater:Northwestern University
Relations:Monroe Alpheus Majors (father)

Margaret Allison Bonds (March 3, 1913 – April 26, 1972)[1] was an American composer, pianist, arranger, and teacher. One of the first Black composers and performers to gain recognition in the United States, she is best remembered today for her popular arrangements of African-American spirituals and frequent collaborations with Langston Hughes.[2]

Life

Family background

Margaret Jeanette Allison Majors was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 3, 1913. Her father, Monroe Alpheus Majors, was an active force in the civil rights movement as a physician and writer. His work included founding a medical association for black physicians who were denied membership in the American Medical Association on the basis of race. As an author, Majors is known for his book, (1893), and for his work as editor of several African-American newspapers. Her mother, Estelle C. Bonds, was a church musician and member of the National Association of Negro Musicians. She died in 1952.[3]

When her parents' troubled marriage ended in 1917, young Margaret's last name was changed to her mother's maiden name, Bonds.[4] Despite the divorce, Margaret continued to stay in touch with her father, who, in 1920, wrote the first nursery rhyme storybook for African-American children called First Steps and Nursery Rhymes; he dedicated it to 7-year-old Margaret.

Childhood

As a child, Margaret Bonds studied piano under the Coleridge Taylor Scholarship, which was awarded to her by the Colereidge Taylor School of Music, where her mother worked as an educator for 20 years. During this time, she, at the ages of both 8 and 9 years old, won piano scholarships from the Chicago Musical College.[5] Margaret's piano teachers up until the age of 13 included Estella Bonds, Martha B. Anderson, and Tom Theodore Taylor. At 13, she began studying with William Levi Dawson and Florence Price. Margaret's mother often hosted other Black musicians, artists, and writers in her home. Among those included Abbie Mitchell, Lillian Evanti, and composer Will Marion Cook, all of whom would become influential to her future musical studies and career.[6] [7] [8]

In 1940, Margaret Bonds married Lawrence Richardson (1911-1990), a probation officer, after moving to New York City in 1939. The couple later had a daughter, Djane Richardson (1946-2011).[9] [10] [11] When Bonds died on April 26, 1972, in Los Angeles, California, she was survived by her husband, daughter, and sister.[12]

Education

Northwestern University

During high school, Bonds continued to study piano and composition with Florence Price and later with William Dawson. In 1929, at the young age of 16, Bonds began her studies at Northwestern University, where she earned both her Bachelor of Music (1933) and Master of Music (1934) degrees in piano and composition.[13] Bonds was one of the few Black students at Northwestern University; the environment was hostile, racist, and nearly unbearable. Although she was permitted to study at the university, she was not allowed to live on campus or use the practice facilities and the swimming pool.

I was in this prejudiced university, this terribly prejudiced place…. I was looking in the basement of the Evanston Public Library where they had the poetry. I came in contact with this wonderful poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", and I'm sure it helped my feelings of security. Because in that poem he tells how great the black man is. And if I had any misgivings, which I would have to have – here you are in a setup where the restaurants won't serve you and you're going to college, you're sacrificing, trying to get through school – and I know that poem helped save me.[14] [15]

Juilliard School of Music

Bonds moved to New York City after graduating from Northwestern University. There she attended the prestigious Juilliard School of Music and studied composition with Roy Harris, Robert Starer, and Emerson Harper, and piano with Djane Herz.[16] She also studied with Walter Gossett. She pursued lessons with Nadia Boulanger, who upon looking at her work said that she needed no further study and refused to teach her.[17] However, it is inconclusive whether Boulanger truly thought Bonds had no need of further instruction or was acting from a position of racial prejudice.[18] The work Boulanger refers to is The Negro Speaks of Rivers, a setting for voice and piano of Langston Hughes' poem by the same title—the very poem which brought Bonds such comfort during her years at Northwestern University.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes (1901-1967) was a prolific African-American poet and writer. Hughes and Bonds became great friends after meeting in person in 1936, and she set much of his work to music.[19] On May 22, 1952, Langston (poet), Bonds (pianist), and Daniel Andrews (baritone) collaborated on a project, "An Evening of Music and Poetry in Negro Life," performing at Community Church.[20] This project took place just months after Bond's debut solo performance at Town Hall in New York City, February 7, 1952. Ever a good friend, Hughes sent Bonds a Western Union telegram the afternoon of her performance, telling her how much he desired to be present and sending his best wishes.[21]

Bonds wrote several music-theater works. In 1959, she set music to Shakespeare in Harlem, a libretto by Hughes.[22] It premiered in 1960 at the 41st Street Theater. Other collaborations include "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "Songs of the Seasons," and "Three Dream Portraits." Another work based on a text by Langston Hughes was first performed in February 2018 in Washington, DC, by the Georgetown University Concert Choir under Frederick Binkholder.[23] Entitled "Simon Bore the Cross", it is a cantata for piano and voice, and is based on the spiritual "He Never Said a Mumblin' Word".[24] [25]

The death of Langston Hughes in 1967 was difficult for Bonds. Afterward, she left her husband and daughter to move from New York to Los Angeles where she remained until her death on April 26, 1972.

Career

Chicago

Bonds was active in her career throughout her studies at Northwestern University. In 1932, Bond's composition Sea Ghost won the prestigious national Wanamaker Foundation Prize, bringing her to the public's attention. On June 15, 1933, Bonds performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—the first black person in history to do so—during its Century of Progress series (Concertino for Piano and Orchestra by John Alden Carpenter). She would return in 1934 to perform Piano Concerto in D Minor composed by former teacher, Florence Price.

After graduation, Bonds continued to teach, compose, and perform in Chicago. Two of her notable students were Ned Rorem and Gerald Cook, with whom she performed piano duos in later years.[26] In 1936, she opened the Allied Arts Academy where she taught art, music, and ballet.[27] That same year, an adaptation of "Peach Tree Street" appeared in Gone With the Wind.[28] She also taught Talib Rasul Hakim.

New York City

In 1939, she moved to New York City where she edited music for a living and collaborated on several popular songs.[29] [30] She made her solo performing debut at Town Hall on February 7, 1952.[31] Around this same time, she formed the Margaret Bonds Chamber Society, a group of black musicians which performed mainly the work of black classical composers. Bonds lived in Harlem, and worked on many music projects in the neighborhood. She helped to establish a Cultural Community Center, and served as the minister of music at a church in the area.

Among Bonds' works from the 1950s is The Ballad of the Brown King, a large-scale work which was first performed in December 1954 in New York. It tells the story of the Three Wise Men, focusing primarily on Balthazar, the so-called "brown king". It was originally written for voice and piano, but later revised for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, and eventually televised by CBS in 1960. A large work in nine movements, the piece combines elements of various black musical traditions, such as jazz, blues, calypso, and spirituals. Bonds was writing other works during this period of her career: Three Dream Portraits for voice and piano, again setting Hughes' poetry, were published in 1959. D Minor Mass for chorus and organ was first performed in the same year.

As an outgrowth of her compositions for voice, Bonds later became active in the theater, serving as music director for numerous productions and writing two ballets. In 1964, Bonds wrote Montgomery Variations for orchestra, a set of seven programmatic variations on the spiritual "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me." Bonds penned a program for the work which explains that it centered on Southern Blacks' decision no longer to accept the segregationist policies of the Jim Crow South, focusing on the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Bonds shared the completed work with Ned Rorem, a close friend and former student, in 1964. She eventually dedicated the work to Martin Luther King Jr.[32] In 1967, legendary choral director and vocal coach Frederick Wilkerson featured the original piano/vocal version of her setting of W.E.B. Du Bois's civil-rights manifesto "Credo" in the first all-Bonds concert in Washington, D.C., and later that year the likewise legendary choral conductor Albert McNeil performed the choral/orchestral version of that same work, along with The Montgomery Variations, in San Francisco.[33]

Los Angeles

In 1969, Margaret moved to Los Angeles, working as Music Director and teaching piano at the Los Angeles Inner City Institute and at the Inner City Cultural Center. Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic premiered her Credo for chorus and orchestra in 1972. Bonds died unexpectedly a few months later, shortly after her 59th birthday.[34]

Memberships

Legacy

Margaret Bonds passed away 4 years before the advent of the Copyright Act, greatly affecting her estate's intellectual property rights to her original music. Therefore, many of her manuscripts were lost after the time of her death. Due to the restrictions that women of color had during her lifetime, the majority of Margaret's works were unrecorded both during her lifetime and after her death. However, in 2013, Georgetown University acquired 18 boxes of Margaret's manuscripts and correspondence, entitled the Margaret Bonds Papers, which were placed into the 2013 Lauinger Library Special Collections Archive. This collection includes sheet music, telegrams, letters, articles, and other documents that had been undiscovered up until this point. That being said, Margaret Bonds did much to promote the music of black musicians. Her own compositions and lyrics addressed racial issues of the time. The performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was an historical moment, marking the first occasion a black performer had performed with them as soloist. Bonds connected her father's political activism with her mother's sense of musicianship. In addition, many well-known arrangements of African-American spirituals (He's Got the Whole World in His Hands) were created by Bonds, the most popular being her setting in 1962 for Florence Price.[35]

Major works

Pieces for stage

Pieces for solo voice

  1. "Dry Bones"[37]
  2. "Sit down servant"
  3. "Lord, I just can't keep from crying"[37]
  4. "You can tell the world"
  5. "I'll reach to heaven"
  1. "Women Have Loved Before as I Love Now"
  2. "Hyacinth"
  3. "Even in the Moment"
  4. "Feast"
  5. "I Know My Mind"
  6. "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed"
  1. "Poem d'automne"
  2. "Winter-moon"
  3. "Young love in spring"
  4. "Summer storm"
  1. "No Man Has Seen His Face"
  2. "Touch the Hem of His Garment"
  3. "Faith in Thee"

Pieces for piano

  1. "Tangamerican"
  2. "Fugal Dance

Choral pieces

List includes works compiled in a monograph published by the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago.[43]

Recordings

In the 1960s, Leontyne Price, the first African American opera singer to become internationally famous, commissioned and recorded some of Bonds' arrangements of spirituals.[44] Some of Bonds' music, mainly piano pieces and art songs, has been recorded on various labels, mostly on compilation albums of music by black composers. In 2019 the premiere recording of The Ballad of the Brown King (performed by The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra) was released on the Avie label.[45]

• Troubled Water played by Michael Noble on American Dissident (198004840682) 2022.[46]

References

  1. Hawkins, Deborah. "Bonds, Margaret" (1999). in International Dictionary of Black Composers. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 131-137.
  2. Web site: · African Diaspora Music Project. africandiasporamusicproject.org. September 11, 2022. September 11, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220911033754/https://africandiasporamusicproject.org/margaret_bonds. live.
  3. Web site: Margaret Bonds: Composer and Activist. Georgetown University Library. 2020-09-16. September 17, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200917120212/https://www.library.georgetown.edu/exhibition/margaret-bonds-composer-and-activist. live.
  4. Book: Walker-Hill, Helen . From spirituals to symphonies: African-American women composers and their music . . 2007 . 9780252074547 . 141 . Margaret Bonds . 2020-02-21 . registration . Internet Archive.
  5. Kilgore, Alethea N. The Life and Solo Vocal Works of Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972). Florida State University, 2013.
  6. Book: Price . Florence . Symphonies nos. 1 and 3 . 2008 . A-R Editions, Inc. . 9780895796387 . 40 . February 21, 2020 . July 17, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240717214025/https://books.google.com/books?id=9lzwS6YzrG8C&pg=PR40#v=onepage&q&f=false . live .
  7. Book: Enright . Laura L. . Chicago's Most Wanted™: The Top 10 Book of Murderous Mobsters, Midway Monsters, and Windy City Oddities . 2005 . Potomac Books, Inc. . 9781612340340 . 286 . February 21, 2020 . registration.
  8. Book: Strimple . Nick . Choral Music in the Twentieth Century . 2005 . Amadeus Press . 9781574673784 . 187 . February 21, 2020 . July 17, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240717214026/https://books.google.com/books?id=9lJMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT187#v=onepage&q&f=false . live .
  9. MacAuslan. Janna. 1989. Noteworthy women: Price, Bonds, and Perry; Three Black Women Composers. Hot Wire: The Journal of Women's Music and Culture. 5. 3. 13.
  10. Book: Hine. Darlene Clark. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1. 1993. Carlson Pub.. 147. 9780926019614. February 21, 2020. July 17, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240717214039/https://books.google.com/books?id=-7rCmu8RK5UC. live.
  11. Web site: Collection: Margaret Bonds papers. Archives at Yale. 2020-09-16. February 6, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230206042921/https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/964. live.
  12. News: April 29, 1972. Margaret Bonds, 59, Pianist, Arranger. en-US. The New York Times. 2024-04-13. 0362-4331. 34. June 1, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220601081858/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/29/archives/margaret-bonds-59-ia-pianist-arranger.html. live.
  13. Web site: Margaret Bonds Encyclopedia.com. 2020-09-16. encyclopedia.com. February 17, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230217233228/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/historians-and-chronicles/historians-miscellaneous-biographies/margaret-bonds. live.
  14. Web site: Almon. Margaret. Margaret Bonds Archives – Margaret Almon. February 13, 2017. 2020-09-16. en-US. April 23, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240423211506/https://www.margaretalmon.com/margaret-bonds/. live.
  15. Web site: February 10, 2016. Margaret Bonds Biography. 2020-09-16. Afrocentric Voices in "Classical" Music. en-US.
  16. Book: Thomas. André Jerome. A study of the selected masses of twentieth-century black composers: Margaret Bonds, Robert Ray, George Walker, and David Baker. 1983. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 9. February 21, 2020. July 17, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240717214028/https://books.google.com/books?id=1dQ5AQAAIAAJ. live.
  17. Book: Matthew Hoch. Linda Lister. So You Want to Sing Music by Women: A Guide for Performers. 2019. Rowman & Littlefield. 36. 9781538116074. February 21, 2020. July 17, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240717214028/https://books.google.com/books?id=PQKHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false. live.
  18. Web site: The unsung legacies of composers Margaret Bonds and Florence Price – CSO Sounds & Stories. 2020-09-16. csosoundsandstories.org. February 15, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220215064413/https://csosoundsandstories.org/the-unsung-legacies-of-composers-florence-price-and-margaret-bonds/. dead.
  19. Book: Fuller . Sophie . The Pandora guide to women composers: Britain and the United States 1629- present . 1994 . Pandora . 64 . February 21, 2020 . registration.
  20. News: May 22, 1952. Music Notes. en-US. The New York Times. 2020-09-16. 0362-4331. May 28, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220528100507/https://www.nytimes.com/1952/05/22/archives/music-notes.html. live.
  21. Web site: April 30, 2018. Open Ears: The Endlessly Unfolding Story of Margaret Bonds. 2020-09-16. Classical KUSC. en-US. September 26, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200926103410/https://www.kusc.org/culture/staff-blog/open-ears/open-ears-margaret-bonds/. dead.
  22. Book: James A. Emanuel. Theodore L. Gross. Dark Symphony. 1968. Simon and Schuster. 197. 9780029095409. February 21, 2020. July 17, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240717214029/https://books.google.com/books?id=Np8GuoAYpgQC&pg=PA197#v=onepage&q&f=false. live.
  23. Web site: World Premiere Simon Bore the Cross. February 21, 2020. Georgetown University. Department of Performing Arts. June 6, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230606091131/https://performingarts.georgetown.edu/margaret-bonds/. live.
  24. John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: Millennium Stage program for February 24, 2018
  25. Web site: April 30, 2018. GU Concert Choir: "Simon Bore the Cross". May 7, 2018. Georgetown University. February 26, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180226091848/http://guevents.georgetown.edu/event/gu_concert_choir_world_premiere_of_simon_bore_the_cross#.WpL5Q_qtzX0. live.
  26. Book: Rorem, Ned . Gaines . James . The Lives of the Piano . Harper Colophon Books . 115, 118–120 . Chapter V: Beyond Playing: A Composer's Life With the Piano . 0-06-090997-8.
  27. Book: Hughes. Langston. Langston Hughes and the Chicago Defender: Essays on Race, Politics, and Culture, 1942-62. 1995. University of Illinois Press. 251. 9780252064746. February 21, 2020.
  28. Book: Mohan, Carren Denise. The Contributions of Four African-American Women Composers to American Art Song. The Ohio State University. 1997. 9780591412734. Ann Arbor. 5.
  29. News: Noteworthy Female Composers Remembered. .
  30. Book: Smith . Jessie Carney . Notable Black American Women . 1992 . Gale Research . 9780810347496 . 95 . February 21, 2020 . registration.
  31. News: February 7, 1952. Music Notes. en-US. The New York Times. 2020-09-16. 0362-4331. October 1, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221001023048/https://www.nytimes.com/1952/02/07/archives/music-notes.html. live.
  32. Helen Walker-Hill and others erroneously state that the Montgomery Variations were composed in 1965, after the third Freedom March from Selma to Montgomery -- but the autograph is clearly dated 1964 and Bonds shared the work with Rorem and others in the autumn of that year, several months before the 1965 marches were organized.
  33. Book: Cooper . John Michael . Margaret Bonds: "The Montgomery Variations" and Du Bois "Credo" . 2023 . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge . 128, 38 . 10.1017/9781009053792 . 9781009053792 . 265531543 .
  34. News: Deaths elsewhere . . Los Angeles . UPI . 3 . April 28, 1972 . 2020-02-21 . NewspaperArchive . February 21, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200221174817/https://newspaperarchive.com/obituary-clipping-apr-28-1972-1561167/ . live .
  35. Web site: Margaret Bonds: Composer and Activist Georgetown University Library . 2023-01-28 . library.georgetown.edu . February 4, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230204061757/https://library.georgetown.edu/exhibition/margaret-bonds-composer-and-activist . live .
  36. Web site: My Published Editions . John Michael . Cooper . cooperm55.wixsite.com . 2020-11-10 . (confirmed in a list of select Bonds works that professor of musicology Cooper has compiled from numerous disparate scores into a complete score pending (2020) publication by the Hildegard Publishing Company, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania).
  37. Web site: Margaret Bonds (1913 – 1972) Works in the Hildegard Catalog . Hildegard Publishing Company . 2020-11-10 . October 22, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201022184722/http://www.hildegard.com/resources.php?page=afro_american . live .
  38. Book: Art songs and spirituals by African-American Women Composers . Various composers . Vivian . Taylor . 1995 . Hildegard Publishing Company . Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania . 1176046867 . 2020-11-10.
  39. ed. John Michael Cooper (Worcester, Mass.: Hildegard Publishing, 2021)
  40. Book: Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music (1893-1990) . Various composers . Helen . Walker-Hill . 1992 . Hildegard Publishing Company . Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania . 682112961 . 2020-11-10.
  41. ed. John Michael Cooper (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania: Hildegard Publishing Company, 2021).
  42. ed. John Michael Cooper (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania: Hildegard Publishing Company, 2021)
  43. Book: Walker-Hill, Helen . Music by Black Women Composers: A Bibliography of Available Scores . 1995 . . Chicago . 0-929911-04-0 . 9, 46–47, 77, 104.
  44. Web site: Leontyne Price Biography, Opera, & Facts. 2021-02-26. Encyclopædia Britannica. en. June 30, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230630074301/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leontyne-Price. live.
  45. Web site: Catalogue . Avie . February 21, 2020.
  46. Web site: American Dissident . 2023-01-09 . American Dissident . en . January 9, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230109214534/https://michaelnoble.hearnow.com/ . live .

Further reading

External links

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Margaret Bonds".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.