Composers
Margaret Bonds
1913 - 1972About
Margaret Bonds (1913 – 1972), was a composer, pianist, and teacher from Chicago. Her early studies with her mother, who attended the Chicago Musical College, led to tuition in piano, composition with Florence Price and others in high school, followed by study at Northwestern University, where she obtained her BM and MM in music in 1933 and 1934. She also did graduate work at Juilliard, where she returned several times for various courses throughout her life. As a student at Northwestern she encountered significant prejudice and discrimination for the first time, but took comfort from her discovery of the poetry of Langston Hughes. She later set many of his poems and corresponded with him extensively. It was around the same time she acquired a young Ned Rorem as a piano student; he later cited her as an important influence and the two remained close.
In the 1940s she moved to New York and remained there until the late 1960s. While there, she assumed active leadership roles in numerous church, choral, musical theater, and other musical associations. She took additional courses in composition and choral conducting at Juilliard and had hoped to study with Nadia Boulanger, but Boulanger told her she had no need to study with anyone. In 1967, after the death of Langston Hughes, she accepted an invitation to join the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center and Repertory Theater and spent the last five years of her life there. Bonds was primarily a vocal composer; her many works for solo voice include both art and popular songs, as well as numerous arrangements of spirituals, which also informed her large-scale works for chorus or voice and orchestra. These included several cantatas, a Mass, and a Credo. Her dramatic works include incidental music for numerous stage plays in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, a ballet, and a children's operetta.
Related Information
http://guides.lib.fsu.edu/c.php?g=353115&p=2383521, http://www.afrovoices.com/bonds.html
Works by Margaret Bonds
Title | Collection | Voice Type | Range | Poet |
---|---|---|---|---|
April Rain Song | Voice | G4 - G5 | Langston Hughes, Melody by Toy Harper | |
Be a little Savage with Me | Voice | C4 - D5 | Langston Hughes | |
Birth | Voice | D4 - A6 | Langston Hughes | |
Bound | Voice | F4 - Eb 5 | Margaret Bonds | |
Cowboy from South Parkway | Tropics After Dark | Voice | Eb 4 - F5 | Langston Hughes |
Didn't it Rain | Voice | A#3 - D#5 | Biblical | |
Dream Variations | Three Dream Portraits | High | D4 - G#5 | Langston Hughes |
Dry Bones | Five Creek-Freedmen Spirituals | Voice | D4 - G5 | Biblical |
Empty Interlude | Voice | C4 - E5 | Roger Chaney and Andy Razaf | |
Ezekiel saw the Wheel | Voice | C4 - C5 | Biblical | |
Feast | Six Songs on Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay | Voice | D4 - B5 | Edna St. Vincent Millay |
Georgia | Voice | C4 - E5 | Andy Razaf, Joe Davis, Margaret Bonds | |
Go Back to Leanna | Pot Pourri | Voice | C4-E5 | Janice Lovoos |
Go Tell it On The Mountain | Voice | D4 - E5 | Biblical | |
Gwine Up | Voice | E4 - F5 | Biblical | |
He Never Said a Mumlin' Word | Voice | D4 - A5 | biblical | |
He's Got the Whole World in his Hand | Voice | D4 - A5 | Biblical | |
Hold On | Voice | C4 - Eb 5 | Biblical | |
Hold the Wind! | High | Low | A4 - F#5 | Eb3 - C4 | Biblical | |
Hyacinth | Six Songs on Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay | Voice | Eb4 - F5 | Edna St. Vincent Millay |
I got a Home in That Rock | Voice | C4 - F5 | Biblical | |
I too | Three Dream Portraits | High | D4 - G5 | Langston Hughes |
I'll Make you Saavy | Tropics After Dark | Voice | A3 - Eb 5 | Langston Hughes |
I'll Reach to Heaven | Five Creek-Freedmen Spirituals | Voice | C4 - G5 | Biblical |
Joshua fit da battle of Jericho | Voice | C#4 - D5 | Biblical | |
Let's Make a Dream Come True | Voice | C4 - Eb 5 | Roger Chaney | |
Little David | Voice | D4 - G5 | Biblical | |
Lonely Little Maiden by the Sea | Tropics After Dark | Voice | C4 - G5 | Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps |
Lord, I Just Can't Keep From Cryin' | Five Creek-Freedmen Spirituals | Voice | E4 - E5 | Biblical |
Mary Had a Little Baby | The Ballad of a Brown King | Voice | C4 - E5 | Langston Hughes |
Minstrel Man | Three Dream Portraits | High | D4 - Ab5 | Langston Hughes |
No Good Man | Voice | D4 - F5 | Langston Hughes | |
No Man Has Seen His Face | Pot Pourri | Voice | D4-G5 | Janice Lovoos |
Peachtree Street | Voice | C4 - C5 | Margaret Bonds, Andy Razaf and Joe Davis | |
Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells | Voice | Bb3 - Eb5 | Biblical | |
Poème d'Automne | Songs of the Seasons | Voice | C4 - A5 | Langston Hughes |
Rainbow Gold | Voice | Bb3 - F5 | Roger Chaney | |
Rise Up, Shepherd | Voice | C#4 - E5 | Biblical | |
Run, Sinner, Run | Voice | E4 - C#6 | Biblical | |
Sing Aho | Voice | C4 - F5 | Biblical | |
Sit Down Servant | Five Creek-Freedmen Spirituals | Voice | E4 - E5 | Biblical |
Sonnet: What Lips my Lips Have Kissed | Six Songs on Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay | Voice | D4 - B#5 | Edna St. Vincent Millay |
Sonnet: Even in the Moment | Six Songs on Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay | Voice | D4 - G5 | Edna St. Vincent Millay |
Sonnet: I Know My Mind | Six Songs on Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay | Voice | C4 - G5 | Edna St. Vincent Millay |
Spring will be so Sad | Voice | C4 - Eb5 | Harold Dickinson, Margaret Bonds | |
Steady Jesus Listenin' | Voice | C4-Eb5 | Biblical | |
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening | High | D4 - G5 | Robert Frost | |
Summer Storm | Songs of the Seasons | Voice | E4 - A5 | Optional C6 | Langston Hughes |
The Negro Speaks of Rivers | High | A3 - F#5 | Langston Hughes | |
The Pasture | Voice | D4 - C6 | Robert Frost |
Title | Published | Size | Solo with Ensemble | Duration Range | Level | Orchestration |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Credo | Yes | Full Orchestra and Chorus | Soprano, Baritone | 20+ | Professional | S solo, Bar solo, SATB, orch: 2 Fl/Pic, 2 ob, 2 Bsn, Cbn, 2 Hn, 2 Tpt, 3 Tbn, Tuba, Timp, Perc, Harp, Vln.I, Vln. II, Vla., Vc., Cb |
Five Spirituals | Yes | Full Orchestra | Soprano/Tenor/Baritone | 10-20 | Professional | 1. Ezekiel Saw the Wheel [3'] 2 2 2 2 - 2 2 2 0; Timp. Hp. Str. 2. He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands [3'] 2 2 2 3 - 4 2 2 0; Cym. Cel. Str. 3. Hold on [3'] 2 2 2 2 - 4 2 2 0; Timp. Hp. Str. 4. I Got a Home in That Rock [3'] 2 2 2 2 - 4 3 3 0; Str. 5. Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho [3'] 2 2 2 2 - 4 2 2 1; Timp., Hp. Str. |
Montgomery Variations | Yes | Full Orchestra | 20+ | Professional | 2 Fl., 2 Ob., Engl. Hn., 3 Cl., B Cl., 2 Bsn., Cbsn., 4 Hn., 3 Tpt, 4 Tbn, Tuba, Timp, Perc, Hp, Vln I, Vln II, Vla, Vc, Cb | |
Scripture Reading | No | SATBar | Professional | 2[1.2/pic] 2 2 2 — 2 2 2 0 — 1perc — hp — cel — str | ||
Spirituals | No | 10-20 | ||||
The Ballad of the Brown King | Yes | Full Orchestra and Chorus | Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone | 20+ | Professional | 2[1.2/pic] 2 2 2 — 2 2 2 0 — tmp+1 — hp — cel — str, SATB |
Troubled water | Yes | Full Orchestra | Under 5 | Professional | 3*3*3*2 – 4331 – Timp+4 –str |
Composer | Title | Work | Instrumentation | Level | Number of Movements | Accompanied | Size | Duration Range |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Margaret Bonds | The Bells | Piano | 3 | No | Solo | |||
Margaret Bonds | Troubled Water | Piano | Advanced | 3 | No | Solo | ||
Margaret Bonds | Valley of the Bones | Piano | 3 | No | Solo |