As
a composer, pianist, and teacher, Margaret Bonds was fortunate to receive
wide acclaim in her own lifetime. Her talents as a composer were lavished
on such varied genres as choral works, orchestral works, piano pieces,
popular songs, and art songs. Having been personally acquainted with the
most significant Black artists of her day, she learned a great deal about
the voice through association with such great singers as Abbie Mitchell,
Hortense Love, Adele Addison, Betty Allen, Eugene Brice, Lawrence Winters,
Carol Brice, and Leontyne Price. These ties coupled with her extraordinary
talents as a concert pianist lend themselves well to the craftsmanship
found in her various songs and spiritual arrangements.
The
most popular of her songs happen to be the ones that are most accessible
in publication. Three Dream Portraits, a song cycle of poetry by Langston
Hughes, is popularly available in the Anthology of Art Songs by Black
American Composers. It was originally published by G. Ricordi in 1959.
The difficulty level for singer and pianist is medium to medium-difficult,
owing to sweeping vocal lines, dramatic climaxes, complicated rhythms
in the accompaniment, and the necessity for well executed ensemble. The
cycle appears in the Patterson Anthology in the low key. A high key version
does exist, but it is harder (though not impossible) to locate.
Like
Howard Swanson, Margaret Bonds had a close friendship with Langston Hughes.
The poetıs collection The Dream Keeper provided Bonds with the three poems
of this cycle. They reflect on different themes related to being Black
in America. "The work is a series of mood paintings with many characteristics
of the jazz style." (Green 1983, 55) "Minstrel Man," the
first song of the set, emotes poignant irony. The poetry speaks of the
conflict between a Black entertainer's gay outer façade and his
inner turmoil. Bonds's music reflects this conflict best by deft usage
of modal mixture. The song climaxes dramatically. "Minstrel Man"
can be easily excerpted from the cycle and performed separately. The second
song is "Dream Variation." In this song, Bonds crafts an atmospheric,
dreamlike vision of hopefulness. The piano and voice move together, though
not homophonically, "whirling" and "dancing" as they
bring to life Hughes' vision of a better world where the color black is
applied to all things beautiful. Song three, "I, Too" is fashioned
as a military march. The poetry speaks of ultimate triumph in the face
of adversity. Tension builds from the first measures, the voice proclaiming,
"I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother!" The mounting
dissonance is effortlessly resolved with the statement, ³Besides, theyıll
see how beautiful I am and be ashamed.² Both the pianist and the singer
must recognize the nuance of motivic material presented by Bonds in this
song if it is to have the impact intended for ending this moving work
(e.g., the martial quality of the opening bars in the piano, the disjunct
melodic material of the phrase, "...nobody'll dare say to me, 'Eat
in the kitchen,' then," the menacing quality of the piano part as
the voice states, "Tomorrow, I'll sit at the table when company comes,"
and the laughing staccati of the piano in the postlude).
Click
here for Entire Essay
MARGARET BONDS: THREE DREAM PORTRAITS
Minstrel Man
Dream Variation
I, Too
Margaret
Bonds represents a second generation of Black women composers. She first
studied under her mother, Estella C. Bonds, an accomplished musician, continuing
her musical studies of composition and piano with Florence B. Price, and
composition under William Dawson. She completed the BM and MM from Northwestern
Unviersity by the age of twenty-one. She studied under Tobert Storer at
the Julliad School, piano with Henry Levene and private study with Roy Harris
and Emerson harper. Conds was successful as a composer, concert pianist,
private piano instructor, and church musician. One of her pupils was a young
Ned Rorem. She received numerous fellowships and awards including the National
Association of Negro Musicians Scholarship, Rodman Wanamaker Prize in composition
(1939), Roy Harris Fellwoship, and the Northwestern University Alumni Medal
in 1967. She was married in 1940 to Lawrence Richardson and had a daughter,
DJane, who handles her estate to this day. She died in California where
she worked in films. Her compositions include: Ballad of the Brown King,
Three Dream Portraits, "The Negro Speaks
of Rivers," and the famous spiritual arrangement sung by many famous artists,
though, oddly enough, she is rarely acknowledged as its composer, "He's
Got the Whole World in His Hands."
Source:
Perkins Holly, Ellistine. Biographies of Black Composers and Songwriters;
A Supplementary Textbook. Iowa:Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1990.
|
