DOCSLIB.ORG

Deep Rivers: Selected Songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds Penelope Peters

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Deep Rivers: Selected Songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds Penelope Peters Document generated on 09/30/2021 11:35 p.m. Canadian University Music Review Revue de musique des universités canadiennes Deep Rivers: Selected Songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds Penelope Peters Voices of Women: Essays in Honour of Violet Archer Article abstract Voix de femmes : mélanges offerts à Violet Archer This essay examines the songs of two African-American women, Florence Price Volume 16, Number 1, 1995 (1888–1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913–72), who embarked upon their compositional studies and careers only a couple of generations after the URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1014417ar emancipation. Both discovered in the poetry of Langston Hughes (1902–67) the DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1014417ar means for reconciling the musical traditions of their African-American heritage with those of their European training. Through detailed analysis of the textual and musical symbolism in Price's Song to a Dark Virgin and Bonds's The See table of contents Negro Speaks of Rivers and Three Dream Portraits, the author demonstrates the influence of spirituals ("plantation songs"), blues, and jazz and reveals how these African-American idioms are integrated with the melodic and harmonic Publisher(s) idioms from the early twentieth-century European tradition. Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique des universités canadiennes ISSN 0710-0353 (print) 2291-2436 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Peters, P. (1995). Deep Rivers: Selected Songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds. Canadian University Music Review / Revue de musique des universités canadiennes, 16(1), 74–95. https://doi.org/10.7202/1014417ar All Rights Reserved © Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit des universités canadiennes, 1995 (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ DEEP RIVERS: SELECTED SONGS OF FLORENCE PRICE AND MARGARET BONDS Penelope Peters If a musical setting is able to vitalize and vivify one among the many aspects of the total form of a poem, by so doing it presents a unique interpretation of the poem's meaning.1 Implicit in Edward Cone's assertion and explicit in the continuation of his discourse is the notion that the successful musical setting must give the reader more understanding of, more insight into the poem; but how a composer achieves this, and why some poems lend themselves to musical settings are questions that engage not only authors like Cone but also most art-song enthusiasts. How does the composer, responding to the multivalent features of a poem, create a musical setting that will make it more convincing and comprehensible to either the same or a new audience? Ultimately, the music must do more than merely accompany the poem. In the successful art song, the music and the poem must be integrated to such an extent that the music becomes part of the environment of the poem. Moreover, the music of the art song, no matter how well crafted, should not be able to stand alone; it must imply the poem. The task of defining a successful art song is elusive, but in the songs of two North American women composers, Florence Price (1888-1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913-72), we find gripping, effective settings that fuse their music with the compelling images and words of the African American poet Langston Hughes (1902-67), thereby creating unified, lyric structures. The three artists, who share common ideals and heritage, were prominent and influential figures in their respective fields in the United States for much of this century. Price was born in Arkansas but began her formal musical training at the age of fourteen in Boston at the New England Conservatory of Music. After graduation she embarked on a career as a teacher and performer and also continued to study composition and orchestration with leading teach• ers, especially in Chicago.2 During the 1930s she began to gain national recognition as a composer through various awards and performances of her works.3 One of her students in Chicago was the young Margaret Bonds, with 1 Edward T. Cone, "Words into Music: A Composer's Approach to the Text," in Music: A View from Delft—Selected Essays, ed. Robert P. Morgan (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1989), 123. 2Price studied at the American Conservatory of Music and Chicago University with Carl Busch, Arthur Anderson, and Leo Sowerby. 3Some performances of Price's works include the premiere of her Symphony in E minor at the Chicago World's Fair by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1933), the performance of Symphony No. 3 16/1 (1995) 75 whose family she lived for a time. Price and Bonds had the opportunity to meet several contemporary African American artists who influenced their work, including the poet Langston Hughes and the composer Will Marion Cook. Bonds soon came into her own too, graduating with a Master of Music from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and continuing to study compo• sition at the Julliard School of Music in New York. Upon completion of her studies, she remained in New York composing orchestral works, chamber music, theatre and movie pieces, choral compositions, and art songs and touring the country as a concert pianist.4 The two composers had similar educational and career experiences, but they shared another far more connective and profound bond—their African Ameri• can heritage. Both women were fiercely proud of this heritage and looked for ways to celebrate and memorialize it in their life's work; yet, the musical traditions of their studies and of their compositions were European, not African American. They were faced with the dilemma of discovering a means of reconciling the musical traditions of their heritage with those of their training. They found a solution in the poetry of Langston Hughes, whose words and images spoke directly to the African American experience. Both the content and manner of expression in Hughes's poetry immediately engage the reader: he presents realistic pictures of present-day African Americans in gritty urban areas but elegantly expresses their attitudes and emotions in imagery that reaches every audience. Hughes may have begun "as a disciple of the New Poetry giants, Sandburg and Lindsay, writing unrhymed verse in praise of the "little people,'" but he soon developed a personal style, irresistible in its communica• tion of sorrow and laughter.5 Indeed, a powerful device in Hughes's poetry is the opposition of nonchalant humour on the surface against a background of pathos. Another striking feature is the infusion of ethnic consciousness, in• stilled in Hughes by his maternal grandmother.6 In order to envelop Hughes's poetry musically and to authenticate the combination of words and music, Price and Bonds were compelled to give equal voice to their musical heritage and to their training. Thus, in setting Hughes's poetry, they follow standard European traditions of the genre, such as the formal designs and the use of text and tone painting, but to provide under the direction of Walter Poole in Detroit (1940), and Price's performance of her Concerto in One Movement on the above program. She was also soloist in performances of her first two piano concertos in Chicago and Pittsburgh (1932 and 1934). For more bibliographical information on Price and Bonds and a complete list of their works, see Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1971) and Mildred Denby Green, Black Women Composers: A Genesis (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983). 4 As a pianist, Bonds performed as guest soloist with major orchestras in Canada and the United States. She received numerous awards including the Rodman Wanamaker Award for composition and the alumni medal from Northwestern University. Many of her songs exist in the repertoires of leading artists such as Leontyne Price, William Warfield, and Todd Duncan. 5Donald C. Dickinson, A Bio-Bibliography of Langston Hughes (1902-1967) (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books), 112. 6 Mrs. Langston, of Indian and French ancestry, grew up free in ante-bellum North Carolina, attended Oberlin College, and spent a productive lifetime fighting racial injustice at the side of each of her two husbands; see James A. Emanuel, Langston Hughes (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1967), 18. 76 CUMR/RMUC continuity with their African heritage, they incorporate melodic and aesthetic aspects of spirituals, the harmonic language of the blues, and the improvisatory character of jazz. Price and Bonds appropriate the vivid images and raw emotions crammed into Hughes's taut, compact verses and fashion them into a unified African American musical expression. Before turning to a selection of art songs that combine the music of Price and Bonds with the poetry of Hughes, it will be useful to examine some characteristics of the spirituals, more accurately called "plantation songs," of African Americans in Colonial America; for not only do Price and Bonds make use of of their melodic and esthetic characteristics, but many of the jazz and blues idioms of African American composer-performers derive from this same tradition.7 The plantation songs, the earliest body of music identified with African Americans, provide insight into their musical heritage and personal conflicts. Traditionally, plantation songs were largely improvised and performed by a leader and chorus in a call-and-response procedure that often resulted in the leader or soloist ending phrases with a long, sustained pitch.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Liner Notes Watch and Pray: Spirituals and Art Songs by African American Women Composers, Koch International, 3-7247-2H1, 2000
    Liner Notes Watch and Pray: Spirituals and Art Songs by African American Women Composers, Koch International, 3-7247-2H1, 2000 American Music, by definition, is the result of a particular fusion of many musical cultures. This recording presents an important strand in this complicated tapestry—the blending of African American spiritual songs with the art music of Europe. The origin of the spiritual is still a matter of debate. However, it is generally agreed that it evolved out of the collective folk experiences of the slave. The compositional process relied on the oral tradition, passing these songs from one person to another, generation to generation. We will perhaps never know exactly what they sounded like, nor are we ever likely to precisely trace their evolution. Thus it is probable that the body of music we now associate with the spiritual bears only partial resemblance to the folk original. Spiritual arrangements, as a second evolutionary stage, came into being as early as the middle of the nineteenth century and played an important role in spreading the music and texts far beyond their original folk context. The songs presented here provide a glimpse into a third important development—the reclamation and synthesis of the folksong by African American art music composers. As the African American experience changed, so did its music. By the first half of this century, a small number of African Americans had gained access to conservatories and universities here and abroad. This resulted in the appearance of dramatic new voices on the American musical scene. These African American pioneer composers elected not to abandon their cultural heritage but to transform it with their new musical skills and perspective.
    [Show full text]
  • Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), Composer Three Dream Portraits
    21M.410 / 21M.515 Vocal Repertoire and Performance Spring 2005 PROGRAM NOTES Edward Boatner (1898-1981), arranger Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel? When I Get Home Edward Hammon Boatner was born on November 13, 1898 in New Orleans, Louisiana to the family of an itinerant minister. Boatner’s father, Dr. Daniel Webster Boatner traveled frequently from church to church, and thus provided his son an introduction to rural church singing. Edward Boatner received his musical education at Western University in Kansas, the Boston Conservatory, New England Conservatory, the Longy School of Music, and the Chicago College of Music. In his lifetime, Boatner arranged and published more than 200 spirituals, with written works including Story of the Spiritual: Thirty Spirituals and Their Origins, and the spiritual musicals, The Man of Nazareth and The Origin of the Spirituals. His arrangements have been recorded by Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Leontyne Price and Nelson Eddy. Boatner achieved acclaim as a singer and also served as music director of the National Baptist Convention (1925-1933), as music director at Samuel Huston College in Austin and as Dean of Music at Wiley College. He also operated a studio in New York City where he trained choral groups, gave private voice and piano instruction, and trained actors. An avid writer, Boatner published books on music theory and composition. Writings include The Damaging Results of Racism, Black Humor, Great Achievements in Black and White and the novel One Drop of Blood (New York Public Library, Digital Library Collections). Edward Boatner died in New York in 1981, leaving a legacy of developing the concert spiritual genre in which elements of folk song and art song are blended.
    [Show full text]
  • African American Song Recital Project BU CFA SOM Departments of Voice and Collaborative Piano April 2021
    African American Song Recital Project BU CFA SOM Departments of Voice and Collaborative Piano April 2021 Program Notes – Shiela Kibbe Art songs by African American composers and composers of the African diaspora are rich and diverse in poetic heritage, harmonic language, and compositional style. This project has introduced pianists and singers to a catalogue of repertoire that is immensely rewarding to performers as well as listeners. Although African American composers have set texts by many authors and poets, they have been especially drawn to the words of African American writers. Three of the most influential African American poets were Paul Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, and Langston Hughes. Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was the first African American poet to gain national recognition. Born to parents who were freed slaves in Kentucky, Dunbar’s writing often referred to their stories of plantation life. He published poems in Standard English as well as in dialect; his poetry using dialect attracted the most attention. The H. Leslie Adams song Sence You Went Away is a beautiful example of the softened diction used in Dunbar’s dialect poetry. James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) penned the words to Lift Every Voice and Sing in 1900. Set to music by his brother Rosamund, this glorious song became commonly known as the Negro National Anthem, and is sung today in churches, at sporting events, and as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Johnson was the First African American to pass the bar exam in Florida, and spent his professional life as an educator, a lawyer, the US Consul to Venezuela, and an officer in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
    [Show full text]
  • The Life and Solo Vocal Works of Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) Alethea N
    Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2013 The Life and Solo Vocal Works of Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) Alethea N. Kilgore Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC THE LIFE AND SOLO VOCAL WORKS OF MARGARET ALLISON BONDS (1913-1972) By ALETHEA N. KILGORE A Treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Alethea N. Kilgore All Rights Reserved Alethea N. Kilgore defended this treatise on September 20, 2013. The members of the supervisory committee were: Wanda Brister Rachwal Professor Directing Treatise Matthew Shaftel University Representative Timothy Hoekman Committee Member Marcía Porter Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the treatise has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii This treatise is dedicated to the music and memory of Margaret Allison Bonds. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to acknowledge the faculty of the Florida State University College of Music, including the committee members who presided over this treatise: Dr. Wanda Brister Rachwal, Dr. Timothy Hoekman, Dr. Marcía Porter, and Dr. Matthew Shaftel. I would also like to thank Dr. Louise Toppin, Director of the Vocal Department of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for assisting me in this research by providing manuscripts of Bonds’s solo vocal works. She graciously invited me to serve as a lecturer and performer at A Symposium of Celebration: Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) and the Women of Chicago on March 2-3, 2013.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs
    MARGARET BONDS The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs Laquita Mitchell • Noah Stewart Lucia Bradford • Ashley Jackson The Dessoff Choirs & Orchestra Malcolm J. Merriweather MARGARET BONDS (1913–1972) The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs The Ballad of the Brown King (1960) 23.34 Libretto by Langston Hughes (1902–1967) Laquita Mitchell soprano (4,6,9) Lucia Bradford mezzo-soprano (9) Noah Stewart tenor (1,4,6) 1 Of the Three Wise Men 3.31 2 They Brought Fine Gifts 2.33 3 Sing Alleluia 0.46 4 Mary Had a Little Baby 2.45 5 Now When Jesus Was Born 2.09 6 Could He Have Been an Ethiope? 4.53 7 Oh, Sing of the King Who Was Tall and Brown 4.12 8 That Was a Christmas Long Ago 1.24 9 Alleluia 2.41 The Dessoff Choirs & Orchestra Malcolm J. Merriweather conductor 10 To a Brown Girl Dead (1956) 2.06 Text by Countee Cullen (1903–1946) 11 Winter Moon (1936) 1.15 Text by Langston Hughes Three Dream Portraits (1959) 7.00 Texts by Langston Hughes 12 Minstrel Man 2.20 13 Dream Variation 2.38 14 I, Too 2.02 Malcolm J. Merriweather baritone Ashley Jackson harp he lives and works of black female composers is an area of involved with local cultural organizations. From 1950-1958, T research that has only recently begun to receive the Bonds served as the chair of a concert series at the Community critical attention it has long deserved. Through the study Church of New York.
    [Show full text]
  • Montgomery Variations
    NASHVILLE SYMPHONY YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONCERTS MONTGOMERY VARIATIONS GRADES 3-4 CONCERTCONCERT PROGRAMPROGRAM YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONCERTS MONTGOMERY VA R I AT I O N S Thursday, January 23, 10:15 AM Friday, January 24, 10:15 & 11:45 AM Concert Program Jessie Montgomery | Starburst Nashville School of the Arts Choir | "Elijah Rock" arr. Moses Hogan Adolphus Hailstork | Movements 1 and 3 from Spirituals for Orchestra W.C. Handy | ”St. Louis Blues” Florence Price | Movement 4 "Finale" from Symphony No. 1 in E Minor Margaret Bonds | Movements 1, 3 and 4 from Montgomery Variations William Grant Still | Animato from Afro-American Symphony 3 LESSON #3:#3: MARGARET BONDS AND MLK STANDARDS Music • 3-4.GM.R1.A Demonstrate and explain how selected music connects to and is infl uenced by specifi c interests, experiences, purposes, or contexts (such as how music listening is infl uenced by interests, experience, context, etc.). • 3-4.GM.CN2.A Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and/or daily life (such as understanding the science of sound and the connection between fractions and rhythm values). English Language Arts • 3-4.SL.CC.1 Prepare for collaborative discussions on 3rd and 4th grade level topics and texts; engage eff ectively with varied partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing one’s own ideas clearly. Social Studies • 4.07 Contrast how the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence clashed with treatment of diff erent groups including: women, slaves, and American Indians. • 4.21 Compare and contrast the characteristics of slave life in plantations, cities, and other farms.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of Will Marion Cook: Materials for a Biography Peter M
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications: School of Music Music, School of 10-17-2017 Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of Will Marion Cook: Materials for a Biography Peter M. Lefferts University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicfacpub Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, and the Music Commons Lefferts, Peter M., "Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of Will Marion Cook: Materials for a Biography" (2017). Faculty Publications: School of Music. 66. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicfacpub/66 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Music, School of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications: School of Music by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 1 10/17/2017 Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of Will Marion Cook: Materials for a Biography Peter M. Lefferts University of Nebraska-Lincoln This document is one in a series---"Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of"---devoted to a small number of African American musicians active ca. 1900-1950. The documents are fallout from my work on a pair of essays, "US Army Black Regimental Bands and The Appointments of Their First Black Bandmasters" (2013) and "Black US Army Bands and Their Bandmasters in World War I" (2012; rev. version, 2016). In all cases I have put into some kind of order a number of biographical research notes, principally drawing upon newspaper and genealogy databases.
    [Show full text]
  • The-Black-Female-Composer-DEI-Grant-Application.Pdf
    For CoFA/APDI Committee Use: Received:____________ Action:______________ Amount:_____________ COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY Arts Programming & Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Initiative Programming Grants Applicant Name: James D. Rodriguez Position: Assistant Professor Department/School: School of Music Other Participants: Christine Lamprea & William Gibbons Position: Lecturer in Cello & Associate Professor of Musicology/Associate Dean Department/School: School of Music Project Title: The Black Female Composer Project Abstract: (less than 150 words) This project seeks funding from the DEI Committee to present a recital of works by prominent Black female composers. Participants will include Dr. Gwendolyn Alfred (soprano) from Texas Southern University, Dr. Artina McCain (piano) from the University of Memphis, Christine Lamprea (cello), Dr. James Rodriguez (baritone), and narration by Dr. William Gibbons. Featured composers include Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Betty Jackson King, Jaqueline Hairston, Tania Leon, and Undine Smith Moore. Amount Requested: $ 1000.00 Project Date(s)*: April 5, 2019 *Funding is awarded on a fiscal year basis. Authorizations: School Director/ Department Chair: _______________________________________________ List previous College of Fine Arts, Arts Programming & Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Initiative Programming Grants received within the past three (3) years: Dates Title Dates Title Dates Title 2. Have final reports of previous grants been submitted? [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Project still in progress 3. If you have or expect funding from additional sources for this project, indicate the following: Source Amount $ Notes Source Amount $ Notes Source Amount $ Notes Application for the Arts Programming & Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Initiative Grant College of Fine Arts Project Title: The Black Female Composer Applicant Name/Position: Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to the Helen Walker Hill Collection
    Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids Center for Black Music Research 2020 Guide to the Helen Walker Hill Collection Columbia College Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cmbr_guides Part of the History Commons, and the Music Commons Columbia COL L EGE CHICAG, 0 CENTER FOR BLACK MUSIC RESEARCH COLLECTION The Helen Walker-Hill Collection, 1887-2012 EXTENT Papers: 41 boxes, 25.1 linear feet COLLECTION SUMMARY The Helen Walker-Hill Collection is composed of musical compositions by black women composers throughout the United States and England. This collection was compiled by pianist and musicologist, Dr. Helen Walker-Hill. PROCESSING INFORMATION The Helen Walker-Hill Collection was processed with funding provided through a Preservation and Access Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The collection was processed by and this finding aid was created by Margaret Gonsalves in 2006. Additional acquisitions donated in 2008 and 2012 were processed by Laurie Lee Moses in 2014. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Helen Siemens Walker-Hill was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on May 26, 1936 to George and Margaret (Toews) Siemens. Walker-Hill received her early musical training from her mother, Margaret Siemens, and continued piano studies with Emma Endres Kountz in Toledo, Ohio. In 1957 she received a Bachelor of Art degree in Spanish, German, and French languages and literature from the University of Toledo, Ohio. Walker-Hill was a certified secondary teacher in the state of Ohio. From 1957–1958 she was a Fulbright fellow, studied with Nadia Boulanger, and received a Diplome from École Normale de Musique in Paris in 1958.
    [Show full text]
  • The Art Songs and Folk Arrangements of Jacqueline B. Hairston Proposed for Presentation at the 2018 National NATS Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada
    The Art Songs and Folk Arrangements of Jacqueline B. Hairston Proposed for Presentation at the 2018 National NATS Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada Presenters: Dr. Kimberley Davis, Soprano and Dr. Lois Leventhal, Collaborative Pianist (Ret.) The University of Southern Mississippi The Art Songs and Folk Arrangements of Jacqueline B. Hairston is a sub-lecture recital program based on my soon to be published book/anthology/CD – And So We Sing: the Arrangements of Spirituals by Jacqueline Butler Hairston (CD, Songs of the Soul and Spirit: The Spiritual Arrangements of Jacqueline B. Hairston). It is from my broader program on the compositions of African American female composers – The Arts Songs and Arrangements (Spirituals) of 20th Century African American Female Composers: Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Camille Lucie Nickerson, Undine Smith Moore, Jacqueline Butler Hairston, Rosephanye Dunn Powell, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Diane White, Lela McLin, and Betty Jackson King. The book, of two volumes, focuses on the performance practice of Hairston’s arrangements of spirituals and original art songs, respectively. It is rare that we, as artists, have the opportunity to work closely with a composer to gain their perspective of their work. Having had this opportunity since 2003, I feel it important and necessary to bring this presentation of performance practice to the artists and teachers of the broader NATS community, and to the world. The lecture performance addresses the musical elements of form, rhythm, melody, harmony, and all important to song—the poetry. The main body of my research consists of four main components: 1) general classifications of music; 2) the origins of the spiritual and the evolution of music by African Americans with its subsequent major forms; 3) a biographical sketch of the selected composers; and 4) the study of the song literature of each composer, which culminates in a list of distinctive characteristics that serve to assist a listener in distinguishing one composer from the other.
    [Show full text]
  • London Festival of American Music Presents the UK Premiere of As One
    London Festival of American Music presents the UK premiere of As One, a chamber opera about the journey of a transgender woman by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed Wednesday 15, Friday 17 & Saturday 18 September 2021, 19:30 The 8th London Festival of American Music The Warehouse, Waterloo, London As One Music and Concept by Laura Kaminsky Libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed Film by Kimberly Reed Simon Wallfisch Hannah before, baritone Arlene Rolph Hannah after, mezzo-soprano Benjamin Davis director Odaline de la Martinez conductor Jarry Glavin dancer, choreographer Lontano String Quartet “As One forces you to think, simultaneously challenging preconceptions and inspiring empathy.” The New York Times “Its universality is key to As One’s becoming the hottest new American opera of recent years. It challenges us to ponder questions of authenticity, identity, compassion and self-love. And it does so without preachiness.” The Chicago Tribune This year’s London Festival of American Music is headlined by the UK premiere of As One, a critically-acclaimed chamber opera by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. As One has had close to 50 productions across the US and abroad since its premiere in 2014 and, according to OPERA America, has become the most produced contemporary opera in North America. Laura Kaminsky conceived of As One after reading an article in The New York Times about a transgender man in New Jersey and realized she wanted to create an opera about a transgender individual seeking their truth. In researching source material for the story, she saw Kimberly Reed’s award-winning documentary, Prodigal Sons and reached out to the filmmaker to collaborate with the storytelling and to create an original film that would create the visual landscape for the opera.
    [Show full text]
  • Margaret Bonds
    Margaret Bonds Mar-gret Bonds “Women are expected to be wives, mothers, and do all the nasty rd Born: March 3 , 1913, Chicago, Illinois things in the community (Oh, I do them). And if a woman is cursed th Died: April 26 , 1972, Los Angeles, California with having talent too, then she keeps apologizing for it. Period of Music: Modern Era It really is a curse, in a way, because instead of working 12 hours a day like other women, you work 24.” — Margaret Bonds Biography: Margaret Bonds was a prolific composer in the American Concert Spiritual tradition. She was also a famous pianist who performed all over the country. Born on March 3rd in 1923, Margaret grew up in a very musical household. Her father was a doctor and her mother was an organist. Her home functioned as a salon of sorts where many famous black musicians, writers, and thinkers would gather including Will Marion Cook and Florence Price. Early on, Margaret showed much promise on the piano. In high school, she took lessons with the famous composer and pianist Florence Price. While learning piano, she also studied composition. Bonds fell in love with composing and later studied at Northwestern University, getting a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Music. She also studied both piano and composition at Juilliard. Margaret began gaining recognition for her amazing compositions early on. She won the Wanamaker prize, a composition award, for her piece Sea Ghost in 1932. The next year, she was the first African American person to appear as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony.
    [Show full text]