Curiosity 39: Margaret Bonds, composer

This evening we went to the Sandbox, a neighborhood concert venue run by cellist Michelle Djokic and featuring an eclectic array of music, to hear a long-lost treasure, "The Ballad of the Brown King: A Christmas Cantata," by Margaret Bonds (1913–1972) and poet Langston Hughes (1902–1967). Djokic stumbled on a mention of this cantata, originally composed for voice and piano, some time ago, and for the past year has doggedly hunted for it, though no recording exists and for a time it seemed not even a score survived. But stubbornness paid off, and Djokic eventually tracked down a new orchestration.

Bonds was the daughter of a Chicago physician/civil rights activist and a pianist, and started learning piano at a young age. In 1929 she was admitted to Northwestern University, though she was basically denied access to any facilities. This represented her first active exposure to racism. As she later explained it,

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 [Langston Hughes] 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.

Bonds eventually met Hughes and they became lifelong friends.

She also went on to a very successful career, winning the prestigious Wanamaker Award in 1932 for her song "Sea Ghost" and becoming the first African American to perform with the Chicago Symphony. Today she is especially known for her songs. "The Ballad of the Brown King" is marked by such influences as jazz, calypso, gospel, blues, and four-part hymns.

Here is a piece called "Troubled Water," written in 1967, the year Langston Hughes died, a death she was hit hard by. The pianist is Samantha Ege.

Also on this evening's program was a string quartet by Florence Price (1887–1953), who was one of Bonds's instructors in high school. I really enjoyed it:

And to close, I offer the poem that Bonds connected with and that inspired much of her work and her long friendship with Langston Hughes (and which she also set to music):

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

It was an uplifting evening! Thanks to Michelle for her gift of interesting and unusual music to the community.