Born in Chicago in 1913, Margaret Bonds was a dynamic woman with an active interest in social, political, and cultural events of her time. She had a strong sense of her heritage and a clear visiion of her own role as an intermediary composer. Inheriting a legacy of race consciousness and activism from her father, Bonds worked tirelessly to awaken public awareness to the rich musical heritage of her culture and chose to cultivate it in her compositions.
Margaret Bonds' Early Years
Bonds began studying piano at the age of five. This same year, she composed her first piano peice, "The Marquette Road Blues." While still in high school, she became a charter member of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) Junior Music Association. She studied piano and composition with Florence Price and William Dawson until she entered Northwestern University in 1929, at the age of 16. At Northwestern, she studied piano with Emily Bogue and composition with Arnie Oldburg and Carl Beecher.
Before Bonds completed her undergraduate degree, she was already winning honors, such as the Rodman Wanamaker competition, that would have gratified many older musicians. In 1932, Bonds received a Rosenwald Fellowship which enabled her to complete her master's degree at Northwestern. That same year, she became the first African-American soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing John Carpenter's Concertino.
During the 1930's, Margaret Bonds opened the Allied Arts Academy, a school for ballet, art and music on the south side of Chicago. In the 1940's, she began a two-piano team and in the 50's, Bonds was the first African-American soloist with the Scranton Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1956, she formed the Margaret Bonds Chamber Society and later served as the chairperson for the Eastern Region of NANM. In 1964, she received the Woman of the Century Award and her first of three ASCAP award. In 1967, Mayor Richard Daley declared Margaret Bonds Day in Chicago.
The Music
Bonds in best known for her arrangements of spirituals because many famous singers, including Leontyne Price and Betty Allen, performed them all over the world and recorded the commercially. Bonds' arrangements widened public appreciation of spirituals.
Bonds' compositions number around 200. Many are arrangements of the same works but in different medias. Her works include 75 scores located and verified in collections and archives, along with 125 other titles mentioned by Bonds and listed in reference books. She was also in the habit of giving music to the people she wrote it for, thus many works survive only in the personal libraries of the recipients.
The critics touch upon her nineteenth-century or neoromantic style, ethnic identification, and jazz infused style. Some said her musical ideas were not original while praising her musical craftmanship and musicality. Overall, her music has great depth and innovation.
Margaret Bonds' Relationship with Langston Hughes
In 1936, Bonds met Langston Hughes at the home of a mutual friend in Chicago. She often said that their relationship was like that of a brother and sister. Later, she composed Hughes' songs The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Joy, Love's Runnin' Riot, Park Bench, Poeme d' Automne, and Winter Moon. In 1958, Bonds worked with Hughes on Shakespeare in Harlem and later organized his birthday party at the Brooklyn Museaum.
Bonds' career extended from the 1930's through the 1970's, a time when many African-American composers swung with the intellectual currents of the times, from the purposeful use of black folk idioms, to a rejection of the racial references and an embrace of international modern music's atonality and serialism.
Margaret Bonds died April 26, 1972 at the age of 59, in Los Angeles, California.
