Music by African American composers has received renewed attention in the 21st century, but that of Margaret Bonds remains neglected. This is so even though her career stretched from the "Harlem Renaissance" to the years of the civil rights movements, and even though, in her day, she was probably more prominent than her contemporaries. She wrote arrangements of spirituals that were (and remain) widely sung, and the present Christmas cantata, The Ballad of the Brown King, was performed in 1960 by the Westminster Choir and ...
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Music by African American composers has received renewed attention in the 21st century, but that of Margaret Bonds remains neglected. This is so even though her career stretched from the "Harlem Renaissance" to the years of the civil rights movements, and even though, in her day, she was probably more prominent than her contemporaries. She wrote arrangements of spirituals that were (and remain) widely sung, and the present Christmas cantata, The Ballad of the Brown King, was performed in 1960 by the Westminster Choir and broadcast on CBS television. This is the cantata's world premiere recording, and it counts as a major event. Capsule descriptions of the work emphasize its African American elements -- jazz, blues, calypso, and more -- but listen here, and you'll find that what's distinctive about the music is that those elements, at least until the rousing final Alleluia, are muted. They're there, but they're elegantly integrated into neo-Romantic choral polyphony. In this, Bonds creates a perfect...
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