Margaret Bonds’ “Troubled Water”

 

This February, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates Black composers and musicians whose music has been suppressed and ignored. All of these musicians should be added to the music history and music theory curriculum.

https://youtu.be/xMJhaGhYrYc

Margaret Bonds (1913–1972) was one of the first Black composers to be recognized in the United States. She studied at Northwestern and Juilliard, and frequently collaborated with the poet Langston Hughes. In 1933, she was the first Black soloist to appear with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing John Alden Carpenter’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra.

In an interview in 1971, Bonds talked about her time at Northwestern, where she was allowed to study but not allowed to live or use any facilities: “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 he [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.”


One of Bonds’ best-known pieces for the piano is the final movement of her Spiritual Suite, “Troubled Water,” often performed as a standalone work. (The other two movements are “Valley of the Bones” and “The Bells.”) “Troubled Water” was composed in 1967 and is based on “Wade in the Water,” a spiritual that dates from 1901. Maya Angelou called “Troubled Water” a masterpiece: “The broad sweeping melody is initially spiced up by complex accompaniments and harmonized with elements of the blues and jazz. . . . This work becomes increasingly more driven, building up to a grand climax.”

My classical music post for today is Margaret Bonds’ “Troubled Water.”


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