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John Michael Cooper

Nov 25 min read

A BOND OF DISTINCTION

Kamala Harris's housing initiative reflects the influence of Rev. Hamilton Boswell, nephew of Margaret Bonds & grandson of Dr. Monroe Majors

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John Michael Cooper

Oct 53 min read

A FLORENCE PRICE POSTHUMOUS PREMIERE

Moods for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano at the International Florence Price Festival NO ONE has been more assiduous about ensuring that the...

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BLACK REINSCRIPTION, WHITE REPRISAL: ELIZABETH KECKLEY AND MARGARET BONDS

John Michael Cooper

Feb 289 min read

BLACK REINSCRIPTION, WHITE REPRISAL: ELIZABETH KECKLEY AND MARGARET BONDS

(Prefatory note: I began this first of the twelve Black History months of 2024-25 down with simultaneous COVID and flu – and the lost...

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SEQUINA DUBOSE: FROM “BLURRED LINES,” A MESSAGE CRYSTAL CLEAR (pt. 1 of 2)

John Michael Cooper

Feb 167 min read

SEQUINA DUBOSE: FROM “BLURRED LINES,” A MESSAGE CRYSTAL CLEAR (pt. 1 of 2)

In some ways, the year 2023 was a year of revanchism and regression in classical music. Just a few years earlier, many voices –...

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Margaret Bonds and The Ballad of the Brown King

John Michael Cooper

Nov 11, 20235 min read

Margaret Bonds and The Ballad of the Brown King

Some Historical Errata, Corrigenda, and Addenda As December nears, so do more performances of one of Margaret Bonds’s most important and...

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John Michael Cooper

Oct 5, 20232 min read

The Tombstone’s Tale (2)

This post is an update to my post of March 26, 2023. As I noted there, in 1912, two years after the death of Dr. James H. Smith, father...

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ANTI-SEMITISM AND ANTI-JUDAISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (Part 4: Science's Betrayal, Music's Losses)

John Michael Cooper

Jul 10, 20234 min read

ANTI-SEMITISM AND ANTI-JUDAISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (Part 4: Science's Betrayal, Music's Losses)

IN TODAY’S POST: (1) European anti-Jewish intellectuals tender a hopelessly confused mélange of cultural anthropology, history, and...

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ANTI-SEMITISM AND ANTI-JUDAISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (Part 2: Richard Wagner)

John Michael Cooper

Jul 5, 20234 min read

ANTI-SEMITISM AND ANTI-JUDAISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (Part 2: Richard Wagner)

Richard Wagner's "On Jewry in Music," first published pseudonymously in 1850 and finally published in pamphlet form under Wagner's...

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ANTI-SEMITISM AND ANTI-JUDAISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (Part 1)

John Michael Cooper

Jul 5, 20235 min read

ANTI-SEMITISM AND ANTI-JUDAISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (Part 1)

This post and the following three are about the phenomenon of anti-Jewish attitudes and deeds that were pervasive in the musical worlds...

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RACISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (4): CANONICAL SILENCING, AND SOME CONCLUSIONS

John Michael Cooper

Jun 26, 20235 min read

RACISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (4): CANONICAL SILENCING, AND SOME CONCLUSIONS

As a prefatory exercise for this post, consider the “rule of 4%”: less than four percent of the players in professional orchestras with...

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RACISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (3): ARCHIVAL SILENCING

John Michael Cooper

Jun 25, 20233 min read

RACISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (3): ARCHIVAL SILENCING

In Parts 1 and 2 of this four-part post I attempted a systems-level analysis of the means and mechanisms (“linchpins”) by which racism...

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RACISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (2): SILENCING BY MUSIC PUBLISHERS

John Michael Cooper

Jun 24, 20233 min read

RACISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (2): SILENCING BY MUSIC PUBLISHERS

In Part 1 of this series of systems-level commentaries on Racism in Romantic Music (RRM), I discussed how the pervasive racism of the...

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RRM – RACISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (Part 1 of 4)

John Michael Cooper

Jun 23, 20237 min read

RRM – RACISM IN ROMANTIC MUSIC (Part 1 of 4)

Dear Constant Reader, I’ve been absent from this blog for a while, partly because I needed to recharge, partly because I’m currently...

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MARGARET BONDS, LANGSTON HUGHES, AND THE JOY OF “JOY”:

John Michael Cooper

Mar 24, 20234 min read

MARGARET BONDS, LANGSTON HUGHES, AND THE JOY OF “JOY”:

A Conspirare Premiere and a Gratuitous Youthful Photo Langston Hughes’s poem Joy was first published in the collection The Weary Blues...

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John Michael Cooper

Feb 22, 20235 min read

A FATHER-DAUGHTER GIFT FOR TODAY

The Margaret Bonds / W.E.B. Du Bois Credo Returns to Its Roots Margaret Bonds’s relationship with her father was complicated but rich –...

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John Michael Cooper

Feb 19, 20233 min read

A HISTORIC RE-ENACTMENT

Margaret Bonds’s Montomery Variations and Credo on the Same Program with the Hartford Chorale and Hartford Symphony Orchestra Margaret...

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John Michael Cooper

Dec 11, 20222 min read

A MOST AUSPICIOUS OCCASION

The world premiere of the “revised and extended” version of Margaret Bonds’s The Ballad of the Brown King (December 11, 1960) HISTORY WAS...

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MARGARET BONDS: “NO MAN HAS SEEN HIS FACE” (1968)

John Michael Cooper

Nov 19, 20224 min read

MARGARET BONDS: “NO MAN HAS SEEN HIS FACE” (1968)

Fifty-one-year-old Owen Brady was found unconscious and riddled with bullets inside a wrecked and burning car that had crashed into the...

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COALESCENCE, CULMINATION, AND EMANCIPATION:

John Michael Cooper

Nov 11, 20224 min read

COALESCENCE, CULMINATION, AND EMANCIPATION:

Four Early Performances of Margaret Bonds’s Spiritual Suite [This note is about Margaret Bonds’s Spiritual Suite – the surviving magnum...

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J.S. BACH AND THE HARMONY OF THE SPHERES AT THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICH

John Michael Cooper

Nov 1, 20223 min read

J.S. BACH AND THE HARMONY OF THE SPHERES AT THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICH

Pianist Elena Piccione and Romanian Astronomer Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu Enact the Composer’s Worldview on November 4 The notion that all...

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A RELIGIOUS REFLECTION BY MARGARET BONDS