John Michael Cooper
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
- 5 min
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
- 3 min
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
- Jan 20
- 6 min
A COMPOSITIONAL COLLABORATION(?) BETWEEN MARGARET BONDS AND FLORENCE PRICE
Sleep Song (text by Joyce Kilmer) Have you ever been in a crowd or out in public and heard a voice that you immediately recognize, even...
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John Michael Cooper
- Dec 11, 2022
- 2 min
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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John Michael Cooper
- Nov 19, 2022
- 4 min
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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John Michael Cooper
- Nov 11, 2022
- 4 min
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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John Michael Cooper
- Jul 1, 2022
- 3 min
“I DEDICATED IT TO MOTHER”
On the Origins of He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand by Margaret Bonds Margaret Bonds is justly celebrated for her inspired and...
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John Michael Cooper
- May 1, 2022
- 4 min
“UNIVERSITIES, UNIVERSITIES, UNIVERSITIES!” (1)
The Conservatory of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Brings Margaret Bonds’s Civil-Rights Credo to the Home of Dred Scott’s...
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John Michael Cooper
- Apr 23, 2022
- 3 min
THE VOICE OF MARGARET BONDS
Reflecting on Her Recorded Interview with James V. Hatch Most commentaries on Margaret Bonds either quote or refer to this passage: I was...
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John Michael Cooper
- Mar 29, 2022
- 4 min
THREE IN D.C.
The Voice of Margaret Bonds Rises in Three Events in the U.S. Capital This Weekend The estimable Margaret Bonds’s (1913-72) musical...
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John Michael Cooper
- Feb 18, 2022
- 4 min
THE CREDO SOUNDS AGAIN
W.E.B. Du Bois’s bold and brilliant civil-rights manifesto Credo was first published in 1904 and republished with revisions at the head...
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John Michael Cooper
- Feb 12, 2022
- 3 min
SINCE 1973
On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. CT, the internationally heralded GRAMMY-winning chorus Conspirare, conducted by...
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John Michael Cooper
- Jan 27, 2022
- 2 min
MARGARET BONDS’S "TROUBLED WATER" IN HER ARRANGEMENT FOR CELLO AND PIANO
Troubled Water is arguably Margaret Bonds’s best-known instrumental composition. Published by itself by Sam Fox Publishing (New York) in...
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John Michael Cooper
- Jan 22, 2022
- 4 min
LAMENT AND BENEDICTION
The Last Two Movements of Margaret Bonds’s Montgomery Variations and the 2022 Defeat of Voting Rights Legislation This past week, Senate...
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John Michael Cooper
- Dec 13, 2021
- 2 min
TWO POSTHUMOUS REVIVALS OF MARGARET BONDS AND LANGSTON HUGHES: AFRICAN DANCE (Danse africaine)
Performances by Greg Watkins and Members of the CAAPA Chorale, November 14, 2021; and Anton Nel and Members of Conspirare, February 15,...
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John Michael Cooper
- Dec 10, 2021
- 5 min
A MARGARET BONDS CHRISTMAS -- NORTH AND SOUTH, EAST AND WEST
[This post is about two compositions of Margaret Bonds that are gaining a new foothold on modern musical life. One is a short but...
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John Michael Cooper
- Nov 8, 2021
- 4 min
A(NOTHER) MARGARET BONDS PREMIERE:
African Dance, on a Text by Langston Hughes, Gets Its Posthumous Premiere This Weekend On Sunday, November 14, 2021, Greg Watkins and the...
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John Michael Cooper
- Oct 15, 2021
- 2 min
THE PROGRAM OF THE MONTGOMERY VARIATIONS
The Minnesota Orchestra Has Recorded an Orchestral Masterpiece by Margaret Bonds [Update 11/13/21: The Minnesota Orchestra's recording is...
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John Michael Cooper
- Sep 20, 2021
- 4 min
MARGARET BONDS’S SENIOR RECITAL (1933)
With a Playlist Before 1934, Margaret Bonds publicly programmed only all-White recitals. After 1934 she never did that again. Why the...
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