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John Michael Cooper
Dec 20, 20223 min read
FLORENCE PRICE’S MOTHER AND FATHER SUED THE RAILROAD FOR DISCRIMINATION
Speaking Truth to Power In the late nineteenth century, the railroads were the primary means for shipping goods and materials quickly,...
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John Michael Cooper
Dec 12, 20222 min read
A MEMORIAL PERFORMANCE FOR FLORENCE B. PRICE
The Second Violin Concerto in 1953 It’s generally said that Florence Price’s moving and innovative Second Violin Concerto was premiered...
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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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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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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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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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John Michael Cooper
Jul 1, 20223 min read
“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
Jun 20, 20226 min read
ON THE VERY FAMILIAR, AND VERY MYSTERIOUS, SCOTT JOPLIN
[This is the sixth in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
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John Michael Cooper
Jun 10, 20225 min read
“I NEVER IMAGINED THAT A WOMAN COULD WRITE SUCH MUSIC!”
On the Extraordinary Mel-Bonis (1858-1937) [This is the fifth in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming...
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John Michael Cooper
Jun 3, 20222 min read
FLORENCE PRICE’S SCENES OF TENEMENT LIFE
Today witnesses the release of 2022’s second[1] milestone in the recorded legacy of Florence B. Price: the world-premiere recording of...
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John Michael Cooper
May 31, 20223 min read
OF HOPE AND NEW BEGINNINGS
A Commencement Letter from Langston Hughes, Shared with Margaret Bonds We are in an age of marches, of collective protests against...
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John Michael Cooper
May 28, 20228 min read
ON HARRY T. BURLEIGH, HIS LIFE AND LEGACIES
[This is the fourth in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
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John Michael Cooper
May 21, 20225 min read
ON DORA PEJAČEVIĆ (1885-1923)
[This is the third in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
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John Michael Cooper
May 17, 20222 min read
ON JAMES MONROE TROTTER AND HIS "MUSIC AND SOME HIGHLY MUSICAL PEOPLE" (Part 2)
[This is the second in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
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John Michael Cooper
May 17, 20223 min read
ON JAMES MONROE TROTTER AND HIS "MUSIC AND SOME HIGHLY MUSICAL PEOPLE" (Part 1)
[This is the first in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
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John Michael Cooper
Apr 30, 20224 min read
“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, 20223 min read
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, 20224 min read
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
Mar 19, 20223 min read
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF FLORENCE PRICE’S FIRST CHORAL-ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION
The Song of Hope sounds at Ithaca College under the baton of Michael Stern [This post is occasioned by the world première of Florence B....
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John Michael Cooper
Mar 11, 20224 min read
JUDGEMENT DAY:
A Gospel Song by Florence Price and Langston Hughes Gets a Belated First Recording Popular exclamations about the trove of Florence Price...
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