John Michael CooperJul 15, 20239 min readRIDDLED WITH MISTAKESIn the last few years, a music-publishing industry that historically has resolutely ignored compositions by composers of color and women...
John Michael CooperDec 11, 20222 min readA MOST AUSPICIOUS OCCASIONThe world premiere of the “revised and extended” version of Margaret Bonds’s The Ballad of the Brown King (December 11, 1960) HISTORY WAS...
John Michael CooperNov 11, 20224 min readCOALESCENCE, CULMINATION, AND EMANCIPATION: Four Early Performances of Margaret Bonds’s Spiritual Suite [This note is about Margaret Bonds’s Spiritual Suite – the surviving magnum...
John Michael CooperMay 31, 20223 min readOF HOPE AND NEW BEGINNINGSA Commencement Letter from Langston Hughes, Shared with Margaret Bonds We are in an age of marches, of collective protests against...
John Michael CooperMar 11, 20224 min readJUDGEMENT DAY:A Gospel Song by Florence Price and Langston Hughes Gets a Belated First Recording Popular exclamations about the trove of Florence Price...
John Michael CooperDec 13, 20212 min readTWO 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,...
John Michael CooperDec 10, 20215 min readA 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...