Beschreibung:

AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMPOSER] BONDS, MARGARET. A collection of six file boxes containing composing scores, fair copies, copy scores, printed material etc ., organized as follows. Box 1: Orchestral scores in Bonds' hand for Joshua fit da battle, I got a home in that Rock and Hold on (missing page one) and material relating to other spirituals. Box 2: Material relating to her composition of Langston Hughes' The Negro Speaks of Rivers and the Fields of Wonder song-cycle, including the orchestral score of Rivers. Box 3: Music for texts by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Countee Cullen, Joyce Kilmer etc. Box: 4: Primarily settings for pieces by Janice Lovoos, including a four-part voice and piano version of No man has seen his voice, and a ribbon score for the musical Lizzie. Box 5: Music for a variety of spirituals, including Standing in the Need of Prayer, You can Tell the World (with ms. score) etc. Box 6: Miscellaneous spirituals, including Didn't it Rain, Dry Bones, etc. Also included is a small photograph album with images of Bonds as a young woman, and two books of African-American composers, one inscribed. Archive somewhat disordered, some music with missing sheets and other defects, but in all an exceptionally interesting group, with about two hundred sheets in manuscript. Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) was an eminent African-American composer, largely remembered today for her collaborations with Langston Hughes, especially his The Negro speaks of Rivers. It was this work that Bonds showed to Nadia Boulanger, who said that it showed so much accomplishment that there was nothing she could teach her. Archives of works of African-American composers, especially those of the eminence of Bonds, are very rare on the market. C