Twelve Art Songs & Spirituals
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- Composers: Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), Florence Price (1887-1953), Clarence Cameron White (1880-1960)
- Instrumentation (this edition): Piano, Medium-High Voice
- Originally for: Piano, Voice, Opera
- Work Language: English
- Size: 8.9 x 12.0 inches
Description
Margaret Bonds, Florence Price, and Clarence Cameron White all contributed vitally to the flourishing of African American song in the mid-twentieth century – yet their voices have been posthumously marginalized because of their race and, in the case of Bonds and Price, their sex. This anthology offers the first publication of nine songs and spirituals by these three composers, plus new editions of the first art song Bonds published ("Children's Sleep") and the final newly composed song from Price's remarkable series of engagements with the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar ("Forever," written in 1946 or 1947). Collectively, the songs here plumb the extraordinary spiritual and reflective depth of Black song – from the conscious devotional purity of Bonds's "Ave Maria" and the tender familial affection of her "Two Flowers" (submitted to the 1931 Wanamaker Competition), through Price's soul-searching celebration of peace newly gained at the end of World War II in Europe ("A Prayer in Spring"), to White's deeply felt envoicing of maternal dreams of peace and reassurance for a sleeping baby in his dialect song "Hush, Mah Honey," his intense reflection on Christian faith in "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me," and his late-in-life anticipation of death in the spiritual "I'm Going Home."
Works:
- Bonds: Ave Maria
- Bonds: Children's Sleep from A Winter Night's Dream (1956)
- Bonds: Faith in Thee, No. 3 from 3 Sacred Songs
- Bonds: Rainbow gold (1956)
- Bonds: Two Flowers
- Price: Blasé
- Price: Forever (1939)
- Price: A Prayer in Spring
- White: Bend Down, Beloved (1940)
- White: Hush, My Honey (Cradle Song)
- White: I Want Jesus to Walk with Me
- White: I'm Going Home
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Set of Parts
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Solo Part with Piano Reduction
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Study Score
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Vocal Score
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Twelve Art Songs & Spirituals
