Margaret Bonds

As an author, Majors is known for his book, Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities (1893), and for his work as editor of several African-American newspapers.

Her mother, Estelle C. Bonds, was a church musician and member of the National Association of Negro Musicians.

Langston Hughes (1901-1967) was a prolific African-American poet and writer.

Margaret Allison Bonds (March 3, 1913 – April 26, 1972) was an American composer, pianist, arranger, and teacher.

One of the first Black composers and performers to gain recognition in the United States, she is best remembered today for her popular arrangements of African-American spirituals and frequent collaborations with Langston Hughes.

Margaret Jeanette Allison Majors was born on March 3, 1913, in Chicago, Illinois.

Her father, Monroe Alpheus Majors, was an active force in the civil rights movement as a physician and writer.

His work included the founding of a medical association for black physicians who were denied membership in the American Medical Association on the basis of race.

When her parents' troubled marriage ended in 1917, young Margaret's last name was changed to her mother's maiden name, Bonds.

Despite the divorce, Margaret continued to stay in touch with her father, who, in 1920, wrote the first nursery rhyme storybook for African-American children called First Steps and Nursery Rhymes; he dedicated it to 7-year-old Margaret.

As a child, Margaret Bonds studied piano under the Coleridge Taylor Scholarship, which was awarded to her by the Colereidge Taylor School of Music, where her mother worked as an educator for 20 years.

During this time, she, at the ages of both 8 and 9 years old, won piano scholarships from the Chicago Musical College.

Margaret's piano teachers up until the age of 13 included Estella Bonds, Martha B. Anderson, and Tom Theodore Taylor.

At 13, she began studying with William Levi Dawson and Florence Price.

Margaret's mother often hosted other Black musicians, artists, and writers in her home.

Among those included Abbie Mitchell, Lillian Evanti, and composer Will Marion Cook, all of whom would become influential to her future musical studies and career.

In 1929, at the young age of 16, Bonds began her studies at Northwestern University, where she earned both her Bachelor of Music (1933) and Master of Music (1934) degrees in piano and composition.

Bonds was one of the few Black students at Northwestern University; the environment was hostile, racist, and nearly unbearable.

Although she was permitted to study at the university, she was not allowed to live on campus or use the practice facilities and the swimming pool.

"I was in this prejudiced university, this terribly prejudiced place…. I was looking in the basement of the Evanston Public Library where they had the poetry. I came in contact with this wonderful poem, 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers', and I’m sure it helped my feelings of security. Because in that poem he tells how great the black man is. And if I had any misgivings, which I would have to have – here you are in a setup where the restaurants won’t serve you and you’re going to college, you’re sacrificing, trying to get through school – and I know that poem helped save me."

Bonds moved to New York City after graduating from Northwestern University.

There she attended the prestigious Juilliard School of Music and studied composition with Roy Harris, Robert Starer, and Emerson Harper, and piano with Djane Herz.

She also studied with Walter Gossett.

She pursued lessons with Nadia Boulanger, who upon looking at her work said that she needed no further study and refused to teach her.

However, it is inconclusive whether Boulanger truly thought Bonds had no need of further instruction or was acting from a position of racial prejudice.

The work Boulanger refers to is The Negro Speaks of Rivers, a setting for voice and piano of Langston Hughes' poem by the same title—the very poem which brought Bonds such comfort during her years at Northwestern University.

Hughes and Bonds became great friends after meeting in person in 1936, and she set much of his work to music.

In 1940, Margaret Bonds married Lawrence Richardson (1911-1990), a probation officer, after moving to New York City in 1939.

The couple later had a daughter, Djane Richardson (1946-2011).

On May 22, 1952, Langston (poet), Bonds (pianist), and Daniel Andrews (baritone) collaborated on a project, "An Evening of Music and Poetry in Negro Life," performing at Community Church.

This project took place just months after Bond's debut solo performance at Town Hall in New York City, February 7, 1952.

Ever a good friend, Hughes sent Bonds a Western Union telegram the afternoon of her performance, telling her how much he desired to be present and sending his best wishes.

Bonds wrote several music-theater works.

She died in 1957.

In 1959, she set music to Shakespeare in Harlem, a libretto by Hughes.

It premiered in 1960 at the 41st Street Theater.

Other collaborations include "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "Songs of the Seasons," and "Three Dream Portraits."

When Bonds passed away on April 26, 1972, in Los Angeles, California, she was survived by her husband, daughter, and sister.

During high school, Bonds continued to study piano and composition with Florence Price and later with William Dawson.

Another work based on a text by Langston Hughes was first performed in February 2018 in Washington, DC, by the Georgetown University Concert Choir under Frederick Binkholder.