The use of the spiritual in the piano works of two African American women composers---Florence B. Price and Margaret Bonds.

摘要

This study has two specific purposes. First, it traces the development of the black spiritual from a purely vocal form to its integration into keyboard music. This essay focuses on selected piano works of two African American women composers, Florence B. Price (1887--1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913--1972). It discusses two selections by Price and compares the piano arrangements of three spirituals by Bonds to her other available settings of the same spirituals. Second, this study discusses the issues of race and gender in the lives of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds as they struggled for equality, recognition, and acceptance as composers. Because of its religious nature and powerful cultural and ancestral tradition, the spiritual became a vehicle for Price and Bonds in their struggle for racial and gender equality.;Newspaper articles, an audio-taped interview, telephone interviews with Bonds' daughter, and an essay written by Bonds were used to gain information about Bonds' life. Copies of Bonds' music were obtained from the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago and were used to analyze and discuss Bonds' compositional style.;Florence Price's papers from the Special Collections Department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville consist of letters, diary fragments, programs, photographs, and musical scores. Other information on Florence Price came from newspaper articles and programs from the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago. Additional information for this essay came from various sources including books, periodicals, dissertations, and interne sources.;This study reveals that Price and Bonds played a significant role in the development of the spiritual into various vocal and instrumental genres. Because of their large productivity, their extensive use of the spiritual, and its use in a wider range of genres than other composers of the twentieth century, the music of Price and Bonds may be considered the culmination of the movement that sought to combine elements of the black idiom with the classical European musical tradition. Because of the spiritual's popularity with American audiences, its use by Price and Bonds helped to advance their careers and promote their acceptance as composers.