Margaret Bonds: SUPPLICATION, perf. by Craig Hella Johnson & Conspirare (publ. E.C. Schirmer, 2025)

Details

Description

PREMIERE RECORDING: Rehearsal-read of Margaret Bonds: SUPPLICATION by Conspirare, conducted by Craig Hella Johnson (March 2025). The premiere edition of the score was published with the permission of the composer's heirs by E. C. Schirmer in March 2025, and may be obtained here: https://www.ecspublishing.com/supplication-9338-bonds.html

Composed in 1954, "Supplication" is based on a lyric by Bonds's longtime friend and collaborator Roger Chaney. It is a choral love song, and one that exquisitely reflects Bonds's well-known ability to move fluidly between jazz, other popular, and classical idioms.

This rehearsal recording was made in March 2025 by Craig Hella Johnson and Conspirare. Because the very live acoustic sometimes makes the lyric difficult to discern, here it is:

Once more I offer you my adoration, I offer you my love.
Once more I beg of you, heed my supplication.
I want to love again, and learn to smile.
I want to live again the life you made worthwhile.
You are my destiny, my exaltation.
Can fate intend for me only consolation?
Or will I thrill at last to love divine?
This is my tender supplication, this is my plea.

As sweet as that text is, Bonds's music is even sweeter.