Spirituals form the cornerstone of Margaret Bonds’s reputation, accounting for more of her total output than any other genre. This volume presents three
previously unknown spiritual settings and three previously unknown transpositions of the familiar You Can Tell the World together with a new edition
of the familiar transposition of You Can Tell the World and the previously unknown spiritual song Nebuchadnezzar. The result is three decades’
worth of extraordinary music, most of it previously unknown, that offers new insights into what Margaret Bonds termed the “Earthly poesy”
of the spiritual as a genre.
– John Michael Cooper

Composer: Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)

Title: Five Spiritual Songs

Editors: John Michael Cooper and Louise Toppin

Keys: High and Low

Videmus African American Music Series

Contents:

Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit (Original Key: E major) (B3 – G sharp 5)
Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit (Transposed to C major) (G3 – E5)
Hand Me Down (Original Key: E-flat major) (E flat 3 – C5)
Hand Me Down (Transposed to B-flat major) (B flat 3 – G5)
Nebuchadnezzar (Original Key: D minor) (C4 – D5)
Nebuchadnezzar (Transposed to G minor) (F4 – G5)
Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass (Original Key: E minor) (E4 – E5)
Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass (Transposed to G minor) (G4 – G5)
You Can Tell the World (Transposed to C major by the Composer) (A3 – E5)
You Can Tell the World (Transposed to E-flat major by the Composer) (C4 – G5)
You Can Tell the World (Transposed to F major by the Composer) (D4 – A5)
You Can Tell the World (Original Key: G major) (E4 – B5)