Margaret Bonds
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free
Margaret Bonds
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free
- Instrumentation High Voice, Mixed Choir (SATB) and Piano
- Composer Margaret Bonds
- Editor John Michael Cooper
- Edition Choral Score
- Publisher Hildegard Publishing Company
- Order no. PRES392-01233
ships within 2-4 weeks
Description:
In 1969, soprano Leontyne Price commissioned Bonds to set I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free and three other spirituals for performance with the Rust College A Cappella Choir. The setting reflects Bonds's distinctive approach to the spiritual as a genre, featuring active accompaniments that interact with the main melody. In the first three verses, the solo soprano carries the main theme, but in verse 4 the chorus takes the tune while the soprano adds a soaring melody - a musical imagining of the symbolic image of a bird soaring to the sun and joyously singing a song of freedom.