This album gives its audience a glimpse into the world of Black Renaissances, such as the Harlem Renaissance (ca. 1917–35) and the Chicago Renaissance (ca. 1935–50), by exploring the music and histories of five Black women composers whose work sustained these artistic movements and fostered their success. Through a careful combination of historical context and sensitive performances, musicologist and pianist Samantha Ege delivers an array of materials that help listeners understand the atmosphere of these time periods. The resulting work not only explores connections between the composers on this album, but also describes how their careers influenced future generations of musicians. Through her work, Ege advocates for the significance of Black Renaissances by demonstrating Black women's creativity as classical composers and centering their agency as leaders whose efforts produced results that shaped U.S. music history in their time and beyond.
In addition to providing ample context about each composer's legacy and compositional style, the liner notes for Black Renaissance Woman emphasize networks of fellowship among the Black women featured on this album. Ege describes Black Renaissances as the results of people using “artistry and activism” to respond to ruthless oppression.Footnote 1 By examining Black women's roles in fostering community and support within artistic circles, Ege and her fellow contributors use their writing to demonstrate how the bonds between the album's composers played a substantial role in facilitating Black women's success in classical music. Artina McCain discusses the Bonds salon, a gathering of artists hosted by Estella Bonds—Margaret Bonds's mother—that was integral to the Black Chicago Renaissance, as a powerful influence on both Bonds and Florence Price.Footnote 2 This creative environment not only benefited their careers, but also established a history of personal mentorship and professional collaboration between Price and Bonds. In Lucy Caplan's description of Nora Holt's accomplishments, the author mentions Holt's career as a music critic with the renowned Black newspaper the Chicago Defender and her own magazine Music and Poetry. Later, Caplan describes how Holt used her platform to praise her fellow Black woman musician, Helen Hagan for her piano skills.Footnote 3 Holt's influence becomes even more evident when Caplan examines the composer's role in co-founding two organizations that supported Black classical musicians—the National Association for Negro Musicians (NANM) and the Chicago Music Association (CMA).Footnote 4 As A. Kori Hill reveals, these actions had longstanding effects for generations of musicians—including Betty Jackson King who was president of the NANM from 1979 to 1984.Footnote 5 By highlighting the networks that these women built to uplift each other's work, the liner note authors accomplish the album's ultimate goal of celebrating each composer's music while putting “their compositional voices into conversation with one another.”Footnote 6
An exciting blend of innovative music, thoughtful phrasing, and careful sound editing preserves the nuance of Ege's performances while creating a pleasant experience for listeners to explore the depths of this repertoire. The album begins with Margaret Bonds's Spiritual Suite for Piano, through which the composer explored the complexities of spirituals in a different form. Although Bonds expanded upon the original melodies with altered rhythms, pauses within and between phrases, and harmonic shifts, the essence of her source material maintains its clarity and presence in her music. Ege accentuates moments of anticipation in these pieces with well-placed uses of rubato that draw out the transitions between tension and release. This is particularly evident in the suite's finale, “Troubled Water,” where Ege's smooth transitions through various dynamic levels and attention to detail surrounding shifts within the emotional atmosphere of each phrase embody the ebb and flow within Bonds's music. The balance of sound within the recordings complement these performances by rendering their contrasts audible regardless of the volume listeners choose. As a result, each note rings out clearly and no one is left straining to hear the rich quality of this music. These recordings further honor Ege's choices by making room for silences both within her phrasing and at the beginning and end of each track. This technique allows time for the audience to pause and reflect on what they are hearing—a practice that is necessary to absorb the subtlety and surprises embedded within Ege's chosen repertoire. The pianist's performance of Betty Jackson King's Four Seasonal Sketches, one of the highlights of the album, exemplifies the complex music that these women created, which often unfolds within a relatively short timeframe. The longest piece in King's set of sketches is just over 3 minutes, and yet each one contains an entire sonic world with an astounding number of changes in emotional temperament. Although music dedicated to the seasons is fairly common, King's approach is fresh and unexpected. Her “Spring Intermezzo,” for instance, opens the set with a melancholy atmosphere and a series of swift, but gentle dissonances that unfold as the music progresses. Each of King's seasons displays an excitingly new point of view about an otherwise familiar concept. This unique approach to a common theme among composers demonstrates the depth and variety that Black women musicians like King have to offer. The result of combining this multilayered music with Ege's intuitive performances produces a delightful and engaging atmosphere that permeates the album.
By not only focusing on Black Renaissances but also centering the many Black women composers who facilitated their success, this project expands the narratives of music history to include Black women's contributions to music in the United States. The album joins a growing number of works that are dedicated to honoring Black women musicians. In 2023, pianist Michelle Cann released her album Revival, which includes Margaret Bonds's Spiritual Suite and several pieces by Florence Price. Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra earned notable success with their 2021 recording Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3, which won the 2022 Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance.Footnote 7 Price's music in particular, especially her large scale works, has received greater attention in recent years. While this album is part of the catalogue of Price recordings, Ege also makes room to explore other Black women composers who worked alongside Price to impact the world of classical music. Ege's repertoire further blends larger, and perhaps more well-known, works with smaller pieces—a combination that suggests both types of music hold value and are worthy of further study. Black Renaissance Woman also aligns with pianist Lara Downes's work in her 2021 album Phenomenal Women. Downes features many of the same composers in her album, which includes tracks with insightful commentary about each woman's accomplishments and music. Ege builds upon this practice of celebrating Black women musicians by emphasizing the connections between each composer on her album. As a result, she grounds her work in the history of Black Renaissances while acknowledging how Black women's labor and care formed a substantial part of these movements. Consequently, Black Renaissance Woman complicates the legacies of American music by illustrating that Black women composers and their work are an integral part of music history.
Elizabeth Durrant is a musicologist and a singer whose work explores the connections between music, literature, character, and Black feminism. She is also a Ph.D. student in African American studies and music at Yale University. Her research interests include Black women composers, Black feminism, twentieth-century neoromantic music, and song in the United States.
