Music Reviews Kathleen Roland-Silverstein (bio) American Songs–Bonds, Laitman, Mahy–and Jean Cras, A Master of 20th Century Mélodie Bonds, Margaret (1913–1972). Rediscovering Margaret Bonds: Art Song, Spirituals, Musical Theater and Popular Songs. Louise Toppin, editor. Videmus African American Art Song Series (Classical Vocal Reprints, 2020). "April Rain Song" (Langston Hughes); "Birth" (Langston Hughes); "Bound" (Margaret Bonds); "Sonnet: Even in the Moment" (Edna St. Vincent Millay); "Feast" (Edna St. Vincent Millay); "Hyacinth" (Edna St. Vincent Millay); "Pasture" (Robert Frost); Pot Pourri: "Go Back to Leanna," "No Man Has Seen His Face," "Touch the Hem of His Garment" (Janice Lovuos); Songs of the Seasons: "Young Love in Spring," "Poème d'Automne," "Winter Moon," "Summer Storm" (Langston Hughes); "Sonnet: I Know My Mind" (Edna t. Vincent Millay); "Sonnet: What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" (Edna St. Vincent Millay); "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (Robert Frost); "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (Langston Hughes); Three Dream Portraits (high key): "Minstrel Man," "Dream Variations," "I Too" (Langston Hughes); "To a Brown Girl Dead"* (high end low keys; Countee Cullen); Five' Creek-Freedman Spirituals: "Sit Down Servant," "I'll Reach to Heaven," "Dry Bones," "Lord I Just Can't Keep From Cryin'," "You Can Tell The World"; "Gwine Up"; "He Never Said a Mumblin' Word"; "Hold The Wind" (high and low keys); "Little David"; "Peter Go Ring Dem Bells"; "Rise Up Shepherd"; "Run Sinner Run"; "Steady Jesus Listenin'"; "This Little Light Of Mine." Musical Theater and Popular Songs: "Be a Little Savage with Me" (Langston Hughes); "Georgia" (with Joe Davis and Andy Razaf); "No Good Man" (Langston Hughes); "Peachtree Street" (with Joe Davis and Andy Razaf); "Spring Will Be So Sad" (with Harold Dickinson); Tropics After Dark: "Lonely Little Maiden by the Sea" (Langston Hughes); "Cowboy from South Parkway" (Langston Hughes); "I'll Make You Savvy" (Langston Hughes); "The Way We Dance in Harlem" (Langston Hughes). The extraordinary contribution of this hitherto neglected African American composer is currently enjoying increasing and well deserved recognition. This is an expertly curated collection, made possible by the extraordinary scholarship of Dr. Louise Toppin, and it reflects the full gamut of Bonds's artistic gift for song. Toppin's biography of the composer is thorough, inspiring, and informative. In the preface, she goes into great detail about the formative influences in the composer's life, including her collaboration with opera singer Leontyne Price and poet Langston Hughes. Bonds grew up in the musically and culturally diverse milieu of Chicago, and later in New York City, in the first half of the twentieth century. She studied first with her own mother, organist Estella Bonds, and later with two other iconic figures in American music, Florence Price (Bonds's mentor) and William Dawson. Her story of Bonds's life is movingly detailed. When she began her studies at Northwestern University in 1929, Bonds was prohibited from using the facilities available to white students, and yet went on with her faculty mentor, Florence Price, to place in the Rodman Wanamaker competition. Since she could not use the library at Northwestern, Bonds went to the Evanston Public Library, where she first encountered the writings of the great Langston Hughes. Toppins tells of the composer's years in New York City, where she moved in 1939 to pursue her career as pianist and composer. After Chicago and New York City, Margaret Bonds finally moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to contribute to the promotion of music by Black American composers, until she passed away at the age of 59. Dr. Toppins relates her own first encounter with Margaret Bonds's songs, which happened when Toppins began to work with the internationally known coloratura soprano and pedagogue, Charlotte Wesley Holloman. Incredibly, Ms. Holloman shared the song manuscripts she happened to have in her basement, and so began [End Page 141] the scholar-musician's passion for the work of this worthy composer. Venerated singer and voice pedagogue, George Shirley contributed the foreword to this anthology, which pays tribute to both composer and editor. He notes Bonds's excellent choice of poetic texts, including not only those of Black authors, but also that the composer "embraced the genius of Edna...