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Especially Do I Believe: A Conductor’s Guide to Margaret Bonds’s Credo

Genesis of the Work solos also require the ability to phrase exceedingly long
W.E.B. DuBois’s prose poem “Credo” (1904) was lines and demand a strong sensitivity to text inflection
one of the first public calls for racial equality by a and meaning.
Black American and a powerful read to this day. With The choral parts are less demanding and can be
extraordinarily radical and uncompromising language, mastered by a strong high school, collegiate, church, or
DuBois condemns war and imperialism, argues for the community choral ensemble. This is not to say they are
importance of education in overcoming racism, and easy; the third movement, for example, is almost entire-
posits that racial equality is desirable because God him- ly a chain of diminished seventh chords planing up and
self divinely mandates it. “Credo” was so important to down, making for great dramatic effect but providing
DuBois that it became the preface to his 1920 autobi- significant intonation challenges.
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ography, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. (The full
“Credo” text is published on the next page.)
Bonds set the text to music between 1964 and 1966, An Overview of Credo
first scoring it for soprano and baritone solo, mixed cho- Credo is structured in seven movements and lasts
rus, and piano, and later orchestrating that setting. (In about twenty-three minutes. The first movement, “I
this author’s opinion, the original piano version is more Believe in God,” is a dramatic statement of faith and
successful, as many overtly pianistic figurations in the belief in the eventual triumph of justice—a central
accompaniment translate somewhat unconvincingly concern of DuBois and Bonds alike. The second move-
to orchestral instruments.) Bonds accompanied its first ment—the lyrical, gentle “Especially Do I Believe in
performance at the piano in 1967 and was probably the Negro Race”—changes mood dramatically. The
in attendance at the premiere of the version with or- soprano soloist trades a beautiful, spiritual-like melody
chestra in San Francisco under the baton of Dr. Albert with the chorus in one of Bonds’s loveliest, most lyr-
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McNeil later that same year. In July 1972, not long ical creations. The movement’s closing phrase, where
after Bonds’s death, Zubin Mehta conducted the Los the soloist soars to a high C over a wordless chorus,
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Angeles Philharmonic with the McNeil Jubilee Sing- is particularly striking. Sam Fox Music, uncomfortable
ers in a partial performance of the orchestral version. with the use of the phrase “Especially do I believe in
The poet’s widow, Shirley Graham DuBois, attended the Negro race,” asked that the text here be changed to
a performance of the entire work with orchestra, writ- “Especially do I believe in the Human race” (emphasis
ing that it was one of the most moving moments of added). Bonds and the poet’s widow both refused, real-
her life. She labeled Bonds’s setting as a “work of art izing that to make such a change “cuts the heart out of
that is eternal—that will live as long as people love each the Credo.” As a result, the work was never published
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other and really believe in brotherhood.” Sadly, the in her lifetime, yet this episode in Bonds’s life is an es-
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work vanished from the repertoire after 1973, remain- sential and inspirational story about sticking to one’s ar-
ing unpublished until 2020. Both the piano and orches- tistic convictions that should be taught in any rehearsal
tral versions were published by Hildegard Publishing in of this movement.
2020, edited by Bonds scholar John Michael Cooper. The third movement, “I Believe in Pride of Race,”
Bonds was a virtuoso pianist who trained at North- is for tenors and basses plus piano. A small number
western University in Chicago. The piano part for Credo of lower-ranged singers may make this movement the
is challenging, featuring virtuosic passagework, densely most challenging for a choir. The wonderfully dramat-
stacked chords, and rhythmic complexity. The soprano ic fourth movement, “I Believe in the Devil and His
and baritone solo parts, too, are designed with profes- Angels,” stands in the middle of the work, with chains
sional singers in mind, especially in terms of their oc- of diminished seventh chords over a menacing piano
casionally extreme ranges. The soprano, for example, drumbeat pattern evoking the evils of racism. The fifth
is asked to float a mezzo piano C 6 above a hushed movement, “I Believe in the Prince of Peace,” conjures
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chorus at the end of the second movement, and the a gospel-style trio in the opening and closing for treble
baritone to sustain an E 4 in the sixth movement. Both voices in one of the work’s most luscious passages. The
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8 CHORAL JOURNAL November/December 2025 Volume 66 Number 4