Three Dream Portraits

Quick Facts

• A set of three art songs with poetry by Langston Hughes:
  1. Minstrel Man (Song text)
  2. Dream Variation (Song text)
  3. I, Too (Song text)
• Published in 1959

About the Piece

• All three songs are settings of poems by her friend and frequent collaborator, Langston Hughes. The poems were taken from Hughes’s 1932 collection, The Dream Keeper.¹
  • The poetry used portrays three themes related to being Black in America.
• Three Dream Portraits is one of Bonds’ most popularly performed pieces because it is among the few of her works that have been widely published.
• Listen for –
  • In “Minstrel Man,” Bonds uses modal mixture to portray the poignant irony of the poetry.
  • In “Dream Variation,” the voice and piano create an ethereal portrait to accompany Hughes’s hopeful words.
  • In “I, Too,” is written as a march representing triumph in the face of adversity.²

1. “Dream Variation,” Song of America, accessed June 9, 2021, https://songofamerica.net/song/dream-variation-1/.
2. “Margaret Bonds,” The African American Art Song Alliance, accessed February 27, 2023, https://artsongalliance.org/composers/margaret-bonds.