Music: Carrie Bond

Carrie Bond Essay

Carrie Bond was a celebrated music composer who lived between 1862 and 1946. She was a singer, songwriter, and pianist who composed more than 175 music works from the early 1990s to the 1940s. Carrie Bonds wrote more than two hundred songs, and two of their famous musical works included “A Perfect Day” and “I Love You Truly”. The two songs were used in motion pictures and performed at wedding shows. In particular, a song titled “I Love You Truly” became the first song written by a woman to sell more than one million copies.

Moreover, in 1910, Carrie Bond released a song titled “A Perfect Day” which enjoyed the highest number of sales immediately after being released. As a result, Bond made much more money from song composition than any other woman of the time. Furthermore, Carrie Bond owned a music publishing company named the Bond Shop that she operated with her son, Fredrick (Becker and Maude 112).

Carrie Bond was born in Janesville, Wisconsin. She was a distant cousin of Howard Payne, a famous lyricist who wrote “Home Sweet Home”. Carrie’s father died when she was still young, and the family faced enormous financial difficulties. Carrie was married to Edward Smith, the father of her son, Fredrick. However, the marriage ended in divorce in 1887. Carrie Bond was married for the second time to Dr. Frank Bond of Johnstown, in Wisconsin. During that period, Carrie bond was a homemaker and supplemented the family earnings with the income obtained from piano lessons, and painting ceramic and musical compositions. Unfortunately,
Dr. Frank Bond was struck by a snowball, fell on the ice, and died days later due to crushed limbs. As a result, life became difficult for Carrie and her son. After achieving success with her composing work, Carrie Bond moved to Chicago with her son, Fredrick, in an attempt to get closer to the music publisher. Carrie Bond’s lyrics and music works exemplified sentimentality that was intensely popular at the time. It is important to note that Carrie Bond’s attempts to publish her music works were repeatedly turned down by male-dominated publishers. Consequently, Carrie Bond established her own music publishing company (Bond 78).

Carrie Bond studied piano with the local teachers since childhood. She began composing music in the late 1880s after being encouraged by her husband to write down the songs that were running through her mind. After returning from Iron River, Michigan, Carrie moved to Janesville where she composed a famous song “I Love You Truly” that sold a million copies. Further, after moving to Chicago, Carrie Bond gathered a group of supporters through her small recitals in the local household. Finally, that provided a platform for publicizing her musical works to society (Becker and Maude 163).

Carrie Bond published her first collection of music with the support of the opera star, Jessie Bartlett Davis, in 1901. The success of her seven songs permitted Carrie Bond to expand her publishing company famously known as the Bond Shop which she originally opened with her son, Fredrick. At the end of 1901, David Bispham amplified Carried Bond’s celebrity status by offering a recital of Carrie Bond’s exclusive songs in the Chicago Studebaker Theatre. As a result, this provided an important platform for Carrie Bond’s works to become publicized. After such huge exposure, Carrie Bond performed for Theodore Roosevelt. She also performed several recitals in England together with Enrico Caruso and in New York City (Becker and Maude 147).

Carrie Bond worked together with Paul Dunbar, and in 1906, they published five lyrics that performed very well in the market. In 1910, Carrie Bond published “A Perfect Day” which sold more than 25 million copies. As an outcome, it turns out to be the most famous popular composition of her lifetime. The song “I Love You Truly” was performed later. During the First World War, Carrie Bond performed in Europe for American troops.

In conclusion, Carrie Bond was the most famous woman among music composers of her time. Some reports indicate that she earned more than $ 1 million in music royalties before her death in 1910. Moreover, Carrie Bond’s life and lyrics serve as a testimony to her resilience in overcoming life challenges and hardships such as poverty, premature parental death, divorce, and her husband and son’s deaths in 1932. Consequently, Carrie Bond has been honored even by former president Herbert Hoover among other key dignitaries. Furthermore, the city council of Los Angeles honored Carrie Bond as one of the greatest women in America (Bond 56).