Samuel Coleridge-Taylor | |
|---|---|
 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in 1905 | |
| Born | Samuel Coleridge Taylor (1875-08-15)15 August 1875 Holborn, London, England |
| Died | 1 September 1912(1912-09-01) (aged 37) Croydon, Surrey, England |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Music |
| Occupation(s) | Classical composer and musician |
| Spouse | Jessie Walmisley |
| Children | Hiawatha andAvril Coleridge-Taylor |
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was a British composer and conductor. He was particularly known for histhree cantatas on the epic 1855 poemThe Song of Hiawatha by AmericanHenry Wadsworth Longfellow. Coleridge-Taylor premiered the first section in 1898, when he was 23. Ofmixed-race descent, Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success that he was referred to by white musicians inNew York City as the "AfricanMahler" when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s.[1] He married an Englishwoman, Jessie Walmisley, and both their children had musical careers.[2] Their son, Hiawatha, adapted his father's music for a variety of performances. Their daughter,Avril Coleridge-Taylor, became a composer and conductor.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born at 15 Theobalds Road inHolborn, London,[3] to Alice Hare Martin (1856–1953),[4] an Englishwoman, and Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, aCreole man fromSierra Leone who had studied medicine in London and later became an administrator in West Africa. They were not married, and Daniel had returned to Africa without learning that Alice was pregnant. (Alice's parents had not been married at her birth, either.)[5] Alice named her son Samuel Coleridge Taylor (without a hyphen), after the poetSamuel Taylor Coleridge.[6]
Alice lived with her father, Benjamin Holmans, and his family after Samuel was born. Holmans was a skilledfarrier and was married to a woman who was not Alice's mother, with whom he had four daughters and at least one son. Alice and her father called her son Coleridge. In 1887 she married George Evans, a railway worker, and lived inCroydon on a street adjoining the railway line.[7]
There were numerous musicians on Taylor's mother's side, and her father played the violin, teaching it to his grandson from an early age. Taylor's musical ability quickly became apparent, and his grandfather paid for him to have violin lessons. The extended family arranged for Taylor to study at theRoyal College of Music from the age of 15. He changed from the violin to composition, working underCharles Villiers Stanford. After completing his degree, he became a professional musician; he was appointed a professor at theCrystal Palace School of Music and began conducting the orchestra at the Croydon Conservatoire.
He later used the name "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor", with a hyphen, said to be following a printer's error.[8]
In 1894 Taylor's father was appointed a coroner inthe colony of Gambia.[9]
In 1899 Coleridge-Taylor married Jessie Walmisley, whom he had met as a fellow student at the Royal College of Music. Six years older than he, Jessie had left the college in 1893. Her parents objected to the marriage because Taylor was of mixed-race parentage, but relented and attended the wedding.
The couple had a son, named Hiawatha Bryan (1900–1980) afterthe poetic figure, and a daughter Gwendolen Avril (1903–1998). Both had careers in music: Hiawatha adapted his father's works.[10] Gwendolen started composing music early in life, and also became a conductor-composer; she used the professional name ofAvril Coleridge-Taylor.
By 1896, Coleridge-Taylor was already earning a reputation as a composer. He was later helped byEdward Elgar, who recommended him to theThree Choirs Festival. His "Ballade in A minor" was premiered there. His early work was also guided by the influential music editor and criticAugust Jaeger of music publisherNovello; he told Elgar that Taylor was "a genius".[11]
On the strength ofHiawatha's Wedding Feast, which was conducted by ProfessorCharles Villiers Stanford at its 1898 premiere and proved to be highly popular, Coleridge-Taylor made three tours of the United States in 1904, 1906, and 1910.[12] In the United States, he became increasingly interested in his paternal racial heritage. Coleridge-Taylor participated as the youngest delegate at the 1900First Pan-African Conference held in London, and met leading Americans through this connection, including the poetPaul Laurence Dunbar and the scholar and activistW. E. B. Du Bois.[12]
Coleridge-Taylor's father Daniel Taylor was descended from African-American slaves who were freed by the British and evacuated from the colonies at the end of theAmerican War of Independence; some 3,000 of theseBlack Loyalists were resettled inNova Scotia. Others were resettled in London and the Caribbean. In 1792 some 1200 blacks from Nova Scotia chose to leave what they considered a hostile climate and society, and moved toSierra Leone, which the British had established as a colony for free blacks. The Black Loyalists joined free blacks (some of whom were also African Americans) from London, and were joined bymaroons fromJamaica, and slaves liberated at sea from illegal slave ships by the British navy. At one stage Coleridge-Taylor seriously considered emigrating to the United States, as he was intrigued by his father's family's past there.
In 1904, on his first tour to the United States, Coleridge-Taylor was received by PresidentTheodore Roosevelt at the White House, a rare event in those days for a man of African descent.[13] His music was widely performed and he had great support among African Americans. Coleridge-Taylor sought to draw from traditional African music and integrate it into the classical tradition, which he consideredJohannes Brahms to have done withHungarian music andAntonín Dvořák withBohemian music. Having met the African-American poetPaul Laurence Dunbar in London, Taylor set some of his poems to music. A joint recital between Taylor and Dunbar was arranged in London, under the patronage of US ambassadorJohn Milton Hay. It was organised byHenry Francis Downing, an African-American playwright and London resident.[14] Dunbar and other black people encouraged Coleridge-Taylor to draw from his Sierra Leonean ancestry and the music of the African continent.[citation needed]
His standing caused Coleridge-Taylor to be invited to judge at music festivals. He was said to be personally shy but was still effective as a conductor.[15]
Composers were not handsomely paid for their music, and they often sold the rights to works outright in order to make immediate income. This caused them to lose the royalties earned by the publishers who had invested in the music distribution through publication. The popularHiawatha's Wedding Feast sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but Coleridge-Taylor had sold the music outright for the sum of 15 guineas, so did not benefit directly.[13][16][17] He learned to retain his rights and earned royalties for other compositions after achieving wide renown but always struggled financially.[13]
Coleridge-Taylor was 37 when he died ofpneumonia. His death is often attributed to the stress of his financial situation.[18] He was buried inBandon Hill Cemetery,Wallington, Surrey (today in theLondon Borough of Sutton).
Too young to die: his great simplicity, his happy courage in an alien world, his gentleness, made all that knew him love him.
Coleridge-Taylor's work continued to be popular. He was later championed by conductorMalcolm Sargent. Between 1928 and 1939, Sargent conducted ten seasons of a large costumed ballet version ofThe Song of Hiawatha at theRoyal Albert Hall, performed by the Royal Choral Society (600 to 800 singers) and 200 dancers.
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Coleridge-Taylor's greatest success was undoubtedly hiscantataHiawatha's Wedding Feast, which was widely performed by choral groups in England during Coleridge-Taylor's lifetime and in the decades after his death. Its popularity was rivalled only by the choral standardsHandel'sMessiah andMendelssohn'sElijah.[20] The composer soon followedHiawatha's Wedding Feast with two other cantatas about Hiawatha,The Death of Minnehaha andHiawatha's Departure. All three were published together, along with an Overture, asThe Song of Hiawatha, Op. 30. The tremendously popularHiawatha seasons at the Royal Albert Hall, which continued until 1939, were conducted by Sargent and involved hundreds of choristers, and scenery covering the organ loft.Hiawatha's Wedding Feast is still occasionally revived.
Coleridge-Taylor also composedchamber music, anthems, and theAfrican Dances for violin, among other works. ThePetite Suite de Concert is still regularly played.[21] He set one poem by his namesakeSamuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan".
Coleridge-Taylor was greatly admired by African Americans; in 1901, a 200-voice African-American chorus was founded inWashington, D.C., named the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Society. He visited the United States three times in the early 1900s, receiving great acclaim, and earned the title "the African Mahler" from the white orchestral musicians in New York in 1910.[1] Public schools were named after him inLouisville, Kentucky, and inBaltimore, Maryland.
Coleridge-Taylor composed a violin concerto in 1912 for the American violinistMaud Powell. The American performance of the work was subject to rewriting because the parts were losten route—not, as legend has it, on the RMSTitanic but on another ship.[12] The concerto has been recorded byPhilippe Graffin and theJohannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra underMichael Hankinson (nominated "Editor's Choice" inGramophone magazine),Anthony Marwood and theBBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra underMartyn Brabbins (onHyperion Records), and Lorraine McAslan and theLondon Philharmonic Orchestra conducted byNicholas Braithwaite (on theLyrita label). It was also performed atHarvard University'sSanders Theatre in the autumn of 1998 byJohn McLaughlin Williams and William Thomas, as part of the 100th-anniversary celebration of the composition ofHiawatha's Wedding Feast. On 19 July 2023 it was performed at the BBC Proms with Elena Urioste as soloist with theBBC National Orchestra of Wales underTadaaki Otaka.[22]
Lists of Coleridge-Taylor's compositions and recordings of his work and of the many articles, papers and books about Coleridge-Taylor's life and legacy are available through the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation and the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Network.[23]
There are twoblue plaques in his memory, one in Dagnall Park, South Norwood,[24] and the other in St Leonards Road, Croydon, at the house where he died. A metal figure in the likeness of Coleridge-Taylor has been installed in Charles Street, Croydon.[25]
A two-hour documentary,Samuel Coleridge Taylor and His Music in America, 1900–1912 (2013), was made about him and includes a performance of several of his pieces, as well as information about him and his prominent place in music. It was written and directed by Charles Kaufmann, and produced by The Longfellow Chorus.[26]
A feature animation,The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Story (2013), was made about him, written and directed by Jason Young. It was screened as part of Southwark Black History Month[27] and Croydon Black History Month in 2020.[28]
Chi-chi Nwanoku presented in 2017 on theSky Arts seriesPassions a program about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.[29]
On 26 August 2021 Coleridge-Taylor's Symphony in A minor received itsProms premiere by theChineke! Orchestra withKalena Bovell.[30]
On 1 September 2023 Coleridge-Taylor'sFour Novelletten received its Proms premiere by the Chineke! Orchestra withAnthony Parnther.[31]
The American composerColeridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932–2004) was named after Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
In 1999, freelance music editor Patrick Meadows identified three important chamber works by Coleridge-Taylor that had never been printed or made widely available to musicians. A handwritten performing parts edition of the Piano Quintet, from the original in theRoyal College of Music (RCM) Library, had been prepared earlier by violinist Martin Anthony Burrage of theRoyal Liverpool Philharmonic. The first modern performance of the Piano Quintet was given on 7 November 2001 by Burrage's chamber music group, Ensemble Liverpool / Live-A-Music inLiverpool Philharmonic Hall. The lunchtime recital included theFantasiestücke. Live recordings of this performance are lodged with the RCM and theBritish Library.[6] The artists were Andrew Berridge (violin), Martin Anthony (Tony) Burrage (violin), Joanna Lacey (viola), Michael Parrott (cello) and John Peace (piano).
The first modern performance of the Nonet was given on 8 July 1998 at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest in Columbus, Ohio.[32] The performing edition by Jane Ellsworth was published in 1998 and 2025 by Tecchler Press
After receiving copies of the work from the RCM in London, Patrick Meadows made printed playing editions of the Nonet, Piano Quintet and Piano Trio. The works were performed in Meadows's regular chamber music festival on the island ofMallorca, and were well received by the public as well as the performers.[citation needed]
The first modern performances of some of these works were done in the early 1990s by the Boston, Massachusetts-based Coleridge Ensemble, led by William Thomas ofPhillips Academy,Andover. This group subsequently made world premiere recordings of the Nonet,Fantasiestücke for string quartet andSix Negro Folksongs for piano trio, which were released in 1998 by Afka Records. Thomas, a champion of lost works by black composers, also revived Coleridge'sHiawatha's Wedding Feast in a performance commemorating the composition's 100th anniversary with the Cambridge Community Chorus at Harvard's Sanders Theatre in the spring of 1998.[33] In 2006, Meadows finished engraving the first edition of Coleridge-Taylor's Symphony in A minor. Meadows has also transcribed from the RCM manuscript theHaytian Dances, a work virtually identical to theNoveletten but with a fifth movement inserted by Coleridge-Taylor, based on the Scherzo of the symphony. This work is forstring orchestra,tambourine andtriangle.
TheNash Ensemble's recording of the Piano Quintet was released in 2007.
Coleridge-Taylor's only large-scale operatic work,Thelma, was long believed to have been lost. As recently as 1995, Geoffrey Self in his biography of Coleridge-Taylor,The Hiawatha Man, stated that the manuscript ofThelma had not been located, and that the piece may have been destroyed by its creator. While researching for a PhD on the life and music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Catherine Carr unearthed the manuscripts ofThelma in theBritish Library. She assembled a libretto and catalogued the opera in her thesis, presenting a first critical examination of the work by a thorough investigation of the discovered manuscripts (including copious typeset examples).[34] The work subsequently appeared as such on the catalogue of the British Library.
Thelma is a saga of deceit, magic, retribution and the triumph of love over wickedness. The composer followedRichard Wagner's manner in eschewing the established "numbers" opera format, preferring to blend recitative, aria and ensemble into a seamless whole. It is possible that he had readMarie Corelli's 1887 "Nordic" novelThelma (it appears that the name "Thelma" may have been created by Corelli for her heroine). Coleridge-Taylor composedThelma between 1907 and 1909; it is alternatively entitledThe Amulet.
The full score and vocal score in the British Library are both in the composer's hand – the full score is unbound but complete (save that the vocal parts do not have the words after the first few folios) but the vocal score is bound (in three volumes) and complete with words. Patrick Meadows and Lionel Harrison prepared a type-set full score, vocal score and libretto (the librettist is uncredited and may be Coleridge-Taylor himself). As to the heroine of the title, the composer changed her name to "Freda" in both full and vocal scores (although in the full score he occasionally forgets himself and writes "Thelma" instead of "Freda"). Perhaps Coleridge-Taylor changed the name of his heroine (and might have changed the name of the opera, had it been produced) to avoid creating the assumption that his work was a treatment of Corelli's then very popular novel. Since that precaution is scarcely necessary today, Meadows and Harrison decided to revert to the originalThelma.
There are minor discrepancies between the full score and the vocal score (the occasional passage occurring in different keys in the two, for example), but nothing that would inhibit the production of a complete, staged performance.
Thelma received its world première inCroydon'sAshcroft Theatre in February 2012, the centenary year of the composer's death, performed bySurrey Opera, using an edition prepared by Stephen Anthony Brown.[35] It was conducted by Jonathan Butcher, directed by Christopher Cowell and designed by Bridget Kimak. Joanna Weeks sang the title role, with Alberto Sousa as Eric and Håkan Vramsmo as Carl.
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