Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a British composer and conductor. He was particularly known for his three cantatas on the epic 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Coleridge-Taylor premiered the first section in 1898, when he was 23. Of mixed-race descent, Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success that he was referred to by white musicians in New York City as the “African Mahler” when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s. He married an Englishwoman, Jessie Walmisley, and both their children had musical careers. Their son, Hiawatha, adapted his father’s music for a variety of performances. Their daughter, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, became a composer and conductor.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

From the period sources

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a gifted composer of African descent, received his training at the Royal Academy of Music and also studied under Stanford, as recorded in the Dictionary of Music (1908). His principal work, the “Hiawatha” trilogy, saw its parts premiered at various festivals: “Hiawatha’s Wedding” at the Royal College in 1898, and “The Death of Minnehaha” at the North Staffordshire Festival in Hanley in 1899, according to Grove’s Dictionary (1906). The complete “Hiawatha” was then produced in London in 1900, and its “Scenes from Hiawatha” were sung for the first time in London at the Albert Hall on March 22, 1900, with soprano soloist Miss Blauvelt, as noted in Grove’s Dictionary (1904). The trilogy was also performed at the Bristol Festival in 1902.

Coleridge-Taylor’s reputation extended to America, where he visited in 1904 and 1906, conducting concerts of his music in many cities, states Grove’s American Supplement (1920) and The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1924). The Boston Cecilia Society gave the first American performance of his “Hiawatha’s Departure” in 1900. Beyond “Hiawatha,” he composed incidental music for plays such as Stephen Phillips’s “Herod” and “Ulysses,” which Grove’s Dictionary (1906) describes as “famous recent works of the kind.” He also contributed to the faculty of the Guildhall School of Music, joining in 1911, and was a violin-teacher at the Royal Academy from 1898, according to The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1924).