Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge- Taylor ( born August 15, 1875 in London, † September 1, 1912 in London) was an English composer.
Life
Samuel Coleridge- Taylor was born in the London borough of Croydon, the son of a product originating in Sierra Leone physician and an English mother. The father left but soon England, leaving his wife and child back there. The young Samuel early showed considerable musical ability and has performed at the age of 8 years as a violinist. In 1890 he became a student at the Royal College of Music, and in 1891 appeared his Lord Anthem In Thee O in pressure. 1892 took him as a composition student at Stanford, 1893 he received a scholarship. In the same year his piano quintet, a clarinet sonata parts and songs were at a chamber concert in Croydon on the program. 1898 Coleridge- Taylor was hired themselves at the Royal College as a violin teacher. In 1899 he married Jessie Walmisley, one of his students, even though their parents had reservations because of his dark skin. The marriage resulted in a son ( Hiawatha, 1900-1980 ) and a daughter (Avril, 1903-1998 ), which were both musicians.
Coleridge- Taylor, who became known as a composer increasingly international, and at the same time reinforced by his paternal lineage dealt ( so early, he worked with the African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar together), was also in the U.S. a leading figure of African Americans. In 1901 was in Washington, D.C. a 200 - member choir named " Samuel Coleridge- Taylor Society " was founded. 1904, 1906 and 1910 concert tours have taken him even in the United States. In 1904 he became conductor of the Handel Society ( Handel Society ) in England. There were also increasing teaching activities. At the time of his death from pneumonia at the age of only 37, he was professor at the Croydon Conservatory and professor of composition at Trinity College of Music, the Crystal Palace School of Art and Music and the Guildhall School for Music.
Work
Coleridge- Taylor attempted to develop a new style in Western art music based on African roots. As he wrote in a program note to his 24 Negro Melodies, Op 59:
However, in his short lifetime he achieved no real emancipation of the European musical tradition; his works are committed romance and stand in their musical language blatantly under the influence of Dvořák.
Coleridge- Taylor's greatest compositional achievement was probably the cantata Hiawatha 's Wedding - feast (1898 ), which was often performed during his lifetime by choirs in England, and temporarily handed approach to the popularity of Handel's Messiah or Mendelssohn's Elijah. The Hiawatha epic were also his compositions The Death of Minehaha, Overture to The Song of Hiawatha and Hiawatha 's Departure. He also wrote, inter alia, an (early ) symphony, a violin concerto ( its American premiere was delayed because the votes had been found on board the Titanic ), chamber music (eg, a nonet, a piano quintet, Six Negro Folksongs for Piano Trio, African Romances for violin ) and Anthems.