Went to a great talk recently at the National Portrait Gallery by author Charles Elford about composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to mark the centenary year of his death. Even though Charles had written his own book about him, he read excerpts from another author Jeffrey Green.
I had heard of Samuel before but this talk really gave a more detailed insight into his achievements.
Samuel was born 15th August 1875 to Alice Hare Martin, an English woman, and Dr Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, from Sierra Leone. There is no evidence of them being married. He grew up with his mother and her family in Croydon. Samuel did not know his father who had left before he was born.
Receiving a scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music aged 17. His most well-known composition was Hiawatha Wedding Feast. Samuel married fellow student Jessie Walmisley on 30th December 1899, despite opposition from her family due to him being mixed race. They had two children Gwen and Hiawatha.
Unfortunately, by selling the rights to publishers of his work it left him with no royalties. It was exhausting listening to the many jobs he held down to make ends meet which included lecturer and conductor at numerous organisations. African-American spirituals were a huge influence to his music and he formed friendships with poet and playwright Paul Laurence Dunbar and historian and Pan-Africanist WEB Du Bois. Travelling extensively and even meeting President Roosevelt at the White House in 1904.
There was a cost to being overworked and he fell ill at West Croydon station, eventually dying of pneumonia aged 37 years old on 1st September 1912.
At the question and answer session at the end of the talk I asked if there were any of Samuel’s descendants here and was surprised to see a couple of hands shoot up. It was great speaking with them.
There was one mystery, we learnt that Samuel found out his father had died. I wonder who told him and his feelings about that?
I left having learnt more about this great composer and my overriding feeling was that he had so much more to give but it was sadly cut short.
Karen
Sep 04, 2012 @ 20:51:11
Lovely post, very informative.
genealogyfinders
Sep 04, 2012 @ 21:38:10
Glad you enjoyed it Karen
Charles Elford
Sep 16, 2012 @ 14:05:43
Hi
I am so pleased that you enjoyed the National Portrait Gallery talk last month. My aim has always been to help bring Coleridge-Taylor, the man, back to the fore of our collective consiousness. He really doesn’t deserve to be deemed ‘obscure’. In all my research, no-one had a bad word to say of him; he was held in such high regard and with such affection by those who were there with him at the time that it seemed fitting to base my book around those accounts of him by his wife, daughter and friends. In my talk, I actually only read from the book written by Coleridge-Taylor’s friend, the Croydon librarian W C Berwick Sayers, ‘Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Musician; his Life & Letters’ (Augener Ltd, 1927). A book that I cannot recommned his book highly enough and a wonderful tribute to the man. Many thanks once again for posting your kind comments about the talk.
Charles Elford
Author of ‘Black Mahler: The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Story
genealogyfinders
Sep 17, 2012 @ 17:50:52
Hi Charles, Yes it was a great talk. Didn’t realise it was WC Berwick Sayers book, so my mistake.
Thanks for comments.