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Remembered today as the composer of the once enormously popular cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor rose above the constrictions of class and race to become one of the most acclaimed composers of his time.
Born in London, England, in 1875, Coleridge-Taylor—a gifted violinist—was admitted at the age of 15 to the Royal College of Music, where his studies led to a prodigious career in classical music composition. In addition to Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast (1898), some of his most important works include his Clarinet Quintet (1895), The Death of Minnehaha (1899), Hiawatha’s Departure (1900), the Symphonic Variations on an African Air (1906), The Bamboula (1910), and the Violin Concerto (1911). Coleridge-Taylor’s exploration of African heritage led to the composition of his Twenty-Four Negro Melodies (1905), which were published with a preface by Booker T. Washington. He toured the United States three times (1904, 1906, 1910) and was invited to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor died of pneumonia in 1912 at the age of 37. His tireless work ethic and celebrated career as a composer, teacher, and conductor failed to deliver Coleridge-Taylor from poverty, and his family’s financial circumstances following his death are credited with contributing to the adoption of an equitable system of royalties for composers in the United Kingdom.
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