Hiawatha filled concert halls across the country.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in London on 15 August 1875, the son of Dr Daniel Hughes Taylor, a doctor from Sierra Leone, and raised in Croydon by his English mother.
He was a composer, and he stands on that work alone. In 1898 he wrote Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which became one of the most performed choral works in British musical history, an immediate sensation that filled concert halls and made his name known across the country.
In 1900 he was the youngest delegate at the Pan-African Conference in London, and he used music to honour African and diasporic history, composing the Toussaint L’Ouverture overture in tribute to Haitian independence. He widened both the sound and the subject of British classical music, writing the continent and its diaspora into the concert repertoire.
He died on 1 September 1912, aged only 37, after pneumonia following exhaustion, his scores already part of the national musical life.
His record is in the Royal College of Music archive. His card is in the deck.
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Timeline
- 1875Born in London on 15 August. His father, Dr Daniel Hughes Taylor, was from Sierra Leone.
- 1898Composed Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, an immediate sensation that filled concert halls.
- 1900The youngest delegate at the Pan-African Conference in London.
- 1901Composed the Toussaint L’Ouverture overture, honouring Haitian independence.
- 1912Died on 1 September, aged 37.
0 salutes
I salute Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who filled the concert halls of Britain with his own music.
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