Category Archives: Music
SCTF Speakers Join Panels For Commemorative Events
Two Autumn 2012 events in London (on Friday 5th and Tuesday 16th October) will commemorate the centenary of the death of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, with speakers from the SCT Foundation presenting their findings on the composer’s life and works. Friday 5th … Continue reading
New Nonet Commissioned In Honour Of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
As we reach the centenary of the final birthday, on 15 August 1912, of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation and HOPES: The Hope Street Association are pleased to announce that recently they jointly commissioned a Nonet, with the same instrumentation as Samuel … Continue reading
Memories of Hiawatha in the Royal Albert Hall
Two of our readers have recently very generously sent us material relating to the Hiawatha performances at the Royal Albert Hall in years around the 1930s. We are grateful to George Parnell for this Programme of Hiawatha performances, and to … Continue reading
Tiki Black: Inspiration from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Tiki Black, songwriter, performer, composer writes a personal account about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor from her perspective. Continue reading
Jon Larimore writes: This coming Sunday our choir is presenting Coleridge-Taylor’s “O Ye That Love The Lord”. I’m wondering when this anthem was composed and if it was part of a larger work by Coleridge-Taylor, what that work might be? … Continue reading
Charles Kaufmann writes: You may be interested in seeing the YouTube video I’ve just posted featuring soprano Angela Brown singing with our orchestra a song by Coleridge-Taylor, “The Stars,” which is a setting of a poem by his friend Kathleen … Continue reading
Keep Me From Sinking Down – insights into a new transcription
Lionel Harrison, conductor and musicologist, describes the process of producing, with Patrick Meadows, a type-set edition of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s transcription for violin and orchestra of the spiritual ‘Keep Me from Sinkin’ Down’. Continue reading
Premiere of Thelma, review by SCTF patron Daniel Labonne
Daniel Labonne (previously Croydon SC-T Society artistic director) attended the premiere by Surrey Opera of Thelma at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls, and sent us this exclusive review. Continue reading
Reviews of Thelma, the premiere
Read Robert Eichert’s review of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s opera Thelma by Surrey Opera. Their recent performance was a world premiere of a work that has lain hidden away until work by Catherine Carr rediscovered it and brought it to the attention of the world at large. We’ve gathered together a range of other on-line reviews here as well. Continue reading
Tom Service of The Guardian has posted an article in his Classical Music blog, discussing the SC-T opera Thelma, to be premiered in Croydon today.
Media anticipation of the premiere (on 9 February 2012) of Coleridge-Taylor’s opera Thelma includes this range of articles and postings, as below. Please share also any other articles about this premiere of which you know, via the Comments box which follows this … Continue reading
Mike Somervell writes: Tonight coming home from work I heard the ‘Front Row’ trailer on Radio 4 which said it was discussing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor the musician………so naturally thought of you! Follow this BBC iPlayer link for the Front Row SC-T piece. … Continue reading
Robert Eichert writes: I could not agree more about SC-T’s music telling a story and there can also be interesting background to the music. Obviously, there is Hiawatha, faithfully keeping to Longfellow’s epic poem about love and loss among native … Continue reading
Dominique-Rene de Lerma donation of Coleridge-Taylor bibliography and list of works to the SCTF website
In a hugely significant step towards realising our intention to bring Coleridge-Taylor’s life and works to public attention as he deserves, the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation was delighted in 2012 to announce that the distinguished American researcher and scholar Dr. Dominique-Rene de Lerma generously entrusted us … Continue reading
‘Thelma’, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s only full-length opera, performed at last
Jonathan Butcher writes: Up until 1900 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (born in 1875) had had little to do with composing for the theatre. His main body of work was choral and orchestral and, of course, his most famous opus, and the one that catapulted him to fame, was his major oratorio, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. His involvement with the theatre, though Herbert Beerbohm Tree, with all its colourful characters, magic and intrigue, may well have been the very spark Coleridge-Taylor needed to spur him on to write his only full length opera. Continue reading
Andrew Tait writes: I would like to bring to your attention some concert details for your list of events in this special year. Andrew Tait and Friends Saturday 28th Jan 2012
‘Hiawatha’ at the Liverpool Philharmonic, 19 November 2011 (Culture Pod Visit)
Richard Gordon-Smith writes: Event 1 of the Curious Minds ‘Culture Pod’* A visit led, and here reported, by composer Richard Gordon-Smith, to hear the RLPO perform Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. The first Pod’s outing on our odyssey through the culture of creativity began at a restaurant, followed … Continue reading
Toby Lyles writes: The music of composer William Grant Still was featured on the “Saturday Night at the Opera playlist of 01/21/2012” of Columbia University’s WKCR-FM. Still admired and was influenced by the works of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
Events in 2012: the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor centenary legacy
Here is the definitive list of SCT events for 2012! We have established an Events calendar (or diary) as a special page on this website, on which we intend to list every event we know about, whether in the UK … Continue reading
Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘Christmas Overture’
Looking for five minutes of orchestral Christmas music which includes all the old favourite carols? Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Christmas Overture is probably just the ticket. Amongst the easily recognisable Christmas carol themes encompassed in the Overture are God rest you merry gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas and Hark … Continue reading
I would love to be able to include at least one of Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s works in celebration of his centenary. The problem is that I am limited to a classical size orchestra (2222 4200, timps, strings).
Luke Green writes: My choir in Australia learned the beautiful ‘By the Waters of Babylon’ as an anthem. Really touching music.
On July 28th 2012 the Cumbria Choral Initiative is to perform the entire Song of Hiawatha as the opening concert for the Lake District Summer Music Festival in the Coronation Hall in Ulverston, Cumbria. We are excited about this project, … Continue reading
Chumki Banerjee writes about The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation: Uncovering long lost musical jewels, the quest continues
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s early chamber works – discovering the Piano Quintet op.1
Ten years ago today (7 November 2001) was the first performance in living memory of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Piano Quintet, op.1. The work was part of a lunchtime recital programme by players from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, from a score discovered … Continue reading
Patrick Meadows, publisher of SC-T scores: an interview with myself
Patrick Meadows writes: During my tenure as Director Artístico of the Deià Festival in Mallorca between 1978 and 2008, every year, about the time the concerts were to begin, at least once and often several times, someone from the newspapers, … Continue reading
Coleridge-Taylor conducts his work in Liverpool (19 October 1908)
We have here photographs from an original published programme covering three concerts in the Fifth Season of the ‘Liverpool Symphony Orchestra Ltd’. The second of these was a concert in the Sun Hall, Kensington, on Monday, 19 October 1908 commencing at 8 pm, the latter half of which was works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, conducted by the composer himself. Continue reading
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation 