Exploring syllabus composers: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was a bi-racial British composer whose short life resulted in considerable career success during his lifetime but led to his being largely forgotten as the 20th century wore on and longer-lived composers continued to produce and promote new work.

Coleridge-Taylor was born in London, the son of a Sierra Leonean doctor and a young working-class Englishwoman. He was brought up in Croydon by his mother’s family, which was, by all accounts, extremely musically-talented. His grandfather initially taught him his principal instrument – the violin – and his ability was recognised to such an extent that he entered the Royal College of Music in 1890, aged 15, just eight years after it was founded. After changing from violin to composition, he had the privilege of studying with Charles Villiers Stanford.

Early success and acclaim

His professional life developed steadily in the years after his departure from the College as he developed a London-based portfolio career consisting of conducting, teaching and composing. During these early years, Coleridge-Taylor married Jessie Walmisley, a fellow-student from the Royal College. Their marriage produced two children: Hiawatha and Avril Coleridge-Taylor.

By 1904, Coleridge-Taylor was bound for the United States by ship, on the first of three well-received tours. During his first visit, not only was he received at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt but he also met the renowned violinist Maud Powell. As a result, Powell created a remarkable violin and piano arrangement of his Op. 59 setting of the African-American spiritual Deep River. Prior to his American visits, he had composed a secular cantata called Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which had become wildly successful, rivalling Handel’s Messiah in the affections of performers, audiences and publishers. His general renown was greatly increased by this. According to Schott (the music publishing house), Coleridge-Taylor’s music was performed 116 times at the Proms between 1898 and 1939 but seldom thereafter.

Discover Coleridge-Taylor in our syllabuses

Coleridge-Taylor’s musical foci changed over the course of his career, from conventional Western musical topics to a fulsome exploration of folk music from the African Diaspora. This had a big impact on the nature of his output. The pieces on ABRSM’s syllabuses – all of which feature in List B - demonstrate this range.

Beginning with Brass, an arrangement of Oh, the Summer is on the Grade 3 lists for Baritone, Euphonium, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone and Tuba and can be found in ABRSM’s Brass Mix 1 anthology. The new Bowed Strings syllabus from 2024 features two beautiful violin pieces: Cavatina (Grade 7) and African Dance No. 2 (Grade 8). In the current Piano syllabus, Impromptu No. 2 in B minor has, by many accounts, proven itself to be one of the most popular choices for Grade 8.

What’s in a name?

Samuel’s mother, Alice Martin, named him Samuel Coleridge Taylor after his father, Daniel Taylor, and the poet Samuel Taylor-Coleridge. Early in his professional career, it is thought that a printing error led to his name being hyphenated as Coleridge-Taylor and he stuck with that thereafter. It’s extremely easy to get the two names the wrong way around - because of the famous poet - so a word of warning to everyone writing out concert programmes!

Although Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha works sold huge numbers of copies (believed to be in the hundreds of thousands), he had sold the entire rights of the main work to Novello & Co and was therefore ineligible to receive any royalties. This situation led to two outcomes. Firstly, to his early death from pneumonia in 1912, which is believed to have been exacerbated by financial stress. Secondly, his predicament contributed to the formation of the Performing Right Society in 1914 (now PRS for Music), which collects fees from performances and pays out royalties to composer members.

The story of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s early demise is a sad one but at least his music is currently enjoying a sustained renaissance. Much more of it is being performed – both in the UK and abroad for both small and large forces – so perhaps now could be a good time to get some of it under your fingers?

Find out more

Watch performances of works by Coleridge-Taylor on YouTube:

- Impromptu No. 2 (Grade 8 Piano)

- African Dance No.2 (Grade 8 Violin)

Discover Althea Talbot-Howard’s woodwind transcriptions of Coleridge-Taylor’s music on her website: Althea Talbot-Howard

- Deep River

- The Deep River Sonata