Since it is Black History Month, I thought I would listen to a work by an African-American composer -- and isn’t sad that when it comes to classical music, I had to run a Google-search to discover some possibilities? So that’s what I did. I went to Google, typed in “African American composer of classical music,” and reviewed what popped up. By coincidence, one of the names was familiar to me because I had just recently heard a piece by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor on American Public Media’s “Performance Today,” hosted by Fred Child, so I decided to listen to another piece by him. Lo and behold, though, it turns out that Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (not to be confused with the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge) was not African-American as he was English, born in London in 1875. However, according to Wikipedia (HERE), he “achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the ‘African Mahler’ when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s.”
To be honest, I’m not a fan of Longfellow’s poem. I realize that with the “The Song of Hiawatha,” Longfellow did set out to honor and praise Native American heritage, but what he really did -- even with the trochaic tetrameter of the poem -- was lay the foundation for stereotypes of Native Americans that still persist today. Similarly, Coleridge-Taylor’s piece seemed more “old Hollywood” than anything evocative of anything truly Native American -- though I will say that Coleridge-Taylor must have felt a fervent and emotional attachment to the poem and/or his musical interpretations of it because he and his wife Jessie Walmisley named their son “Hiawatha” (they also had a daughter, Avril). Sooo... I stopped in the middle of the "Hiwatha Overture," and I decided to listen to Coleridge-Taylor's Symphony in A Minor -- and as you can see by the rating below, I did enjoy it very much! I suspect if I were to play the Symphony in A Minor for someone who did not know it was composed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and I asked them to guess the composer, I might hear responses like Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, or maybe even Elgar and Ralph Vaughn Williams. Sections of the symphony definitely call to mind such composers -- but still I wondered what sort of reception Coleridge-Taylor, this piece, and much of his other works received at the turn of the twentieth century? This thought called to mind the poem “Yet Do I Marvel” by African-American poet Countee Cullen (below on the left). That poem ends with the couplet, “Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: To make a poet black, and bid him sing!” I wondered if Coleridge-Taylor ever marveled at “this curious thing” of his command to compose such wonderful music -- especially for an unreceptive or unwelcoming (perhaps even hostile at times?) public?
NOTE: I suspect that the author of the Classical-Music.com article meant “PL” Dunbar, for “Paul Laurence,” and not “PJ.” The years would fit (Paul Laurence Dunbar lived from 1872 until 1906, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor lived from 1875 until 1912), and I could not find any information on an American poet “PJ Dunbar.” I’ve contacted the site to confirm that they did, in fact, mean Paul Laurence Dunbar -- who, by the way, wrote the poem “Sympathy,” the very poem from which Maya Angelou borrowed the line to title her autobiography, “I know why the caged bird sings!” (below the photographs, on the left). Below left to right: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Countee Cullen, and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
The second movement is a “lament"; however, to me it is more pastoral than overly mournful. I believe I read somewhere -- although I cannot find the article now -- that the tune for this movement was based on an African folk song or spiritual, but I am not certain of that. Whether or not it was, the movement is very lyrical and sweet. The third movement is a lively scherzo, and with Coleridge-Taylor’s use of patterns of eighth notes with two sixteenth notes, it has a very English feel to it.
I enjoyed Coleridge-Taylor's symphony so much that in the coming days I plan to explore even more of his music. And here's an interesting note to end on: I told my wife about my discovery of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's works for Black History Month, and in our discussion she asked about African-American conductors. Of course, I explained that the paucity of known African-American composers in the field of classical music was mirrored by a similar lack of celebrated conductors -- so I had to run a Google-search.
I opened up Google, typed in "African-American orchestra conductors" (below), and lo and behold, look what popped up: a musician by the name of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Turns out the this Coleridge-Taylor's mother was active in music and the arts as a piano teacher and church organist, and she named her son "after the Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor" (info HERE). Seems that I need to read up and him, too! : )
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A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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