Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (Composer)

[jazzy_dave]

As a celebrated, cultured person in the early 20th century, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875--1912) stood out as an international figure capable of bridging racial and social divides. Nowhere was this more valued than in the United States, where people of African descent were striving to gain equal access to education and opportunity in the decades following Reconstruction. To well-meaning people of all races and classes in America, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor symbolized a bright future, in which, above all, everyone would be recognized for their accomplishments.

Coleridge-Taylor exerted an important influence on the post-Reconstruction social politics of America as represented by such prominent African-Americans as W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, numerous critics in black American newspapers, and composers and musicians from ragtime to classical.

Here is his Ballade For Orchestra Opus 33.

Commissioned in 1898 by the Three Choirs Festival of Britain thanks to pressure from Edward Elgar, the Ballade for orchestra Op.33 represents an important early milestone for the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912). It's a work full of wonderful high-spirits, passion and warmth. Above all it's a harbinger of what might come, given time and opportunity. It is played here by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Grant Llewellyn.

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Listening now, how beautiful. The American influence is not detectable for some time, it's almost Russian in the beginning.

I'm researching the Coleridge-Taylors for my current novel in progress, turns out his daughter was also a gifted musician.

[ba1126.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing! This is wonderful!

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Exciting music. :)
Hugs, Jon

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

*HUGS*

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thanks for sharing this one.

[w. lotus (from livejournal.com)]

I had never heard of him before your post. Now I have dreams of learning his Romance in G for Violin and Orchestra.