Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel (1875-1912), a British composer, is best remembered for his choral and orchestral settings of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha. Coleridge-Taylor wrote three cantatas based on the poem. They reflect the composer’s feeling for rich and colorful use of the orchestra. The three works were Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast (1898), The Death of Minnehaha (1899), and Hiawatha’s Departure (1900). Coleridge-Taylor wrote many other works for various ensembles and several works for the theater. He was the son of a West African doctor and an English mother. He set a goal of helping to establish the dignity of black people, and several of his compositions show his strong feeling for his African heritage. These compositions include the vocal work African Romances (1897), the operatic romance Dream Lovers (1898), the chamber work African Suite (1898), and the Toussaint l’Ouverture overture (1901).
Coleridge-Taylor was born on Aug. 15, 1875, in London. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1890 to 1897. Later, he distinguished himself as a conductor in the United Kingdom and the United States. He was permanent conductor of Handel Society from 1904 until his death on Sept. 1, 1912.
