[Preliminary Entry] Born in 1875 in Croydon, London, Coleridge-Taylor was a widely renowned composer of classical music. His father was a doctor from Sierra Leone who left England and returned to Africa around the time of his son’s birth – henceforth the young Coleridge-Taylor was raised by his English mother, Alice Hare, and later his steptather. In 1898 he produced the two works which were to ensure his rise to fame. These were
Ballade in A Minor, commisioned at the suggestion of Elgar for the Three Choirs Festival of that year, and the musical
Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which set to music verses from the
The Song of Hiawathaby the poet Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. Some of his subsequent work derived its inspiration from traditional “Negroe Spirituals”, and he saw himself as…
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Samuel Coleridge-Taylor". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 August 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5961, accessed 29 March 2024.]