Hearing this well-crafted rarity played so winningly under American conductor Roderick Cox's clear and precise direction made me wonder if, perhaps,
Coleridge-Taylor has been neglected for too long.
Anderson's Words My Mother Taught Me; Adolphus Hailstork's Songs of Love and Justice (Martin Luther King, Jr.), Four Love Songs (Paul Laurence Dunbar), and Three Simple Songs; Betty Jackson King's Three Dunbar Poems; and five songs from
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Thirteen Jazz Settings.
The
Coleridge-Taylor is certainly dramatic and, in places, lively with some colourful orchestration, brought out well by David Hill, conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
Coleridge-Taylor's mixture of poetry, choral singing and Red Indian folk lore, used to be a huge hit with Victorian audiences, to such an extent that they would adopt head-dresses when watching it.
109; "Nicolai" and usually referred to without the middle name); "Coleridge Taylor" (ibid.; Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor); and "Carl Weber" (ibid.; better known as Carl Maria von Weber).
3 (Rhino/Warner Bros.); THE TEMPTATIONS, Reflections (New Door/UM); DARRELL MCFADDEN & THE DISCIPLES, I've Got a Right (EMI Gospel); MIKO MARKS, Freeway Bound (Mirrome Records);
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: A Celebration (Cedille); The Best of Johnny Maestro (Shout!
There is also Britain's first black professional footballer, Arthur Wharton, Sara Bonetta, Queen Victoria's god-daughter and com-poser Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor.
A number of these focus directly on the experiences of specific black Victorians--the composer Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor, and the 'Black Circus Proprietor' Pablo Fanque, for example--drawing from these experiences representative observations.
Other well-known figures featured in the exhibition include the composer Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor, Britain's first professional Black footballer, Arthur Wharton and Mary Seacole.
-SAMUEL
Coleridge-Taylor could not have been a friend of Beethoven's as the composer died in 1827 and
Coleridge-Taylor was not born until 1875 (Page 20, October 2).
This complicated, long-drawn-out biography introduces features of special interest to me, for example Ransom's support of Paul Laurence Dunbar and the black British composer Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor (evidently at least a nominal take-off on the name of a well-known Romantic, Samuel Taylor Coleridge).
2 for Strings" (1996) by
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.