The Cleveland Gazette, a Black-owned newspaper founded in 1883,¹ affirms Black composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor as being, “the real thing.”² During his career, Coleridge-Taylor, like other composers of the time, found meaning and significance in African-American folk tunes.³ Coleridge-Taylor’s works were well-received during his lifetime, the most well-known being The Song of Hiawatha.⁴ Among many other works, he published a book of piano transcriptions of African-American folk tunes in 1905.⁵
His success as a composer in Europe led him to America, where he performed various recitals featuring his works.⁶ Among the works he performed at one recital were four of the piano transcriptions found in his published collection, entitled, “I’m Troubled in Mind,” “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child,” and, “Many Thousands Gone.”⁷

Twenty-four negro melodies transcribed for the piano by S. Coleridge-Taylor. Op. 59, table of contents⁸

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, transcribed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor⁹

When following the trajectory of his career, one cannot help but to draw parallels between Coleridge-Taylor and Antonin Dvorak. Like Dvorak, Coleridge-Taylor was a European composer who spent time in America and took an interest in preserving and using Black folk music as a source of musical inspiration.¹⁰ Coleridge-Taylor performed many successful recitals that received complementary reviews, naming him one of the very greatest.¹¹ However, Dvorak’s influence was much greater and his legacy more well-known. These two composers are both equally as American as each other, but only Dvorak is credited with being the great American composer. The relationship between these two composers upholds a legacy of cultural supremacy that devalues Black artists and art until they are discovered, used, and legitimized by a White artist.