{"id":7722,"date":"2023-09-30T10:58:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T15:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=7722"},"modified":"2023-09-30T11:01:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T16:01:44","slug":"samuel-coleridge-taylor-great-american-composer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2023\/09\/30\/samuel-coleridge-taylor-great-american-composer\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Great American Composer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Gazette, a Black-owned newspaper founded in 1883,1 <\/sup><\/a>affirms Black composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor as being, \u201cthe real thing.\u201d2 <\/sup><\/a>During his career, Coleridge-Taylor, like other composers of the time, found meaning and significance in African-American folk tunes.3 <\/sup><\/a>Coleridge-Taylor\u2019s works were well-received during his lifetime, the most well-known being <\/span>The Song of Hiawatha<\/span><\/i>.4 <\/sup><\/a>Among many other works, he published a book of piano transcriptions of African-American folk tunes in 1905.5<\/sup><\/a>
\nHis success as a composer in Europe led him to America, where he performed various recitals featuring his works.6 <\/sup><\/a>Among the works he performed at one recital were four of the piano transcriptions found in his published collection, entitled, \u201cI\u2019m Troubled in Mind,\u201d \u201cSometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child,\u201d and, \u201cMany Thousands Gone.\u201d7<\/sup><\/a>
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Twenty-four negro melodies transcribed for the piano by S. Coleridge-Taylor. Op. 59, table of contents8<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, transcribed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor9<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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 <\/sup><\/a>Coleridge-Taylor performed many successful recitals that received complementary reviews, naming him one of the very greatest.11 <\/sup><\/a>However, Dvorak\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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1<\/a>\u00a0\u201cCleveland Gazette: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: Case Western Reserve University.\u201d Encyclopedia of \u00a0 \u00a0 Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University, October 13, 2020. https:\/\/case.edu\/ech\/articles\/c\/cleveland-gazette<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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2<\/a>\u00a0“The ‘Real Thing’ In England’s Musical Circles is S. Coleridge-Taylor, a Colored Man Second Composition.” Cleveland Gazette<\/span><\/i> (Cleveland, Ohio), December 2, 1899: 1. <\/span>Readex: African American Newspapers<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>https:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/apps\/readex\/doc?p=EANAAA&docref=image\/v2%3A12B716FE88B82998%40EANAAA-12BAC591E7A454A8%402414991-12BA053406EECF90%400-12D5BD14223677F8%40The%2B%2522Real%2BThing%2522%2BIn%2BEngland%2527s%2BMusical%2BCircles%2Bis%2BS.%2BColeridge-Taylor%252C%2Ba%2BColored%2BMan%2BSecond%2BComposition<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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3<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

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4<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n

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5<\/a>\u00a0Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel, and Booker T Washington. Twenty-four negro melodies, transcribed for the piano<\/span><\/i>. Boston: Oliver Ditson Company, 1905. <\/span>https:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/iw-search\/we\/Evans\/?p_product=EAIX&p_theme=eai&p_nbid=F6AI57RNMTY5NTkzMDA4MC44MDIwNDoxOjE0OjE5OS45MS4xODAuMjMx&p_action=doc&p_queryname=18&p_docref=v2:13D59FCC0F7F54B8@EAIX-154E9B2175979AC0@S454-15E6DA6A14A2DE10@2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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6<\/a>\u00a0“The Great Taylor Recital.” Freeman<\/span><\/i> (Indianapolis, Indiana) XVII, no. 48, December 17, 1904: [5]. <\/span>Readex: African American Newspapers<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>https:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/apps\/readex\/doc?p=EANAAA&docref=image\/v2%3A12B28495A8DAB1C8%40EANAAA-12C55E0C65BC8D90%402416832-12C55E0CB03AB1E8%404-12C55E0D903F1E60%40The%2BGreat%2BTaylor%2BRecital<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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7<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n

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8<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n

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9<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n

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10<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n

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11<\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Gazette, a Black-owned newspaper founded in 1883,1 affirms Black composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor as being, \u201cthe real thing.\u201d2 During his career, Coleridge-Taylor, like other composers of the time, found meaning and significance in African-American folk tunes.3 Coleridge-Taylor\u2019s works … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1397],"tags":[581,361,1440,1439],"class_list":["post-7722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2023-mus-345-b","tag-african-american","tag-black","tag-english-composer","tag-folk-music-samuel-coleridge-taylor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-20y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7722"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7731,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7722\/revisions\/7731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}