Longfellow Chorus: “Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: 'Keep me from sinkin' down' (1912)” on YouTube

[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor]

This YouTube video on a work of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was posted April 15, 2012:

“Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Keep me from sinkin' down (1912)”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbSskDT_XQ

Published on Apr 15, 2012 by LongfellowChorus

One of the last compositions of African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875--1912), "Keep me from sinkin' down" was premiered as an encore by Maud Powell (1867--1920) on June 4, 1912, in Norfolk, Connecticut. She premiered Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto on the same program.

I've reconstructed "Keep me from sinkin' down" from the original orchestra parts found in the Stoeckel Papers of Yale's Irving S. Gilmore Library. Here, you hear my bassoon solo version, accompanied by the synthetic Garritan Instruments of my Finale 2009 music engraving software. Carl Stoeckel had originally commissioned the piece, requesting either a short violin composition, or one for cello. It is based on an African-American slave spiritual first sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Other than John McLaughlin Williams, who performed the piece with violin and orchestra in December 2011, I am not aware that Coleridge-Taylor's "Keep me from sinkin' down" has ever been performed since by Maud Powell did it in June 1912, though it must have been, sometime, somewhere. It is a gem of a piece, something that foreshadows Gershwin and demonstrates Coleridge-Taylor's immense influence on American music. It is sad that the composer did not live another thirty years.

[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works List and a Bibliography by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com Major observances of the Centennial of Coleridge-Taylor's death on Sept. 1, 1912 are underway and are the work of organizations including the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation, http://www.sctf.org.uk]