HoustonPublicMedia.org: Music In The Making: Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. [3 Selections from 6 Sorrow Songs of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Op. 57 (1906)]

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in 1893

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is profiled at AfriClassical.com which features a comprehensive Works List and a Bibliography by Dr. Dominique-Rene de Lerma, www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com.

Houston Public Media

On this week’s episode of Music in the Making, we’re celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a twentieth-century requiem and a selection of songs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor!

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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – 3 selections from 6 Sorrow Songs, Op. 57 (1906)

Timothy Jones, baritone; Katherine Ciscon, piano

Moores Opera House

10/5/2012

Our last selection this evening is a collection of songs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the most socially ground-breaking composers in history. Coleridge-Taylor came from a mixed heritage, with an English mother and a Creole father. He gained worldwide fame for his work Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast and became influential for his use of traditional African music. In 1904, he was even invited by President Theodore Roosevelt to the White House, which was a rare occurrence for people of color. This composition, his Six Sorrow Songs, use poems written by Christina Rossetti, who is more well-known for her text “In the bleak midwinter.” The selected songs from this collection are titled “Oh what comes over the Sea,” “When I am dead, my dearest” and “She sat and sang always.”