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, www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com.
Photo by Spudgun67, used under Creative Commons licence
The Croydon Citizen
Even as he found national fame, Croydon’s celebrated composer didn’t forget his roots, as Sean Creighton finds out
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
(1875-1912), Croydon’s famous African-British composer, was taught
music as a child and young teenager by his grandfather Benjamin Holmans,
his headmaster at the Croydon British Boys’ School, Herbert Walters, by
the choir master at St George’s Presbyterian church, and by Joseph
Beckwith, a local violin teacher.
This was a period of mass public musical
and theatrical entertainment, the widespread use of performed music in
organisations’ events, and of playing music in the home. In such a
world, while the young man was a student at the Royal College of Music,
his published compositions found a ready audience. Then with the success
of his Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast he found himself in demand around Britain.
But the central core of his activities
was in Croydon and surrounding districts of south London and Surrey.
Music permeated organised community and social life, and for fund
raising for local charities and hospitals. There are numerous examples
such as the Croydon Industrial Co-operative and Croydon Socratic
Societies, Upper Norwood Literary and Scientific Society and Leslie
United Football Club. He taught at Croydon Conservatoire of Music and
Art, conducted local musicians in groups like Croydon String Players
Club, the Croydon Orchestral Society, and was President of the
Addiscombe Choral Union. He treated his audiences to a wide range of
music in the classical genre and by contemporary composers.
The String Players Club included the
three Petherick sisters, the two l’Anson sisters (both on violin), Henry
Down and his wife and Gertrude Fawcett (also on violin). Under
Coleridge-Taylor’s direction it quickly “reached a very high level in
its performances, and for a long time remained the chief musical
influence in Croydon”.
A network of enthusiasts underpinned Croydon’s musical life
Coleridge-Taylor was not the only local
conductor-composer. His friend from college days, William Hurlstone,
also lived in Selhurst. Before college he had been taught the piano by
Arthur Wilmot, principal of Croydon Conservatoire. His Century Concerts
promoting chamber music, especially wind instruments, “helped to raise
the standard of music in Croydon, giving a much needed impetus”.
Hurlstone was conductor of Anerley Choral Society, Addiscombe String
Orchestra, and Director of Norwood Operatic Society. He taught at
Croydon Conservatoire, and was accompanist to the local Bach Choir
before dying young in 1906.
Other local music groups included the
Excelsior Musical Society, Addiscombe Philharmonic Society, Purley
Choral Society, and the Norwood Free Lancers. Also part of the network
of well-off enthusiasts who underpinned Croydon’s musical life at this
time were William Stanley, who founded Norwood’s Stanley Halls,
and Alexander Beaumont, who sponsored the halls’ grand opening in
October 1906. The opening night programme included works of his own as
well as music by Coleridge-Taylor and Hurlstone. The String Players Club
performed.
It might surprise modern readers to
learn how many women were actively involved at the heart of musical life
in Croydon in Coleridge-Taylor’s time. Local music teachers like Miss
Amy Inglis, and Miss Stallard, who was described as “one of the
institutions of Croydon” also put on concerts, the latter including
performances by Hurlstone. Walters and his wife organised one for
Croydon Volunteers Institution and Hurlstone’s sister Katie was another
of the many local amateurs.
No comments:
Post a Comment