Londonist.com: Last house of Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor in Waddon
(Photo: Mark Fresko)
Londonist.com: Cigarette card for
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
May 19, 2017
Trained in the European concert music traditions, Coleridge-Taylor's
compositions (he wrote for the theatre, an opera, choral works, and
instrumental pieces) sometimes had black titles in his use of 'Negro'
and 'African'. Exactly when he got to know black people in Britain is
uncertain, but contacts had been made by 1897. There was another black
resident in Croydon, a Mrs Mattie Thrift, an American married to a
wealthy English businessman. She had been Miss Marion Louise Lawrance or
Lawrence, a singer in an all-black choral group which toured to
Australia and New Zealand in the 1880s. That choir was directed by
Frederick Loudin, who is known to have returned to Britain in 1897.
Coleridge-Taylor said that it was Loudin who introduced him to American
spirituals.
***
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) has been the subject of
biographies, articles, web sites, CD booklet notes, a novel, and entries
in encyclopaedias. Yet he remains elusive as a person, misunderstood as
a musician, and a victim of the innocent prejudices of commentators. On
25 May, Jeffrey Green, independent historian, will provide an insight
into Coleridge-Taylor life, at the Black Cultural Archives, Brixton,
1pm-2pm. Tickets £3.
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