Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Orchestral Music

My introduction to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was one of the Dream Dances which I found in a now forgotten (and lost) album of salon music. Then there was the sheet music of his Demande et Réponse, a piano transcription of a movement from the Petite Suite de Concert. The first disc I bought was the S.C.T. volume published by Marco Polo in their British Light Music series (8.223516, 1995). And herein lay a problem. Was he to be condemned as simply a composer of so-called “light music.” To be sure, the repertoire on this CD included the above-mentioned Petite Suite, the Othello Suite, the Gipsy Suite, the Four Characteristic Waltzes and the ‘Overture’ to his undoubted magnum opus, Hiawatha. But there was nothing here to confirm Charles Villiers Stanford’s opinion that Coleridge‑Taylor was one of his most gifted pupils and championed him with genuine admiration.

It was not until I heard the Violin Concerto on Lyrita (SRCD.317) and the Symphony in A minor on Classico (CLASSCD 684) that I saw a different side to the composer. Here was a man could be compared to Brahms, Dvořák, and even Mahler, placing him fairly and squarely in the symphonic/serious tradition. I read that his works were performed in major concert halls on both sides of the Atlantic, he was invited to the White House by Theodore Roosevelt – hardly the lot of a light music specialist.

Whether Ethiopia Saluting the Colours (March), op.51 (1902) is on a par with Elgar’s P&C Marches is a matter of taste. Perhaps it is as “good” as the less well-known ones, i.e. No.3 and No.5. Geoffrey Self (The Hiawatha Man: The Life and Work of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Scolar Press 1995, p.130f) explains that it was dedicated to The Treble Clef Club which was a musical society specifically for Black women. The score is headed by a quotation from Walt Whitman referencing his poem of the same name about an enslaved woman during the American Civil War. Self (op. cit.) remarks that “Competent though it is, the tunes simply do not have Elgar’s panache and exuberance.”

The Solemn Prelude, op.40 for orchestra was produced for the 1899 Worcester Festival and was dedicated to a certain N. Kilburn esq. who also had the fortune of being the dedicatee of Elgar’s The Music Makers. The liner notes explain that The Solemn Prelude unfolds in a broad, imposing sonata design, carrying the same “nobilmente” character found in the expansive slow movements of Parry, Stanford, and Elgar. Its themes are strong and elegiac and the whole work is assured. It should be given more than an occasional airing in the concert hall.

Zara’s Earrings, op.7 (1894), subtitled A Moorish Ballad for soprano and orchestra, sets a text by the Scottish author and editor John Gibson Lockhart who wrote the multi-volume Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. The poem follows a young woman in Granada who drops the pearl earrings that her Moorish lover gave her as a pledge of fidelity, and she is consumed by the fear that he will see their loss as evidence of flirtation or betrayal. Imagining every doubt he might harbour, she despairs of justifying herself, yet resolves to tell him truthfully that she was thinking of him so deeply, her mind wandering to him across the sea, that the earrings slipped from her hand  - and that his love lies in her heart as surely as the pearls lie in the well. It is an enjoyable scena that displays the young composer’s “ease of technique, flow of ideas and richness of harmonic palette…” (Self, 1995, p.37)

The Idyll, op.44, is an expansion and rescoring of the second movement Lament from Coleridge-Taylor’s impressive Symphony in A minor. He has added trombones, tuba, and harp to the orchestral forces. It was produced for the 1901 Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester. The Times (12 September 1901, p.10) reviewer summed it up as “A single, very beautiful movement ... giving ample room for the composer’s love of original rhythm and rich and individual orchestral colouring...the little work is sure of popularity and is a worthy example of the clever young author’s work.”

Whenever I read of the musical title “Ballade,” I wonder what the tale or narrative behind it is. The definition suggests lyrical, dramatic qualities, as if telling a story without words. Often the piece unfolds like a tale, with contrasting episodes and a sense of emotional progress. In this way it is often the opposite of a Sonata or Rondo form. The liner notes do not suggest that there is any “programme” behind the Ballade for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, op.4 (1894), and indeed proposes that the work is written in an “abridged sonata structure in which the soloist and orchestra continually interact.” That said, after the “exposition” there are three “distinctive thematic departures” that certainly suggests a narrative or at the very least a conversation. The overall tenor of the Ballade is one of gloom, with only an occasional flash of light. The listener will be captivated by the deep introspection of the violin part. It is wonderfully played here by Ioana Petcu-Colan. Jonathan Woolf (review here) has noted that the competing version on the Avie label (AV2763) played by Curtis Stewart, is two minutes quicker. I have not heard this offering, but for me the pace of the present account seems perfect.

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus has never been my favourite character from the Classical era; he is often remembered as capricious, theatrical, tyrannical, and self-indulgent. While popular legend suggests he "fiddled while Rome burned," this is unlikely; he was thirty-five miles away in Antium (according to Tacitus) when the fire began and he returned to the capital specifically to supervise relief efforts. Nevertheless, rumours persisted that he engineered the disaster to clear land for his "Golden House," a suspicion that led him to use the Christians as a convenient scapegoat for the fire.

Stephen Phillips’s 1906 episodic verse drama, Nero, softened some of this historical wickedness. Coleridge-Taylor’s Entr’acte 1, part of the incidental music for the play, is a full-blooded romance. Possibly portraying Nero’s formidable mother, Agrippina, or his stoic wife, Octavia, it opens with a glowing violin solo before shifting into a more dramatic tone. Throughout these pages, there is little sense of the ruthlessness or cruelty usually associated with Nero’s reign.

The final track on this new disc is the profoundly moving Romance in B major for string orchestra. The liner notes explain that this is a reworking of the “introspective second movement, a Largo affettuoso” from the Clarinet Quintet in F‑sharp minor, op.10, dating from 1895.The listener must echo the words of an unnamed critic in the Musical Times (August 1895, p.528), who rates the original (Largo Affettuoso) “as poetic and suggestive a movement as is to be found in English music.” It demands its place in the string orchestra repertoire.

The liner notes by musicologist Jeremy Dibble are most helpful giving a good introduction to the six pieces. Bolding of the works’ titles would have made it easier to locate and refer to whilst listening. There are resumes of the two soloists and the conductor Charles Peebles. The recording is excellent and complements the splendid playing of the Ulster Orchestra.

While not every rarity here matches Elgar’s distinctive élan, this collection successfully reinforces Coleridge-Taylor as a serious composer. The Ulster Orchestra provides a capable survey of this music, offering a useful perspective on an artist who has long outgrown the salon.

Track Listing:
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Ethiopia Saluting the Colours (March), op.51 (1902)
Solemn Prelude, op.40 for orchestra (1899)
Zara’s Earrings op.7 for soprano and orchestra (1894)
Idyll, op.44 for orchestra (1901)
Ballade for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, op.4 (1894)
Entr’acte 1 from the incidental music to Nero, op.62 (1906)
Romance in B for string orchestra after the Clarinet Quintet, op.10: II Larghetto affettuoso (1895)
Rebecca Murphy (soprano), Ioana Petcu-Colan (violin)
Ulster Orchestra/Charles Peebles
rec. 16-17 June 2025, Foyle Foundation Hall, Belfast, UK
Text included.
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0713

With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.