Samuel Coleridge-Taylor for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an English composer who lived from 1875 to 1912. His father came from Sierra Leone, in West Africa, and his mother was English. At 23, he wrote a piece for choir and orchestra, “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,” that made him famous across Britain and America. He died young, at 37. The best first piece for a child is “Deep River,” his piano setting of a spiritual.

Quick facts

• Born: 1875, in London, England
• Died: 1912, in Croydon, near London
• Era: Romantic
• Played: violin and piano
• Known for: “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,” the Petite Suite de Concert, and piano settings of African and African American melodies

The life in short

Coleridge-Taylor’s father was a doctor from Sierra Leone who had studied in London. He went back to Africa before his son was born. Samuel grew up in Croydon with his mother and her family.

His grandfather gave him a small violin and his first lessons when he was about five. A local choirmaster noticed his talent and helped pay for his training.

At 15, he entered the Royal College of Music in London as a violin student. He soon switched to composition. His teacher was Charles Villiers Stanford, who also taught Holst and Vaughan Williams.

The composer Edward Elgar heard of him and recommended him for an important festival. Coleridge-Taylor was 23.

That same year, 1898, came “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.” It sets a famous American poem for choir, a tenor soloist, and orchestra. Choirs across Britain took it up at once, and for decades it was one of the most often sung pieces in the country.

He had sold the piece to a publisher for a small, single payment. It earned a fortune, and he received none of it. He had to teach, conduct, and judge contests to support his family.

He visited the United States three times. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt received him at the White House. Black musicians in Washington had founded a choir in his name.

He died of pneumonia in 1912, at 37.

What the music sounds like

Coleridge-Taylor wrote warm, tuneful music with rich harmony and a strong sense of rhythm. He admired Dvořák, who had built concert music on the folk tunes of his own people. Coleridge-Taylor wanted to do the same with the melodies of Africa and of Black Americans.

He named his son Hiawatha, after the hero of his best-known piece.

Pieces to play first

“Deep River.” One of his 24 Negro Melodies for piano, from 1905. The spiritual’s slow tune sits in the middle of full, glowing chords.

“Demande et réponse,” from the Petite Suite de Concert. The title means “question and answer.” A sweet, swaying tune.

Overture to The Song of Hiawatha. He built it on the spiritual “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.”

“Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.” Listen to the tenor song “Onaway! Awake, Beloved!” for a taste of the whole.

Things to do together

Tune inside the chords. Play a choir singing “Deep River.” Then play his piano version. Ask your child to hum the tune while the piano plays around it.

Question and answer. In “Demande et réponse,” one phrase asks and the next replies. Raise one hand for each question and the other for each answer.

A name for a hero. He named his son after a character in a poem. Ask your child which character from a story they would choose for a name.

Find two places. Find London and Sierra Leone on a map. His life joined the two.

The piece that paid him almost nothing

The story of “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” troubled other musicians. A composer had written a huge success and stayed poor. After his death, British composers pressed for a fairer system, so that writers of music are paid each time their work is performed.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Read about more composers in Black composers for kids. For the composers who shaped him, read Dvořák for kids and Elgar for kids.

For more composers from the same country, read English composers for kids. For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.