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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

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Composer

The Resume

    (August 15, 1875-September 1, 1912)
    Born in London, United Kingdom
    Named after poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    Composer and conductor
    Best known for three cantatas based on Longfellow’s ‘Song of Hiawatha’: ‘Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,’ ‘The Death of Minnehaha,’ and ‘Hiawatha’s Departure’
    Other compositions include ‘African Suite,’ ‘African Romances,’ and ‘Twenty-Four Negro Melodies’
    Nicknamed ‘Black Mahler’

Why he might be annoying:

    His middle and last names were joined by a hyphen as a result of a printer’s error.
    He named his son Hiawatha after the subject of his most popular compositions.
    His only opera, ‘Thelma,’ was lost for nearly a century before the manuscript was discovered in the British Library.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Edward Elgar called him ‘far and away the cleverest fellow among the young men.’
    He was the youngest delegate at the First Pan-African Conference held in London (1900).
    During a tour of the United States, he was received at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt, a rare honor for a black man at the time (1904).
    He was the first black conductor to lead the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the United States Marine Band.
    At its peak of popularity, ‘Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast’ was second only to Handel’s ‘Messiah’ as the most frequently performed choral work in Britain.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 24 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 19 Votes: 63.16% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 28 Votes: 53.57% Annoying