Material relating to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (composer)

Typescript, photocopies, manuscript, printed documents, photography, audio tape, CD sheet music, programmes, recordings, and reference material relating to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), composer, was born on 15 August 1875 in Holborn, London. His mother, Alice raised her son in Croydon. Coleridge Taylor was given a violin at a young age, and in 1890 was sponsored to study at the Royal College of Music studying composition under Charles Villiers Stanford. His works were presented at college concerts and Coleridge-Taylor's Five Anthems were published in 1892. Encouraged by the success of his early works, Ballade A Minor, and Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, Coleridge-Taylor became prolific in the composition of music for theatre, sacred and secular choral works, orchestral works, and pieces for strings and piano. He taught composition at Trinity College of Music and at the Guildhall School of Music, and judged numerous competitions around Britain. Coleridge-Taylor died of pneumonia at his home on 1 September 1912.

Sources used to compile this administrative history include the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and the Oxford Companion to Black British History.

This collection is available for research. Readers are strongly urged to contact Black Cultural Archives in advance of their visit. Some of the material may be stored off-site and advance notice of at least a week is needed in order to retrieve this material.

The reading room is open for access to archive materials Wednesdays-Fridays, 10am-4pm. The reading room is also open late every second Thursday of the month, 1pm-7pm.

Please email the archivist to book an appointment archives@bcaheritage.org.uk