At the Royal College of Music Coleridge-Taylor encountered some
of the brightest talents of his time, and most of his early concerts
were at the RCM or involved his fellow students. At one of his concerts
(March 1896), for instance, two of his most famous colleagues, the
young composers Gustav Holst (composer of The Planets)
and Ralph Vaughan Williams played in the orchestra. Even before
Coleridge-Taylor's work was being publicly performed August Jaeger,
an editor at the music publishers Novello & Co., had been tipped
off about his talent, and Novello's published the first of a series
of his anthems, starting a lifelong association. By an interesting
coincidence Vincent Novello, originator of the firm, had been taught
almost 100 years earlier by the black violinist George Polgreen
Bridgetower.
Coleridge-Taylor won the Lesley Alexander composition prize two
years running (1895 and 1896), and he met William Hurlstone, his
best friend who died early in 1906, a major influence on his taste.
In 1896 he also met the African-American poet and novelist Paul
Laurence Dunbar, who was visiting London. His meeting with Coleridge-Taylor
began a series of collaborations. The songs Seven African Romances
(1897), which were their first work together, are light and
tuneful, and Dream Lovers ("an Operatic Romance", 1898)
is the story of a Moroccan prince and his friend finding true happiness
with two sisters. There are several clues to suggest that Coleridge-Taylor's
true metier might have been musical theatre, but he left
the RCM as a highly-esteemed and promising young composer.
Guest-curated for the British Library by Mike Phillips
Next - 'First successes... and Hiawatha'
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