First successes. and Hiawatha

Coleridge-Taylor's talents were recognised and promoted almost immediately. His first major commission came via the composer Edward Elgar, who described him as "the cleverest fellow going amongst the young men”, and recommended him for a commission at the famous and influential Three Choirs Festival, which rotates between Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester.

In September 1898 it was the turn of Coleridge-Taylor's Ballade in A minor. A melodic piece, with echoes of the great Romantics Tchaikovsky and Dvorak, the Ballade furthered the composer's reputation, and reinforced his confidence for his next composition and his greatest success, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, based on the poem by Henry Longfellow. Novello & Co. published the score in advance of the performance, and various luminaries committed themselves to attend. Sir Arthur Sullivan, although not far from death, insisted - “I'm always an ill man now, my boy, but I'm coming to hear your music tonight even if I have to be carried”.

Hiawatha was a breath of fresh air in a choral repertoire which was intensely serious or religious. It was secular fun, superficial and familiar exoticism, a matter of feathers and skins and colourful names, but it was at the same time a big, lovely orchestral sound buoying up the excitement of a massed bank of voices singing a melody which flowed more or less continuously. In a time when amateur choirs and sheet music were part of popular culture Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was a score to enjoy, but it was hard act to follow, and the composer's reputation never again reached the same heights. Listen to 'Onaway!' from Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent in 1944.

Guest-curated for the British Library by Mike Phillips

Next - 'After Hiawatha'