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Classical music fans in Winnipeg will have the chance to learn about a seminal 20th century composer at the start of Black History Month. McNally Robinson’s Community Classroom is set to host two lectures about the life and music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
“2025 is the 150th anniversary of Coleridge-Taylor’s birth, so this is the time to celebrate his achievements,” explains lecturer Larry Strachan, the leader of the Chamber Orchestra Without Borders.
The two lectures, which are happening on February 1 and 8 respectively at 2 p.m., are entitled “The Cleverest Fellow” and “Hiawatha: Coleridge-Taylor’s Masterpiece”. Strachan says that the title of the first lecture comes from a quote from another early 20th century English master, Edward Elgar.
“Elgar was unable to fulfill an orchestral commission, and he recommended this young Samuel Coleridge-Taylor who was in his early 20’s at the time,” Strachan explains, noting that Coleridge-Taylor wrote his famous Ballade to fill that commission.
The son of a single mother whose father was from Sierra Leone, Strachan observes that Coleridge-Taylor overcame many obstacles as a mixed race child to achieve the place he holds in music history today. “He could not have been accepted by the mother’s family,” he elaborates. “If the mother’s family didn’t take him in and accept him, he could have easily gone to the orphanage. And who knows would would’ve happened to him.”
The second lecture that Strachan is giving is a deep dive into arguably Coleridge-Taylor’s most famous pieces, The Song of Hiawatha. Centred around a trilogy of cantatas based on the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the piece was a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, and it made Coleridge-Taylor into a household name. “That oratorio was performed as many times as Messiah at the time, and was performed regularly throughout Great Britain,” says Strachan, who adds that the immediacy of the melody and the sumptuous surprises in the orchestration are two factors that keep music lovers coming back to the piece.
Speaking more broadly, Strachan says that Coleridge-Taylor’s story and musical integrity that has kept Coleridge-Taylor’s music vibrant for the last 150 years. “It’s the power of a person of mixed race, a Black composer just being able to survive the insults occasionally, the pride you can hear in his voice and his race,” he explains, noting that his use of spirituals, Indigenous cultural elements and West Indian influences in his music also contribute to his unique voice. “You can feel that power surging through his art.”
“The Cleverest Fellow” and “Hiawatha: Coleridge-Taylor’s Masterpiece” take place on February 1 and 8 respectively at 2 p.m. in McNally Robinson’s Community Classroom. Visit McNally Robinson’s website for more information.