The Song of Hiawatha (Coleridge-Taylor)
Encyclopedia
The Song of Hiawatha, Op. 30, is a trilogy of cantata
s by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
, produced between 1898 and 1900. The first part, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, was particularly famous for many years and it made the composer's name known throughout the world.
of 1898 after Edward Elgar
had recommended him as "far and away the cleverest fellow going amongst the younger men". He was then inspired to write a choral work Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, to words from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
's The Song of Hiawatha
.
The score was completed in May 1898 and was published by Novello before the first performance was given. Interest in Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was so great from sales of the music that, even before a single note of the work had been heard in public, Coleridge-Taylor was commissioned to write a sequel, The Death of Minnehaha.
Consequently, great publicity preceded the premiere of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, and many people were refused admission, but one person who was accommodated was Sir Arthur Sullivan
, who said "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". The premiere took place on 11 November 1898 at the Royal College of Music
, under the baton of his teacher, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford
. (Some sources say the composer conducted the work himself; however, others make it clear that he was so shy that Stanford had to leave the stage to seek him out in order to coax him up to the stage to receive the audience's applause.) Sir Hubert Parry
described the event as "one of the most remarkable events in modern English musical history". The success of the work was immediate and international.
.
The later parts of the overall work were not nearly as successful as the first part, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, which continued to be regarded as a work in its own right and received many hundreds of performances in the UK and overseas countries such as the USA, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. It became so famous in Britain that for many years it rivalled Handel
's Messiah
and Mendelssohn
's Elijah
in the public's affections. Nothing else he ever wrote equalled the fame of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. The tenor aria, "Onaway! Awake, beloved!", was part of most tenors' repertoires for the next fifty years. Part of the reason for the relative lack of success of the latter two parts was the criticisms of them by Edward Elgar and August Jaeger
.
Coleridge-Taylor also wrote an overture, sometimes performed separately, which quotes
the spiritual
"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
". In 1901, the trilogy, complete with the new overture, was presented at Birmingham, where it outshone Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius
. By 1904, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast had received 200 performances in England alone.
The first performance of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast in the United States was in Boston on 14 March 1900 (or 12 March); the Cecilia Society of Boston was conducted by Benjamin Johnson Lang
. On the strength of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, Coleridge-Taylor made three tours of the United States, and at one stage seriously considered migrating there. In 1904, he met President Theodore Roosevelt
at the White House, a very unusual honour in those days for a man of African descent and appearance (his father was a native of Sierra Leone
). On his 1906 tour, he conducted his works in Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Boston, Washington and Chicago. His final tour was in 1910. His last composition, written in 1912, the year of his death, was the Hiawatha Ballet Music, Op. 82, based on The Song of Hiawatha.
Hiawatha's Wedding Feast sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Coleridge-Taylor had no conception of how successful it would become, as he had sold it outright for the sum of 15 guinea
s. After his death in 1912, the fact that he and his family received no royalties from what was one of the most successful and popular works written in the previous 50 years, led in part to the formation of the Performing Rights Society.
, were presented for two weeks annually until the Second World War and were attended by many thousands of people, including the Royal Family. Sargent became so associated with these "Hiawatha" performances that one chapter of one his biographies is called "The Wigwam Years". Singers who appeared in these performances included Miriam Licette
, Lilian Stiles-Allen
, Elsie Suddaby
, Harold Williams
, Parry Jones
and Frank Titterton
.
In 1930 Sargent recorded Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, with the Royal Choral Society
and the Philharmonia Orchestra
, with tenor soloist Richard Lewis
; and The Death of Minnehaha with the same forces and Elsie Suddaby, George Baker
and Howard Fry. The work has declined in popularity of recent years, but is still sometimes revived, such as a centenary performance in Boston in October 1998.
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an English composer who achieved such success that he was once called the "African Mahler".-Early life and education:...
, produced between 1898 and 1900. The first part, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, was particularly famous for many years and it made the composer's name known throughout the world.
Background
In 1898, Coleridge-Taylor was fresh from his success with his orchestral Ballade in A minor, which was performed at the Three Choirs FestivalThree Choirs Festival
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...
of 1898 after Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
had recommended him as "far and away the cleverest fellow going amongst the younger men". He was then inspired to write a choral work Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, to words from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
's The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, featuring an Indian hero and loosely based on legends and ethnography of the Ojibwe and other Native American peoples contained in Algic Researches and additional writings of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft...
.
The score was completed in May 1898 and was published by Novello before the first performance was given. Interest in Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was so great from sales of the music that, even before a single note of the work had been heard in public, Coleridge-Taylor was commissioned to write a sequel, The Death of Minnehaha.
Consequently, great publicity preceded the premiere of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, and many people were refused admission, but one person who was accommodated was Sir Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
, who said "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". The premiere took place on 11 November 1898 at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
, under the baton of his teacher, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
. (Some sources say the composer conducted the work himself; however, others make it clear that he was so shy that Stanford had to leave the stage to seek him out in order to coax him up to the stage to receive the audience's applause.) Sir Hubert Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
described the event as "one of the most remarkable events in modern English musical history". The success of the work was immediate and international.
The sequel
The Death of Minnehaha, was completed in 1899 and premiered at the North Staffordshire Music Festival in Hanley on 26 October that year. A third part, Hiawatha's Departure, premiered on 22 March 1900. The whole trilogy was published as The Song of Hiawatha and had its first complete performance in 1900, at the Royal Albert HallRoyal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
.
The later parts of the overall work were not nearly as successful as the first part, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, which continued to be regarded as a work in its own right and received many hundreds of performances in the UK and overseas countries such as the USA, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. It became so famous in Britain that for many years it rivalled Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
and Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
in the public's affections. Nothing else he ever wrote equalled the fame of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. The tenor aria, "Onaway! Awake, beloved!", was part of most tenors' repertoires for the next fifty years. Part of the reason for the relative lack of success of the latter two parts was the criticisms of them by Edward Elgar and August Jaeger
August Jaeger
August Jaeger was an Anglo-German music publisher, who developed a close friendship with the English composer Edward Elgar.Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, Jaeger met Elgar through his employment at the London music publisher Novello...
.
Coleridge-Taylor also wrote an overture, sometimes performed separately, which quotes
Musical quotation
Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work ....
the spiritual
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen is a spiritual. The song is well known and many cover versions of it have been produced, although the rendition by Louis Armstrong is the best known. Marian Anderson had her first successful recording with a version of this song on the Victor label in 1925. Lena...
". In 1901, the trilogy, complete with the new overture, was presented at Birmingham, where it outshone Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
. By 1904, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast had received 200 performances in England alone.
The first performance of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast in the United States was in Boston on 14 March 1900 (or 12 March); the Cecilia Society of Boston was conducted by Benjamin Johnson Lang
Benjamin Johnson Lang
Benjamin Johnson Lang was an American conductor, pianist, organist, teacher and composer. He introduced a large amount of music to American ears, including the world premiere of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No...
. On the strength of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, Coleridge-Taylor made three tours of the United States, and at one stage seriously considered migrating there. In 1904, he met President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
at the White House, a very unusual honour in those days for a man of African descent and appearance (his father was a native of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
). On his 1906 tour, he conducted his works in Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Boston, Washington and Chicago. His final tour was in 1910. His last composition, written in 1912, the year of his death, was the Hiawatha Ballet Music, Op. 82, based on The Song of Hiawatha.
Hiawatha's Wedding Feast sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Coleridge-Taylor had no conception of how successful it would become, as he had sold it outright for the sum of 15 guinea
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
s. After his death in 1912, the fact that he and his family received no royalties from what was one of the most successful and popular works written in the previous 50 years, led in part to the formation of the Performing Rights Society.
Annual stagings at the Albert Hall
Starting in 1924, the trilogy, along with the Hiawatha Ballet Music, was presented in the Royal Albert Hall with scenery, costumes and dancing. The first such staging was conducted on 19 May 1924 by the composer's son Hiawatha Coleridge-Taylor (who was born in 1900, at the height of the composer's fame). These stagings, often conducted by Sir Malcolm SargentMalcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
, were presented for two weeks annually until the Second World War and were attended by many thousands of people, including the Royal Family. Sargent became so associated with these "Hiawatha" performances that one chapter of one his biographies is called "The Wigwam Years". Singers who appeared in these performances included Miriam Licette
Miriam Licette
Miriam Licette was an English operatic soprano whose career spanned 35 years, from the mid-1910s to after World War II. She was also a singing teacher, and created the Miriam Licette Scholarship.-Career:...
, Lilian Stiles-Allen
Lilian Stiles-Allen
Lilian Stiles-Allen was a British soprano of the mid 20th century.She was born Lilian Elizabeth Allen, and later added her mother's maiden name....
, Elsie Suddaby
Elsie Suddaby
Elsie Suddaby was a leading British lyric soprano of the years between World War I and World War II. She was born in Leeds.A pupil of Sir Edward Bairstow, she was known as ‘The Lass With The Delicate Air’ .She was principal soprano in the bicentennial St Matthew Passion Elsie Suddaby (1893 -...
, Harold Williams
Harold Williams (baritone)
Harold John Williams MBE was a leading Australian baritone and music teacher. Born in Sydney, he enjoyed a long and successful career in England and his native country, performing in opera, oratorio and concerts and giving radio broadcasts.-Early years:Williams was born on 3 September 1893 at...
, Parry Jones
Parry Jones
Parry Jones may refer to:* Gwynn Parry Jones , Welsh tenor*Rhys Parry Jones, Welsh TV actor-See also:*Love Parry Jones-Parry , British army officer and High Sheriff of Anglesey*Jones Parry...
and Frank Titterton
Frank Titterton
Frank Titterton was a well known British lyric tenor of the mid twentieth century. He was noted for his musicianship.Titterton's career was mainly in the concert hall...
.
In 1930 Sargent recorded Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, with the Royal Choral Society
Royal Choral Society
The Royal Choral Society is an amateur choir, based in London. Formed soon after the opening of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871, the choir gave its first performance as the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society on 8 May 1872 – the choir's first conductor Charles Gounod included the Hallelujah Chorus from...
and the Philharmonia Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
, with tenor soloist Richard Lewis
Richard Lewis (tenor)
Richard Lewis CBE was a Welsh tenor.Born Thomas Thomas in Manchester to Welsh parents, Lewis began his career as a boy soprano and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1939 to 1941...
; and The Death of Minnehaha with the same forces and Elsie Suddaby, George Baker
George Baker (record singer)
George Baker was an English singer. He is remembered for singing on thousands of gramophone records in a career that spanned 53 years, beginning in 1909...
and Howard Fry. The work has declined in popularity of recent years, but is still sometimes revived, such as a centenary performance in Boston in October 1998.