Erasing the color line: the violin concerto of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Abstract

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s mixed-black heritage, which easily could have remained a social handicap in 19th century Victorian England, may arguably have boosted his career during a time when African-heritage music and artists became fashionable amongst the European and American public. That is not to say that Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s world was not imbued with racial prejudice – born a mere 43 years after England’s Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, his three visits to America brought him in contact with the segregation experienced daily by African Americans. Nevertheless, when Antonin Dvořák’s New World Symphony (1893) sought to establish an American school of music upon the melodies of Negro and Native American songs, black American musicians and composers rode on the tidal waves of Dvořák’s success. They were able, for the first time, to see the significance of their musical heritage.

It is significant to note that while this black cultural revolution was brewing in America, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was operating overseas in England. Nor was he, at first, transforming African and African American music into high art. Yet his career and rise to fame were intertwined with the ongoings in America, and without Dvořák and black activists giving a voice to African American musicians and composers, it is plausible that many of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s works would have never come into fruition. One of these works was his Violin Concerto op. 80, the last finished work before his untimely death at the age of 37. This project will argue that the African American musical and political scene between 1893 and 1920 helped the creation of Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto.