From The Romans to Windrush

From The Romans to Windrush

Episode 7: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

From the Romans to Windrush: A podcast series about the lives and achievements of key figures of Black British History: presented by Simone Adams, a retired lawyer, lecturer, podcaster and former Morley College student.

This episode tells the sometimes unlifting, but ultimately tragic story of a talented Black Edwardian composer, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, whose classical compositions brought him fame and recognition in Britain, the United States and the rest of the world, but whose death in poverty shocked the musical community and the Royal family, resulting in an active campaign to enhance the rights of composers to own and financially benefit from their own music.

Sources:

• William Tortolano, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Anglo-black Composer, 1875-1912
• How one of the world’s greatest composers died penniless in Croydon, Croydon Advertiser
• Charles Elford, Black Mahler the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Story ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1906210786