Nourmahal's Song: An Unknown Coleridge-Taylor Work

Abstract

The manuscripts of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor at the Royal College of Music have long been a valued resource for researchers and performers, with many first editions and first performances resulting from this unique and important collection. A recent research enquiry into one of these manuscripts has led to the discovery of a previously unknown work: Nourmahal's Song. Filed with the piano piece, Nourmahal's Song and Dance since its acquisition, and long assumed to be the same work, Jonathan Frank discovered in April 2022 that RCM MS 4938 is in fact an unrelated work, one which is totally unknown to modern scholarship. This article explores the circumstances which led to the work's absence from Coleridge-Taylor scholarship; how the accompanying materials tell the story of a brief, unsuccessful attempt at a revival in 1937, involving Sir Henry Wood; and how the library's filing led to the work being undiscovered until now.