"That You Came so Far to See Us": Coleridge-Taylor in America

Abstract

By time that Samuel Coleridge-Taylor made his first visit to United States in 1904, American audiences were not only aware of status of this young musician as foremost composer and conductor of England but, by degrees, were also becoming acquainted with his music. Following European model, American choral organizations had historically adopted masterworks of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn as staples of their repertory. But in year following London premiere of Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, American choral societies began to tackle this experimental and work, which was based on words of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. On March 23, 1899, Temple Choir of Brooklyn, New York, performed Hiawatha's Wedding Feast (Janifer 1967, 187). Almost a year later, on March 14, 1900, highly respected Cecilia choral organization of Boston performed work under baton of J. B. Lang, repeating it two days later in response to high demand. In 1901, society added Hiawatha's Departure to its repertory and in 1903 performed it again along with The Death of Minnehaha. According to records of New York Public Library dated May 2, 1901, Albany Musical Association of New York gave first United States performance of trilogy, known as The of Hiawatha (187). A highly significant early performance of portions of Hiawatha music took place in Winsted, Connecticut, on June 5, 1901. The Litchfield County Choral Union of Norwalk, Connecticut, then a young and little-known choral society, presented Hiawatha's Wedding Feast and The Death of Minnehaha at its spring festival with an ideal assembly of musical forces. Soloists and a chorus of 190 members were accompanied by sixty instrumentalists selected from orchestras of Philharmonic Society and Metropolitan Opera House, New York, conducted by Arthur Mees. The lengthy program included arias from Wagner's Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger, Indian Bell Song (Vaill 1912a, 64, 65) from Delibes' Lakme, and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2. (1) Coleridge-Taylor was made an honorary member of Littlefield County Choral Union, only second person to receive this distinction, which was later accorded composers such as Saint-Saens, Horatio Parker, Sibelius, and George Chadwick. Comments on choral union program highlighted position of new entry into America's choral music repertory. The Hartford Courant observed, It is well known how shy old-established societies are of new works, as almost inevitable deficits have made them timid; and so money-sure 'Elijah' and 'Messiah' are in a sense stagnating influences (quoted in Vaill 1912a, 66, 67). The writer described Hiawatha works as intensely modern and fascinating for a strangely weird cast of melody and brilliant, sumptuous instrumentation. His conclusion that the chorus is now on record as one of best in State, suggests that he considered ability to sing Scenes from Hiawatha a defining test of a choir's excellence. Indeed, a certain prestige came with successful presentation of Hiawatha music and brought fame to Litchfield County Choral Union, especially in Europe. The Litchfield County Choral Union was an unusual organization. Established in 1899, it consisted in 1907 of nearly seven hundred singers from five choral groups in Litchfield area--the Norfolk Glee Club, Winsted Choral Union, Salisbury Choir, Canaan Choral Society, and Torrington Musical Association (Vaill 1912b, 208). The latter, last to be admitted, presented second performance of Hiawatha music for community in 1907. The groups performed together in a series of festivals established and largely supported by Carl Stoeckel and his wife, Ellen Battell Stoeckel. Carl Stoeckel, a philanthropist and patron of music and soon to be a good friend of Coleridge-Taylor, was son of Gustav Stoeckel, first head of Yale University School of Music; Ellen Stoeckel was daughter of Norfolk jurist and philanthropist Robbins Battell, a man of considerable wealth, in whose honor festivals were established (Vaill 1912a, 23-24). …