Happy Birthday (1875-1912) to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor! Another musician who died too young (37). Not to be confused with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 –1834) — no, not at all, why would anyone confuse those two — well, maybe his mom might confuse them, naming him that and everything, but why would we? Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, was an English composer of Creole descent who achieved such success that he was once called the African Mahler! He composed the score for Hiawathas Wedding Feast, taking the poetry (trochaic tetrameter) of English-American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in praise of the fictitious Hiawatha (modeled on the Ojibwe spirit Manabozho). Samuel named his son Hiawatha (and his daughter Gwendolyn but she changed it to Avril and was a composer in her own right). Here is Webster Booth knocking this one out in 1936 at Albert Hall in London (give it a listen, it is way older than you may ever get…) Have a great weekend ! Onaway! Awake, beloved! Thou the wild-flower of the forest! Thou the wild-bird of the prairie! Thou with eyes so soft and fawn-like!If thou only lookest at me, I am happy, I am happy, As the lilies of the prairie, When they feel the dew upon them!Sweet thy breath is as the fragrance Of the wild-flowers in the morning, As their fragrance is at evening, In the Moon when leaves are falling.Does not all the blood within me Leap to meet thee, leap to meet thee, As the springs to meet the sunshine, In the Moon when nights are brightest?Onaway! my heart sings to thee, Sings with joy when thou art near me, As the sighing, singing branches In the pleasant Moon of Strawberries!When thou art not pleased, beloved, Then my heart is sad and darkened, As the shining river darkens When the clouds drop shadows on it!When thou smilest, my beloved, Then my troubled heart is brightened, As in sunshine gleam the ripples That the cold wind makes in rivers.Smiles the earth, and smile the waters, Smile the cloudless skies above us, But I lose the way of smiling When thou art no longer near me!I myself, myself! behold me! Blood of my beating heart, behold me! Oh awake, awake, beloved! Onaway! awake, beloved!
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 22:12:05 +0000
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