Program Note

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912)
Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10
by Scott Foglesong

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was raised in England and experienced an education similar to many English composers of the day: studies at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford (who taught just about everybody), professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music, and eventually some highly successful tours of the United States. His death at age thirty-seven resulted in his posthumous legacy being given relatively short shrift compared to contemporaries such as Delius, Holst, Sullivan, and Elgar. His Hiawatha has remained in the repertory, as has a violin concerto, but that’s about it. Coleridge-Taylor’s catalog is filled with jewels just waiting to be re-discovered.

Consider the Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10, which originated with an offhand remark of Stanford’s to the effect that, after Brahms had written his autumnal Clarinet Quintet, nobody would be able to write another that wasn’t Brahmsian. Coleridge-Taylor took the bait (if that’s what it was) and produced a most decidedly non-Brahmsian clarinet quintet. (The Dvořák influence, on the other hand, is unmistakable.) With Coleridge-Taylor’s early death, this substantial and wholly effective piece fell into the shadows. A posthumous second act is very much in order.