FAMOUS NEGRO DEAD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3666, 30 October 1912, Page 4

FAMOUS NEGRO DEAD.

AIR C-OLERIDGE-TAYLOR, THE COMPOSER OF “HIAWATHA.”

Excepting Dr Booker Washington, perhaps the only man of negro blood who ever achieved success amid Europeans was Air Samuel Coleridgc-Tay-lor, the composer, who lias passed suddenly away at Croydon, Surrey. He leaves a widow, an English-woman, and two children. Though he has died at the age of thirty-seven, -Air Col-e----ridge-Taylor leaves fifty-nine works. He transmitted his thoughts to paper as fast as they came to him. Unlike many other composers he did not inherit his genius, for neither his father nor his mother was musical. , His father was a native of Sierra Leone, on the AVest Coast of Africa, and his mother was an Englishwoman. Ho himself was born in Holborn. He started his musical studies at the age of six. He wrote cantatas for most of the great musical festivals in England. His best-known composition is “Hiawatha.” He once said that in catching the splendid melody of this work he had relied entirely on the spirit of Longfellow’s words. In his own opinion “A Tale of Old Japan,” from the book by Mr Alfred Noves, was his best work. The funeral took place at Croydon, and a service was held at St Michael's Church, where Air H. L. Balfour, organist of the Royal Choral Society, played selections from the composer’s works, following which Air AY. J. Read played the slow movement from the composer’s last violin concerto, and Air Julian Henrv sang “AYlien I am dead, my dearest,” also by Air ColeridgeTaylor. As tlie body was removed from the church the funeral march of Alinnehaha from “Hiawatha” was played.