The only later choral work which came near to that ideal fitness between words and music was ‘A Tale of Old Japan’ (London 1911). Here a poem by Alfred Noyes provided the composer with a story and an ‘atmosphere’, the two things which he needed from words. The stage offered a similar impetus to his genius, and the incidental music which he wrote to a series of plays by Stephen Phillips [q.v.], produced at His Majesty’s Theatre—Herod 1900, Ulysses 1902, Nero 1906, Faust 1908—was successful because of his power of giving vivid musical characterization to externals. The personal factor, too, was easily recognizable in his purely instrumental music from the early ballade in A minor to the ‘Othello’ suite, the ‘Hiawatha’ ballet music (distinct from the cantata), and the violin concerto, which were among his latest works. The ‘catchy’ rhythmic phrase and its repetition in varied tones, the capacity for indulging unrestrainedly in the simple human emotions of joy and sorrow without reflection and without cant, are the qualities which come from his negro ancestry.
In appearance and manners Coleridge-Taylor was very much of his father’s race. There was a sweetness and modesty of nature which was instantly lovable. Success made him happy but he was easily cast down. He had little power of self-criticism, but sometimes he would accept the criticism of others too readily. In his student days on one occasion when his work had been sharply criticized by his teacher, the manuscript was found by a fellow-student thrown aside in the waiting-room of the College as not worth carrying home. It was only after his best work had been done that he conceived a desire to study African negro music and to become its apostle by composing works on native folk themes. His later publications show that he did this to a considerable extent, but it is noteworthy that after having planned the violin concerto which he wrote for the Norfolk (Connecticut) festival on these lines, he redrafted it in a more original style. His visits to America no doubt did something to awaken his racial sentiment, though he was received there, especially by his host, Mr. Carl Stoeckel, in the most warm and generous spirit. He was also stimulated in this direction by the example of Dvořák’s group of works ‘From the New World’, but he lacked the stamina to become the leader of a movement. His compositions amount to 82 opus numbers, with many to which no number is assigned, and amongst them there is much that is ephemeral. But ‘Hiawatha’ holds its own, and twenty-five years after its production it was given in the form of a pageant opera in the arena of the Albert Hall (19 May 1924 and again in 1925), the composer’s son, Hiawatha Coleridge-Taylor, taking part as conductor of the ballet.
Coleridge-Taylor married in 1899 Jessie, daughter of Major Walter Walmisley, a member of the same family as the composer and organist, Thomas Forbes Walmisley [q.v.], and the musician, Thomas Attwood Walmisley [q.v.]. There were two children of the marriage, the son Hiawatha, and a daughter. Coleridge-Taylor died 1 September 1912.
[W. C. Berwick Sayers, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Musician; his Life and Letters, 1915; Musical Times, March 1909 and October 1912; Manuscript catalogue of compositions, by J. H. Smithers Jackson (Croydon Public Libraries); published compositions; private information; personal knowledge.]
COLLINGS, JESSE (1831-1920), politician, the youngest son of Thomas Collings, of Littleham, Exmouth, Devon, by his wife, Anne Palmer, was born at Littleham in December 1831. His father was a bricklayer, afterwards proprietor of a small building business; but in later life Jesse Collings was fond of tracing his descent from the Palmers, because they had, he believed, been yeoman farmers. He was educated at a dame’s school ‘for tradesmen’s sons’, and also spent a year at Church House School, Stoke, Plymouth, which was kept by a cousin. At the age of fifteen he became a shop assistant, later a clerk and commercial traveller in the ironmongery trade. Entering in 1850 the firm of Booth & Co., of Birmingham, as a clerk, he became a partner in the business, under the style of Collings and Wallis, fourteen years later, and retired in 1879. While living at Exeter and representing his firm he obtained much knowledge of rural conditions by his travels through the west of England. His first public work was done when he helped to establish the Devon and Exeter Boys’ Industrial School in 1862. His interest in education developed when he went to live in Birmingham in 1864, and in 1868 he published a pamphlet which was the immediate cause of the formation of the National Education League for the advocacy of free and non-sectarian elementary education. He was elected a town councillor
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