The Bamboula

 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in London, England on August 15, 1875 to an English mother and a Sierra Leone-born father. He was described as the “black Mahler”, and led a successful career as a composer and conductor. One of Coleridge-Taylor’s most famous pieces, “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,” exemplifies the exoticism and romantic appeal of the American Indian at the time. “The Bamboula” is the name of a drum and a dance brought to the Americas and the Caribbean by African slaves. The piece was a commission for Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel, founders of the Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut, to which Coleridge-Taylor was an invited guest in 1906 and 1909.

The Coleridge-Taylor Collection, Misc. Ms. 290

The Stoeckel Family Papers, Misc. Ms. 247

Tags: African American Music