COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, SAMUEL com poser, was born in London on Aug. 15, 1875, the son of a West African doctor of medicine and an English mother. He sang in a church choir at Croydon, and studied the violin and compo sition at the Royal College of Music. His first important work was a symphony given at St. James's hall in 1896, but his repu tation rests on his picturesque and melodious choral work, the trilogy of Hiawatha. This work was succeeded by many other choral works, none of which had quite the same success. He wrote some excellent incidental music for plays by Stephen Phillips: Herod (1900), Ulysses (1902 ), Nero (1906), and Faust (1908) ; also occasional music for Othello.
See W. C. Berwick Savers, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Musician. His Life and Letters (1915).