Sumptuous Was the Feast.

[salymap]

On Saturday 27 at 12.15pm R3

For the 100th anniversary of Coleridge-Taylor's death Andrew Green explores memories of those who appeared in the productions of the cantata trilogy The Song of Hiawatha,usually with the Royal Choral Society at the Royal Albert Hall.

I was too young to catch them but had friends in the RCS who had good stories to tell of them.

[salymap]

Well I enjoyed hearing about the braves and squaws who dressed up for the annual performances. Many people spoke about the performances, including Sargent's Secretary/Manager for the last 20 yesra of his life, who couldn't have been very pleased to hear MS described as a 'matinee idol'.

He was a damned good musician who had a life apart from music. Not fair to his memory

[Nick Armstrong]

I recorded this and plan to listen later. I heard the start - fun to hear about the 'encampment' in Kensington Gardens and the squaws and warriors dancing back to the RAH across K'ton Gore...

[Anna]

I heard this programme, greatly enjoyed it, full of fascinating snippets. I don't have any Coleridge-Taylor but I'd really like to hear the whole of Hiawatha. (Did anyone else construct a teepee in their back garden I wonder and use it as a den? Sorry, very offtopic!)

[salymap]

I heard this programme, greatly enjoyed it, full of fascinating snippets. I don't have any Coleridge-Taylor but I'd really like to hear the whole of Hiawatha. (Did anyone else construct a teepee in their back garden I wonder and use it as a den? Sorry, very offtopic!)

I enjoyed it Anna, although I never constructed a teepee in my garden I missed the performances with Malcolm Sargent that took place up .
to the 1930s I think. However I went to lots of concert performance Hiawatha's and could sing along [in my head], I'd heard it so much. And I went to one dramatised performance later ?? 1950s, when the conductor was George Stratton I think, normally the leader of the LSO

As they said, it was of its time and lost its popularity.

[salymap]

I'm bumping this up as it's about the programme on R3 which certainly interested me. Participants from the dramatized performances in the 20s and 30s recalled the fun and musical pleasure in dressing up as squaws and warriors. Still available on iPlayer.

[Lateralthinking1]

I'm bumping this up as it's about the programme on R3 which certainly interested me. Participants from the dramatized performances in the 20s and 30s recalled the fun and musical pleasure in dressing up as squaws and warriors. Still available on iPlayer.

Many thanks salymap. I couldn't find it using the search facility when you mentioned it on the COTW thread. However, now that you have bumped it up I have done.

As someone who not only had a garden wigwam but used to make the appropriate noises, I feel that I am going to enjoy this programme. I am going to listen to it now.

[antongould]

Many thanks salymap. I couldn't find it using the search facility when you mentioned it on the COTW thread. However, now that you have bumped it up I have done.

As someone who not only had a garden wigwam but used to make the appropriate noises, I feel that I am going to enjoy this programme. I am going to listen to it now.

Enjoy Lat.

[salymap]

Many thanks salymap. I couldn't find it using the search facility when you mentioned it on the COTW thread. However, now that you have bumped it up I have done.

As someone who not only had a garden wigwam but used to make the appropriate noises, I feel that I am going to enjoy this programme. I am going to listen to it now.

Good morning Lat, I'm glad you've found it and hope you enjoy[ed] it. bestio, saly

[Lateralthinking1]

Thank you salymap and also to antongould.

salymap - An exceptionally good programme. Many thanks for highlighting it. It isn't often that I recommend a programme to people who are not on the forum but I have been doing just that this morning. I didn't know about the performances of 'Hiawatha' in the RAH between 1922 and 1939. They clearly left an impression on the people who took part in them. The interviews were wonderful.

Coleridge-Taylor was a phenomenon in his lifetime. He completed the first of the 'Hiawatha' cantata trilogy at the age of 23. It was then taken up by 400 local groups across the country. But the magnitude of the performances that commenced under Sargent ten years after his death was mind-boggling. And what came across was their sheer vibrancy in that black-and-white age. If, until then, wigwams and forests had not been seen in the RAH, there also hadn't been home-made native American costumes. As hundreds of splendidly adorned participants made their way to performances, Central London must have been quite a sight.

It was explained in the programme how Hiawatha had captured the imaginations of several earlier generations. Longfellow's epic poem had removed some of the fear about native Americans. Suddenly they could be seen as being fun, albeit with an assumption that they would accept a European presence. Later, Buffalo Bill had brought Sitting Bull to London as a part of the Wild West Show during Queen Victoria's golden jubilee. Even so, that Coleridge-Taylor should then choose a subject other than religion for a cantata was innovative. And fortunately, while racism remained rife in society, it could be trumped by the thrill of spectacle.

After World War Two, films were in colour. Not only the concept of 'Hiawatha' but the music seemed to many past its time. 'Oklahoma' was in town and that was seen as fashionable. Attempts at a revival didn't succeed although Sargent would provide a reminder occasionally at the Proms. It was also a reference point in school lessons for many years to come. I doubt I was surprised to hear that my parents recall singing some of the songs 'theatrically' during the 1930s. But on hearing school children on the programme doing the same, I was rather astonished to become aware that I did too in the early 1970s. Mrs Clamen or Mrs Waller!

It is a pity that the composer didn't live to see how popular his work became. That it then fell out of favour is even more of a shame. I am very pleased that a reassessment is now being made. Given that 2012 is his centenary year, more could have been done for him at this year's Proms. And it really is appalling that so much of his work has never been recorded at all. Let's hope that this will change. I really loved this programme, though, and to listen to it made my Saturday morning. It was well-written. It was entertaining and stimulating. The presenter was very good. I hope that R3 is now minded to feature his lesser known work.

[salymap]

Thanks Lat and did you notice that Sylvia Darley, Sargent's Secretary and then Manager for the last 20 years of his life was very emotional when stating that he gave both Hiawatha and his earlier life as a conductor of G&S at the Savoy Theatre the same attention as he gave to Gerontius and Messiah. IMO Beecham was the same, towards the end of his life he tried hard to revive choral works by Maunder, Cowen and other Victorians, largely neglected by the 1950s/60s.

And back on topic, I don't buy CDs because of age and the number I have unplayed, but I wish more Coleridge Taylor could be broadcast on R3

[Anna]

I think it's a shame that the programme wasn't broadcast before Coleridge-Taylor was CotW because I think I would have listened to CotW more attentively. I still think I'd like to buy Hiawatha at some stage.
Welcome back Lat and thanks for comprehensive post about the programme.

[salymap]

I think it's a shame that the programme wasn't broadcast before Coleridge-Taylor was CotW because I think I would have listened to CotW more attentively. I still think I'd like to buy Hiawatha at some stage.
Welcome back Lat and thanks for comprehensive post about the programme.

I agree Anna. I skipped a lotof the CoTW,I'm afraid. Someone mentiond that the trilogy is availabe still but it is a very old recording. Imay buy it though if I can find the reference to it.

[Lateralthinking1]

Thank you to both of you. I did hear the emotion in Sylvia Darley. It's unfathomable how some work has never been recorded. I feel there is a vocation for someone. If I win the lottery etc........! I agree that the programme could have been broadcast before COTW. Still, at least it was made and it's been a very long time since Croydon could be linked with anything substantial.

[Anna]

It has been recorded, but the Sargent has long been deleted, however ..... I've just found on Amazon a second hand one of WNO, Bryn Terfel and Helen Field, conducted by Kenneth Alwyn for £9.99, Decca. So, in a moment of madness I've snapped it up. It's a two cd disc paired with Symphonic Variations on an African Air by C-T, which should be interesting as I don't think I've heard of that.
I will report back once it's received and listened to.