The Washington times., 1901-11-10


unphs in Engiund--Henry @. Tim
ner's Success Painter in Paris
-Thc Dumas Were MuIattoes.
1t is but a short while ago, measuring
time by epochs. that the world began
to realize the genius of the Dumas.
father and son, and the proof in them
that the admixture of African blood
was no bar to bright genius in French
literature, the richest litera ture of civil
ization. From whatever standpoint OF
criticism we may regard the romances
of Dumas, statistics will show that the
most widely read romance is Monte
Cristo." Dumas cannot strictly be
classed as a negro, but fer that matter
neither can the Is per cent of the negro
race in the United States which the cen
sus schedules as mulattoes In fact, the
full-blooded negroes in the country are
less than so per cent of the total popu-
lation. Dumas. as IS well known, was
the son of French general and a West
Indian mother of the African race.
In another line of art, that of paint
ing. Mr. Henry o. Tanner, an American
negro, has made an international repu
tation. lie has worked his way up from
the narrow opportunities of the son of u
Methodist minister to place in the Ma
tional Art Gallery of France, success,
according TO William Dean Howells,
thus far attained by only three Ameri-
cans. of whom Tanner is one. His most
famous painting, the Raising of Lazar-
US, has been purchased by the French
Government and hung in the Luxem-
| burg Gallery of Art in Paris Mr. Tan
ner is still quite young man, and his
masterpieces are probably yet to be
created.
| In London still another negro is at
tracing wide attention because Of his
work in one of the fine arts. S. Cole
ridge-Taylor, just twenty-six years of
| age. is already a musical composer of
| international reputation. His early sue
cess is based upon "Hiawatha," in three
iparts-"Hiawatha's Wedding Feast"
| Death of Mnnehaha,' and Departure
| of Hiawatha' taken from the pa
thetic story of our own Longfellow.
| This wild story of the red Indians crude
love making and tribal life has charmed
so many thousands of readers that the
musical rendition of it finds a most ap-
| preciative audience, but at the same
time the public is so familiar with the
spirit of the poem that it was a bold
| ambition of the young student to set
the story TO music without losing its
weird pathos. The first of the parts,
"Hiawatha's Wedding Feast" was writ
ten while its author was still a pupil
in the Royal College of Music In Lon
don. The other parts have followed in
the last two or three years since his
gradua ton. s. Coleridge-TayIor is the
son of a native African, of Sierra Leone,
West Africa, who was educated In Lon
don, and practiced medicine among his
people in Sierra Leone. He married an
English woman, and Samuel was born
to them In 1875. In appearance young
Coleridge-Taylor is proncancedly Afri-
can, his mulatto composition not shCw-
ing so clearly in his features. He early
showed a precocity for music, and while
quite a child was a member of the choir
in one of the London churches, in
which city he has spent all his life. He
first developed into a yiolinist. which
paved the way to his later musical
training. In 1898 at the age of eighteen,
he won scholarship, which entitled
him to a four years course in the Royal
College of Music in London, where he
studied under the Old World master.
DR.. Villiers Stanford. Within year the
boy-student had written Il composition
for stringed instruments which Dr.
Stanford deemed of sufficient merit to
render in public under his own CON
ductorship. BY the time Coleridge-
Taylor was ready to graduate in 1897,
his "Hiawathas Wedding Feast" had
been composed, so that the young stu
dent at once stepped into fame and for
tune.
Speaking Of his early triumphs, the
London Daily Telegraph contains the
following, under date of October 8, 1899,
more than two years age:
Certainly the most musical man of
the hour is Mr. S. Coleridge-Taylor He
has written, everybody knows, a work
called ,Hiawatha's Wedding Feast.
Let us see how that stands at the pres
ent time. 1t is to be performed this
week at Norwich, and, three weeks
later, at the North Staffordshire Fes-
tival. 1t is in the winter programme of
the Peoples Palace Choir, also in that
Of the Bermondsey Settlement Choir, |
and in that of the Highbury Philhar
monte Society. Two choirs in Birming |
ham have 1t upon their respective lists. |
At Manchester the Vocal Society prom |
ises 1t; at Liverpool, similar society |
has !t in hand, and South Shields awaits |
it. That is pretty well for one work, |
but the young Anglo-African has writ |
ten Il companion for it, The Death of |
Minnehaha, as yet unpublished and un-
performed. This will be heard for the !
first time at the North StaffOrdshire |
festival, yet already several societies !
have made ready TO take it upon trust, |
among them the Peoples Palace Choir |
and a Sunderland musical institution. |
Mr.. Coleridge-Taylor is now engaged |
upon third composition of the same |
class, 'Hiawatha's Departure, which.
with its two fellows, will be given at |
one of the forthcoming concerts of the |
Royal Choral Society.
rs not such blazing success enough |
to turn the young musicians head? The
an"wer depends, of course, upon the
strength of the head and we can hope
only for the best 1t is, perhaps. more
important to look for the quail les
which the public approve so quickly
and completely, but these had better be