Deep River Sonata

The River Jordan flowing into the Dead Sea (Wikimedia Commons)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
arr. Althea Talbot-Howard

The Deep River Sonata
for Oboe* & Piano
(Thata Nabandji, Oloba, Deep River, The Bamboula)

OR

Deep River (on its own)
for Melody Instrument* & Piano

Introducing...
THE DEEP RIVER SONATA
(1904/2020/2022)

This new sonata for solo instrument & piano has been created from pieces selected from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Opus 59 set of 24 solo piano pieces. Built upon folk melodies from Africa, the Caribbean & the USA, Coleridge-Taylor completed the work in 1904. The sonata's central slow movement consists of Deep River. Shorter items begin and end the piece.

Musicians who do not wish to play the entire work can still purchase the initial transcription, Deep River (2020), separately. Please see below for further information.

Hassan Anderson & David Korevaar play through The Deep River Sonata in rehearsal.

British Composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

The Deep River Sonata - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Four Melodies from Opus 59 - numbers 3, 7, 8 & 10
I Thata Nabandji - Interlude I Oloba (oboe solo) - II Deep River - Interlude II Oloba (piano solo) - III The Bamboula

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Opus 59 set of melodies from the African Diaspora, published for solo piano in 1904, is a rich treasure trove of folk songs & spirituals which the composer presents in an intensely symphonic pianistic style.  Deep River, no. 10 in the set, is the most well-known, having been transcribed for violin & piano by the renowned early-twentieth-century virtuosa, Maud Powell, in addition to many other arrangements of varying levels.

Thata Nabandji is one of four initial melodies hailing from 'South East Africa' - as mentioned in the score.  Oloba is called a 'West African Folk-lore Song', whilst The Bamboula represents the Caribbean. Thata Nabandji is riven with emotional intensity. Oloba shines with the authentic sound, structure and rhythmic flexibility of African folksong; whilst The Bamboula is simultaneously passionate and ebullient. In the middle of these shorter items sits the pearl of great price: Coleridge-Taylor's moving interpretation of the renowned African-American spiritual, Deep River.

Once I had completed my new arrangement of Deep River in 2020, I then began to consider creating an entire sonata from Opus 59, by book-ending Deep River with two shorter, faster piece s from the set. In order to retain the original, but completely unrelated, keys - and to facilitate smooth movement between them - I took the exposition from a fourth piece - Oloba - and used it to create two solo interludes that functioned both as harmonic bridges: and as a breathing space for the oboist after the sustained breath demands of Deep River.

The Deep River Sonata
(Op. 59 nos. 3/7/10 & 8)
for Oboe (or alternative instrument) & Piano

Duration: 10 mins

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

C- score for Oboe, Violin or Flute & Piano
Bb score for Soprano Sax or Clarinet - Still to come

Please send a message via the
Score Purchase & Contact Page,
to obtain the score.

Deep River
(alone)

Hassan Anderson & David Korevaar play Deep River.

Deep River (Op. 59/10)
for Oboe* & Piano

Duration: 4'30"

Level: Intermediate

*Flute, Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone,
Tenor Recorder, French Horn, Violin

Please click on the image of the score to purchase from June Emerson Wind Music.

This transcription of Deep River (Opus 59/10) is a new arrangement from the original piano score, and differs from the 1904 Violin & Piano arrangement by the American virtuosa, Maud Powell. Having performed her transcription twice on the Oboe, I found it insufficiently idiomatic to be comfortable for a woodwind player. In 2020, I decided to create a specialist woodwind arrangement which was mindful of breathing needs - using material from the centre of the piece, that Powell had rejected. The long central section was, in fact, cut by both of us. Whilst she chose fiery music that was violinistic and idiomatic in its use of chords, I chose the slower and more peaceful material that was better suited to long, single-line woodwind melodies.

Biography of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a bi-racial composer of English and Sierra Leonean descent. Born in south London in 1875, he was raised by his English family: a musical family which taught him so well that he gained a place - in the 1890s - at the Royal College of Music in London. His areas of study were Violin and Composition.

Coleridge-Taylor's principal Composition teacher was Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924). After leaving the RCM, Coleridge-Taylor gained work as a professional musician in his natal Croydon area, as a teacher and conductor. In 1899 he married Miss Jessie Walmisley, whom he had met whilst studying at the RCM, and they had two children: Hiawatha and Avril Coleridge-Taylor. Both children pursued musical careers in their adulthoods.

Coleridge-Taylor found it difficult to earn sufficient income as a composer, but persevered until his early death at the age of thirty-seven. He experienced a number of successes en route, including three tours of the United States in the 1900s, and patronage by Sir Edward Elgar - also an alum of the RCM. His cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was a runaway success - and it was his failure to make sufficient money from score sales that lead to the formation of the PRS - the Performing Right Society.

His Op. 59 set of piano melodies from the African diaspora caught the attention of American violin virtuosa Maud Powell, and she created her own, renowned arrangement of Deep River for Violin & Piano in 1904, as mentioned above. It was during these visits to the USA that Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was received at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. The composer died in England of pneumonia, in 1912.

The Deep River Sonata(& Deep River)

The Deep River Sonata
(& Deep River)