Crossing the River at Night (New York Public Library)

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

​(1904/2020)

Duration: 4'30"

A new wind/brass & piano transcription, ​direct from the original Opus 59/10 score
(see below for instrumentation)

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​Hassan Anderson & David Korevaar play through Deep River in rehearsal, whilst leading recorder player Sarah Jeffery discusses and plays it, placing the work into its historical context. Anne Howarth & Julia Scott Carey, members of Juventas New Music Ensemble, perform live in East Cambridge, MA, USA.

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PDF & PRINTED EDITIONS

e-PKP4a: PDF Score in E major for Oboe/Flute & Piano

e-PKP4b: PDF Score in F major for Recorder/Clarinet/Soprano Saxophone in Bb & Piano

PDF Anthology ​Score in G major for Horn & Piano

PKP4b: PRINTED EDITION in F major for Recorder/Clarinet/Soprano Saxophone in Bb & Piano
​
PRINTED ​Anthology Score in G major for Horn & Piano

​Dur: 4'30"
Level:  Intermediate

CLICK ON THE IMAGES, to purchase from June Emerson Wind Music
N.B. LIFT is also available in the USA from Cimarron Music Press

PDF Editions

PRINTED Editions

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Free F-major Sampled Piano Accompaniment MP3!

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​Multi-instrumental Scores

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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. 

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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. ​