Samuel Coleridge-Taylor watchers will be gratified to know that more of Patrick’s work is making it to disc.
On August 1st, Avie records will be releasing an album containing SC-T’s Concert Overture “Toussaint L’Ouverture” (in effect a symphonic poem honouring the Haitian revolutionary leader), the Ballade for Violin and Orchestra Op. 4, and two suites derived from the set of “24 Negro Melodies”. The first suite of three numbers, for Violin and String Orchestra as rearranged by Curtis Stewart (who’s also the solo violinist in the Ballade) Andrew Roitstein, and Hamilton Barry; and the second suite of five numbers, which were orchestrated by SC-T himself in 1905 but never published or performed.
The album came about because Grammy Award-winning conductor Michael Repper wanted to celebrate the 150th birthday of SC-T by recording orchestral pieces that hadn’t been featured on a commercial studio recording before. As it turns out, two of them hadn’t been performed in at least 100 years. His starting point was the Ballade Op. 4. Although published in an arrangement by its composer for Violin and Piano, the original version with orchestral accompaniment had never been printed.
Mike Repper’s researches established that the most recent performance had probably been given by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on the south coast of England in 1902! He made contact with the BSO’s librarian who unsurprisingly confirmed that they hadn’t still got the parts. After sharing a laugh at the very possibility, the librarian kindly did a bit of further digging and found that Patrick and I had prepared a printed edition of the orchestral version in 2012, and that it was now in the hands of a Swiss music publisher.
On receiving this information, Mike wanted to establish that our edition was legitimately that of SC-T’s original version and not an orchestration by another hand. He made a fruitless search of the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Society on Facebook, sent a couple of emails which got no response but, in Mike’s own words, “Patrick’s name kept popping up on everything.” Mike couldn’t find an email address and, unaware that Patrick was no longer with us, on a whim he sent a message to info @ patrick-meadows.com figuring the main email address was probably that, and JP duly responded!
JP then put Mike in touch with me and I was able to confirm that our edition was the genuine article. With the benefit of some persistent detective work by the librarians at Harvard University, Patrick had tracked down SC-T’s original manuscript to the Library of Congress. That settled it for Mike, and the Ballade was therefore a definite for inclusion on the CD. During the course of our correspondence, Mike asked me for suggestions as to what other works might be suitable to complete the project, as the works already scheduled would come in at only about 45 minutes – very short measure for a full-priced CD. I suggested the suite that SC-T had orchestrated from five of the 24 Negro Melodies. The fact that the three-movement suite that Curtis and his colleagues had assembled was already ear-marked for the recording made this choice seem preordained.
Patrick had initially shown me the manuscripts, which he’d unearthed in the British Library, during one of my visits to Deía (probably around 2007) and suggested that we prepare an edition. I demurred because only two of the five were fair copies, two more were complete but in SC-T’s “sketch” handwriting, which would present a significant deciphering challenge, but the clincher was that the first of them, which was in the hand of a copyist, was incomplete: all the flute, oboe and clarinet parts were missing after the first 26 measures, leaving 50-odd measures blank. While internal evidence left no doubt that it was SC-T’s work (despite the absence of a manuscript in his hand) as it stood the piece was unperformable.
Hiding his disappointment well, we went on with other projects large and small over the next five years. Never one to give up though, Patrick determined to press me again on these 5 Negro Melodies. He said words to the effect of “Look, you have a degree in music, you studied composition with Kenneth Leighton, you have the piano original as a source document: you could compose the missing parts standing on your head.” I can’t recall whether I was simply flattered by Patrick’s confidence in my abilities or if I just couldn’t resist the challenge but, in the event, I submitted and the edition was prepared in 2012. I noticed only at the time we were engaged on it that some of the bass trombone part was missing as well but that was a very straightforward fix!
Anyhow, I emailed a copy of the full score to Mike and, after a thorough perusal, he expressed delight at the prospect of including it on the recording. On the days of the rehearsal and the recording there was much to-ing and fro-ing by email and WhatsApp about possible typos in the parts. Usually, when an orchestra is preparing a first performance, the composer is on hand to clarify any little queries but in this case, of course, SC-T couldn’t make himself available! Mike was extremely complimentary about the quality of the orchestral parts of both works, which is entirely down to Patrick’s meticulous attention to detail. I volunteered to write the booklet note, which offer was accepted but, fittingly, Mike has appended a separate note paying tribute to Patrick for uncovering and digitizing the manuscripts of both works, without which this recording could not have happened.
As I wrote to JP just ahead of the recording sessions, “I know that Patrick would have been as thrilled as I am with this project and I’m profoundly sorry that he’s not here to enjoy it in person. If he is sitting up there somewhere on a cloud, he’s no doubt pouring a thoroughly deserved and self-congratulatory slug of Jameson’s.” I sincerely hope he is.
The CD can be ordered now directly from Avie, catalog number AV2763 using the link below. The link includes the full track list.
Lionel was close friend and musical collaborator with Patrick.