Coleridge-Taylor composed his orchestral Idyll (Op.44) for a performance at the 1901 Gloucester Festival, part of the renowned Three Choirs Festival. This well attended event included premiers and performances of recent choral and orchestral works by the leading British composers of the day, alongside classics such as Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. The premiere took place on the morning concert of September 11, 1901 (both morning and evening concerts were presented on each one of the festival’s 4 days) in the Gloucester cathedral, conducted by Coleridge-Taylor himself (as was customary).
By this time, Coleridge-Taylor was already a well established popular composer, both in England and the United States, known mainly for his three cantata cycle The Song of Hiawatha (1898-1900). He was supported by Edward Elgar, the leading British composer of the day, who recommended him to the Three Choirs Festival of 1898 where his orchestral Ballade (op.33) was premiered and met with great success. He was also published by London’s largest publisher, Novello and Co. For unknow reasons, Coleridge-Taylor did not compose a whole new piece for the 1901 festival, but reworked the 2nd movement of his student-days’ symphony, Op.8 (1896). The movement was originally titled Lament, a title Coleridge-Taylor omitted before the premiere of the symphony. For the reworking of the movement as Idyll, Coleridge-Taylor revised the structure and many other details of melody, harmony, and orchestration, as well as added parts for tuba and harp.
The reworked Idyll received mixed reviews in the contemporary press:
“Mr. S. Coleridge-Taylor’s contribution… is of very modest proprtions. It takes the form of an orchestral piece bearing the simple title “Idyll”. The principal theme is of quite reposeful character; it is, however, a real theme, not a short phrase or mere figure to be afterwards twisted and tortured by cunning devices. A middle section offers variety of key and character. The first theme is again presented, and in somewhat impassioned form, and then in a coda of delicate structure the music softly dies away.” - The Musical Times, September 1, 1901
“The disappointment of the Festival was Mr. Coleridge Taylor’s “Idyll”. It is an uninteresting piece of orchestration with little or no variety; and what the composer was driving at few, I should imagine, could tell. Mr. Taylor, although very able, is just now an extremely busy man. But, at any rate for festivals, he would do well to write less and to think more.” - Truth, September 19, 1901
“If it is not up to the level of his best achievements, it is charged with refined feeling and artistic endeavour.” - The Musical Times, October 1, 1901
“Mr. S. Coleridge-Taylor’s “Idyll” is a very beautiful, one-themed little work, exquisitely orchestrated, perhaps monotonous in color, but with a lovely reposeful intention.” - The Playgoer, October 1901, p.34
“An orchestral Idyll by Mr. Coleridge Taylor, which was hardly up to the level of the composer’s best achievements.” - The Annual Register of 1901, p.96
An ad in the Musical Times (October 1, 1901) promoting sheet music sales by Novello contains a variety of more positive reviews:
From the ad, we can clearly see Idyll’s publication status - string parts were engraved and printed (and thus purchasable) while the full score and other parts were MS (=manuscript). The score and non-string parts were available only by rental from Novello. The practice of engraving just the string parts (for ease of producing multiple copies) was common at the time, and only pieces that proved extremely profitable and popular went through an engraving process for the rest of the material. The majority of Coleridge-Taylor’s orchestral works were published in this form. A violin and piano arrangement of the work was also published (aimed at the amateur musician market), though it displays many differences from the finished orchestral score of Idyll. While all contemporary sources stress the arrangement was made “by the Composer”, it is possible that it was put together by a Novello employee.
The lukewarm reviews and limited access to the sheet music led this lovely piece, as many others by Coleridge-Taylor, to be neglected and forgotten over time. In October 2022 the Minnesota Orchestra recorded Idyll in live concert. There are no commercial recordings of it available at present.
Dr. Rotem Weinberg, Jan 8, 2022. Updated February 2023.
