The Bamboula, Op. 59, No. 8

Composer: COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, Samuel
  • This piano work is No. 8 from Coleridge-Taylor’s 24 Negro Melodies, Op. 59/1. Coleridge-Taylor completed the work in 1905.1
  • In the score, Coleridge-Taylor prefaces this piece with a melody transcription “from the collection of Henry E. Krehbiel” which is identified as “from the West Indies” (i.e., the Carribbean). The piece is based on this melody.2
  • Coleridge-Taylor explored the bamboula dance genre again in 1910 in an orchestral piece, The Bamboula: Rhapsodic Dance, Op. 75.3
  • To be aware of: According to the Wikipedia entry on the dance form bamboula, the word is used in French as an ethnic slur. 

Sources

  1. Stephen Banfield and Jeremy Dibble, and Anya Laurence, “Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel,” Grove Music Online (2003), accessed January 14, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002248993.
  2. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 24 Negro Melodies, Op. 59 (Boston: Ditson, 1905), 39.
  3. Banfield, Dibble, and Laurence, “Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel,” Grove Music Online.

Cut IDs

24371