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Nocturne. By Avril Coleridge-Taylor

Avril Coleridge-Taylor

Nocturne is 2.5 pages long and was specially composed for, and dedicated to C.F. Colt Esq, copyrighted in 1978 by Avril Coleridge-Taylor and C.F. Colt, Bethersden in Ashford Kent.  (Originated and printed by Halstan & Co. Ltd, Amersham, Bucks, England.) Nocturne was composed in response to a complaint that there was very little contemporary harpsichord music for the amateur.  This piece follows standard nocturne form, reminiscent of beginner Chopin nocturnes, and the rhythms between the left and right hand line up linearly, with frequent, easy ornaments that start new phrases. This is an excellent piece for any mid-intermediate pianist.

 

Avril Coleridge-Taylor was born March 8th, 1903 (died December 21, 1998) and was an English pianist and composer.  Her father was mixed-race composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, otherwise known as the “African Mahler”; his mother was English and his father was Sierra Leone Creole. Avril was taught composition and piano on scholarship at the Trinity College of Music by Gordon Jacob and Alec Rowley in 1915. She later became the first female conductor of H.M.S. Royal Marines and regularly conducted for the BBC Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra.  During her career, Avril wrote the Ceremonial March to celebrate Ghana’s independence, and toured South Africa during apartheid in 1952, a trip which altered her opinion on racial segregation in favor of people of color.

 

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Performed by David Reid.

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