Clara Faisst: Morija, Op. 9 (1905)

Clara Faisst (1872-1948)

mezzo-soprano Thea Lobo

organist Sam Nelson

originally released June 18th, 2020

German composer Clara Faisst shows off her rich, late-romantic style as she passionately paints the scene in Morija, titled for the mountain Abraham climbs to sacrifice his son Isaac. You can hear their slow dark journey, Isaac’s sweet naïveté, Abraham’s Godly resolve, and their triumphant resolution.

Faisst received extensive and prestigious early musical training in Karlsruhe and Berlin, eventually becoming student and friend of composer Max Bruch. Upon graduating, she toured widely in Europe as a pianist, featuring her own compositions.

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Ernest Hogan: On Grandma's Kitchen Floor (1906)

Ernest Hogan (1865-1909)

mezzo-soprano Thea Lobo

organist Sam Nelson

originally released June 18th, 2020

This guileless tune in popular style, written towards the end of Hogan's life, nods at the ubiquity of childhood nostalgia and familial love.

Ernest Hogan started performing in his teenage years on tour as a dancer, musician, and comedian with minstrel troupes. During the height of his career he enjoyed wide recognition and acclaim, but in his later years he admitted to a sense of shame in participating in and furthering racist tropes in music and entertainment. He was the first Black performer to produce and star in a Broadway show, The Oyster Man, in 1907. He continued to perform this show until his health failed him and he collapsed multiple times on stage, dying of tuberculosis in 1909

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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Elegy (1898)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)

organist Stephan Griffin

released June 20, 2020

From the short organ collection Arietta, Elegy and Melody, here Samuel Coleridge-Taylor concisely illustrates his high Victorian sensibilities with style and gravitas. Beautiful and accessible music such as this won him wide acclaim, both in the US and his native England. He was raised by his white mother (his Creole biological father from Sierra Leone was unaware of her pregnancy) and her large, supportive, working-class family in Surrey. Inspired by his obvious talent and passion, they saved and pooled money in order to send him to The Royal College of Music at age 15. He endeavored to bring African and Indigenous influences into his classical compositions wherever possible, and became most famous for his ‘Song of Hiawatha’ settings. He was one of the only Black persons to ever be received by president Theodore Roosevelt at the White House. Coleridge-Taylor enjoyed a happy marriage, and both of his children became musicians themselves, though he struggled financially at the end of his short life.

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