Story perspectives

Edinburgh Festival revives Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha cantata

8/12/2026

Summary

Story summary

Edinburgh International Festival will stage the first performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s cantata The Song of Hiawatha.
Royal Albert Hall staged work from 1924 to 1939 with 1,000 performers.
After World War II the cantata left the repertoire, seeing a few performances this century.
Coleridge-Taylor never received royalties for the piece, prompting Performing Rights Society’s creation.
Organizers hope the Edinburgh staging revives the work, despite critics deeming Longfellow’s poem a colonialist caricature.

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Story summary

Edinburgh International Festival will stage the first performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s cantata The Song of Hiawatha.
Royal Albert Hall staged work from 1924 to 1939 with 1,000 performers.
After World War II the cantata left the repertoire, seeing a few performances this century.
Coleridge-Taylor never received royalties for the piece, prompting Performing Rights Society’s creation.
Organizers hope the Edinburgh staging revives the work, despite critics deeming Longfellow’s poem a colonialist caricature.