Samuel Coleridge-Taylor created music that gave a great deal of pleasure to millions. After I read the 1915 biography and then traced his African doctor father in the Medical Register I suspected there was a different story to that told in the biography and entries in encyclopedias. Searching contemporary reports I noticed commentators took different views of the same music, and it became clear that their views had been affected by the music's emotional impact. A century later websites and other comments seem to take views that are emotional rather than factual.

The African genes from his father clearly visible, Coleridge-Taylor was black in a white society. His widow recalled that in his final hours he said that he was worried that he would be described as a Creole – meaning a person of both African and European descent. His obituaries certainly mentioned his African heritage but also detailed his creations for the theatre and for choral groups, his successes at music festivals as a judge and composer, his humanity and his skills as a conductor. His death at thirty-seven was seen as a tragedy for British musical life.

I quote from many reviews because I want to show his widespread fame, and to rescue those opinions from now-yellowing newspapers printed over a hundred years ago. Some reveal contradictions.