The Song of Hiawatha (Coleridge-Taylor) The Song of Hiawatha (Coleridge-Taylor) The Song of Hiawatha (full name: Scenes from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), Op. 30, is a trilogy of cantatas written by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor between 1898 and 1900. The first part, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, was particularly famous for many years and made the composer's name known throughout the world. "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast" consists of nine sections: eight for chorus and orchestra, and one, "Onaway! Awake, beloved!", for solo tenor and orchestra. In 1898, Coleridge-Taylor was fresh from his success with his orchestral "Ballade in A minor", which was performed at the Three
The Song of Hiawatha the poem, Longfellow cites Schoolcraft as a source for a tradition prevalent among the North American Indians, of a personage of miraculous birth, who was sent among them to clear their rivers, forests, and fishing-grounds, and to teach them the arts of peace. He was known among different tribes by the several names of Michabou, Chiabo, Manabozo, Tarenyawagon, and Hiawatha.Longfellow's notes make no reference to the Iroquois or the Iroquois League or to any historical personage. However, according to ethnographer Horatio Hale (1817–1896), there was a longstanding confusion between the Iroquois leader Hiawatha and the Iroquois deity "Aronhiawagon" because of