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Avril Coleridge-Taylor always experienced the pressure of her family heritage. Being the child of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the prominent English artists of the turn of the 20th century, her name was shrouded in the deep shadows of bygone eras.

An Inaugural Recording

In recent months, I sat with these legacies as I got ready to record the world premiere recording of the composer’s piano concerto from 1936. With its intense musical themes, soulful lyricism, and confident beats, this piece will grant music lovers valuable perspective into how she – a wartime composer originating from the early 1900s – conceived of her reality as a woman of colour.

Legacy and Reality

But here’s the thing about shadows. It can take a while to adjust, to recognize outlines as they really are, to separate fact from misinterpretation, and I felt hesitant to address her history for a period.

I had so wanted her to be a reflection of her father. Partially, this was true. The rustic British sounds of her father’s impact can be heard in numerous compositions, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to look at the names of her father’s compositions to realize how he identified as not only a flag bearer of UK romantic tradition and also a representative of the Black diaspora.

This was where father and daughter began to differ.

White America evaluated Samuel by the mastery of his art rather than the his ethnicity.

Parental Heritage

As a student at the prestigious music college, Samuel – the offspring of a African father and a Caucasian parent – started to lean into his African roots. Once the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar came to London in the late 19th century, the 21-year-old composer was keen to meet him. He composed this literary work to music and the following year used the poet’s words for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral work that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an international hit, particularly among Black Americans who felt shared pride as white America evaluated the composer by the brilliance of his art instead of the his race.

Principles and Actions

Recognition did not temper his activism. During that period, he attended the pioneering African conference in London where he encountered the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and observed a range of talks, covering the mistreatment of the Black community there. He remained an advocate to his final days. He sustained relationships with pioneers of civil rights such as this intellectual and Booker T Washington, delivered his own speeches on equality for all, and even discussed racial problems with the American leader while visiting to the presidential residence in 1904. In terms of his art, the scholar reflected, “he wrote his name so high as a composer that it will endure.” He passed away in the early 20th century, in his thirties. Yet how might Samuel have made of his daughter’s decision to be in the African nation in the 1950s?

Conflict and Policy

“Daughter of Famous Composer expresses approval to South African policy,” appeared as a heading in the community journal Jet magazine. Apartheid “seems to me the appropriate course”, she informed Jet. When asked to explain, she qualified her remarks: she was not in favor with apartheid “in principle” and it “ought to be permitted to run its course, guided by benevolent South Africans of every background”. Had Avril been more aligned to her parent’s beliefs, or from the US under segregation, she might have thought twice about the policy. Yet her life had sheltered her.

Heritage and Innocence

“I possess a British passport,” she remarked, “and the authorities failed to question me about my background.” So, with her “fair” skin (according to the magazine), she floated within European circles, buoyed up by their acclaim for her renowned family member. She delivered a lecture about her father’s music at the Cape Town university and conducted the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in that location, programming the bold final section of her concerto, named: “Dedicated to my Father.” Although a skilled pianist herself, she avoided playing as the featured artist in her work. Instead, she consistently conducted as the conductor; and so the orchestra of the era performed under her direction.

She desired, according to her, she “may foster a shift”. But by 1954, things fell apart. After authorities discovered her mixed background, she had to depart the country. Her citizenship failed to safeguard her, the diplomatic official recommended her departure or be jailed. She returned to England, embarrassed as the scale of her innocence was realized. “The lesson was a difficult one,” she expressed. Increasing her disgrace was the printing that year of her controversial discussion, a year after her forced leaving from that nation.

A Common Narrative

As I sat with these legacies, I perceived a familiar story. The narrative of identifying as British until it’s revoked – which recalls troops of color who served for the British throughout the second world war and survived only to be not given their earned rewards. Along with the Windrush era,