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Avril Coleridge-Taylor always bore the burden of her parent’s heritage. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the prominent English artists of the 1900s, her reputation was shrouded in the lingering obscurity of the past.

The First Recording

Earlier this year, I reflected on these shadows as I prepared to make the world premiere recording of her concerto for piano composed in 1936. Featuring impassioned harmonies, expressive melodies, and valiant rhythms, her composition will provide new listeners deep understanding into how she – an artist in conflict who entered the world in 1903 – envisioned her world as a woman of colour.

Past and Present

But here’s the thing about legacies. One needs patience to acclimate, to recognize outlines as they truly exist, to separate fact from distortion, and I was reluctant to address her history for some time.

I had so wanted Avril to be following in her father’s footsteps. In some ways, that held. The rustic British sounds of Samuel’s influence can be detected in many of her works, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only review the titles of her family’s music to realize how he heard himself as not only a flag bearer of British Romantic style as well as a advocate of the Black diaspora.

This was where father and daughter appeared to part ways.

American society evaluated Samuel by the brilliance of his compositions as opposed to the colour of his skin.

Family Background

During his studies at the Royal College of Music, the composer – the offspring of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother – started to lean into his African roots. At the time the poet of color this literary figure arrived in England in 1897, the 21-year-old composer was keen to meet him. He adapted the poet’s African Romances to music and the following year adapted his verses for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral work that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an worldwide sensation, especially with African Americans who felt indirect honor as white America judged Samuel by the brilliance of his music rather than the colour of his skin.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Recognition failed to diminish his activism. During that period, he participated in the pioneering African conference in London where he encountered the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and saw a variety of discussions, such as the mistreatment of the Black community there. He was an activist throughout his life. He maintained ties with early civil rights leaders such as Du Bois and Booker T Washington, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even talked about issues of racism with the American leader while visiting to the White House in that year. Regarding his compositions, reminisced Du Bois, “he made his mark so high as a musician that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He succumbed in the early 20th century, aged 37. But what would the composer have made of his daughter’s decision to travel to this country in the 1950s?

Issues and Stance

“Child of Celebrated Artist shows support to South African policy,” appeared as a heading in the community journal Jet magazine. This policy “struck me as the right policy”, she informed Jet. When asked to explain, she qualified her remarks: she was not in favor with this policy “as a concept” and it “ought to be permitted to work itself out, directed by benevolent people of diverse ethnicities”. Had Avril been more aligned to her parent’s beliefs, or raised in segregated America, she might have thought twice about the policy. But life had shielded her.

Background and Inexperience

“I possess a English document,” she stated, “and the government agents failed to question me about my race.” Therefore, with her “fair” appearance (as Jet put it), she moved within European circles, buoyed up by their acclaim for her renowned family member. She gave a talk about her family’s work at the educational institution and conducted the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in that location, including the bold final section of her composition, titled: “In remembrance of my Father.” Even though a skilled pianist personally, she never played as the soloist in her piece. On the contrary, she consistently conducted as the conductor; and so the orchestra of the era played under her baton.

Avril hoped, in her own words, she “might bring a transformation”. However, by that year, things fell apart. Once officials discovered her Black ancestry, she was forced to leave the country. Her British passport failed to safeguard her, the British high commissioner advised her to leave or risk imprisonment. She came home, deeply ashamed as the extent of her naivety was realized. “The lesson was a difficult one,” she stated. Adding to her embarrassment was the printing that year of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her unceremonious exit from the country.

A Recurring Theme

Upon contemplating with these shadows, I perceived a known narrative. The narrative of identifying as British until you’re not – that brings to mind troops of color who fought on behalf of the British in the World War II and survived only to be denied their due compensation. And the Windrush generation,