🔗 Share this article

Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually bore the weight of her father’s legacy. As the daughter of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the most famous English musicians of the turn of the 20th century, her reputation was cloaked in the deep shadows of bygone eras.

An Inaugural Recording

In recent months, 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 confident beats, Avril’s work will provide new listeners deep understanding into how she – a composer during war originating from the early 1900s – envisioned her reality as a female composer of color.

Past and Present

However about legacies. It requires time to acclimate, to recognize outlines as they actually appear, to tell reality from distortion, and I had been afraid to address her history for a period.

I deeply hoped the composer to be a reflection of her father. To some extent, that held. The pastoral English palettes of Samuel’s influence can be observed in numerous compositions, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to review the titles of her parent’s works to understand how he identified as both a standard-bearer of English Romanticism but a advocate of the Black diaspora.

At this point Samuel and Avril appeared to part ways.

American society judged Samuel by the excellence of his compositions as opposed to the colour of his skin.

Family Background

While he was studying at the prestigious music college, the composer – the son of a African father and a British mother – turned toward his background. At the time the African American poet the renowned Dunbar came to London in 1897, the young musician eagerly sought him out. He set the poet’s African Romances into music and the next year used the poet’s words for a musical work, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral work that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an worldwide sensation, especially with Black Americans who felt indirect honor as white America judged Samuel by the brilliance of his art instead of the his race.

Activism and Politics

Fame failed to diminish his beliefs. During that period, he participated in the initial Pan African gathering in the UK where he made the acquaintance of the African American intellectual WEB Du Bois and witnessed a range of talks, including on the subjugation of the Black community there. He was a campaigner to his final days. He maintained ties with early civil rights leaders such as this intellectual and the educator Washington, gave addresses on racial equality, and even discussed issues of racism with the US President on a trip to the White House in that year. As for his music, reminisced Du Bois, “he established his reputation so prominently as a creative artist that it will long be remembered.” He died in that year, in his thirties. However, how would the composer have made of his daughter’s decision to work in this country in the mid-20th century?

Conflict and Policy

“Child of Celebrated Artist expresses approval to S African Bias,” appeared as a heading in the Black American publication Jet magazine. This policy “struck me as the correct approach”, she informed Jet. When pushed to clarify, she revised her statement: she did not support with this policy “in principle” and it “could be left to work itself out, directed by good-intentioned people of diverse ethnicities”. Had Avril been more aligned to her family’s principles, or born in Jim Crow America, she could have hesitated about apartheid. However, existence had protected her.

Background and Inexperience

“I have a UK passport,” she said, “and the government agents did not inquire me about my ethnicity.” Thus, with her “light” appearance (as Jet put it), she traveled within European circles, supported by their acclaim for her deceased parent. She presented about her father’s music at the Cape Town university and directed the broadcasting ensemble in the city, featuring the heroic third movement of her Piano Concerto, named: “In memory of my Father.” Although a accomplished player herself, she avoided playing as the soloist in her piece. On the contrary, she consistently conducted as the conductor; and so the segregated ensemble performed under her direction.

She desired, according to her, she “could introduce a transformation”. However, by that year, circumstances deteriorated. After authorities became aware of her Black ancestry, she was forced to leave the country. Her UK document offered no defense, the British high commissioner advised her to leave or be jailed. She returned to England, deeply ashamed as the magnitude of her naivety was realized. “This experience was a hard one,” she expressed. Adding to her humiliation was the printing that year of her ill-fated Jet interview, a year after her forced leaving from the country.

A Common Narrative

Upon contemplating with these legacies, I sensed a known narrative. The account of being British until it’s challenged – one that calls to mind troops of color who served for the English during the World War II and made it through but were refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,