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Avril Coleridge-Taylor always felt the pressure of her parent’s heritage. As the daughter of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the prominent English composers of the 1900s, Avril’s name was enveloped in the deep shadows of bygone eras.

An Inaugural Recording

Earlier this year, I sat with these legacies as I made arrangements to produce the first-ever recording of her concerto for piano composed in 1936. Boasting impassioned harmonies, expressive melodies, and confident beats, her composition will grant audiences fascinating insight into how the composer – a composer during war born in 1903 – envisioned her world as a artist with mixed heritage.

Shadows and Truth

But here’s the thing about legacies. One needs patience to adjust, to perceive forms as they really are, to distinguish truth from misinterpretation, and I had been afraid to confront her history for a period.

I had so wanted Avril to be her father’s daughter. In some ways, she was. The rustic British sounds of Samuel’s influence can be detected in numerous compositions, such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only review the headings of her father’s compositions to understand how he heard himself as both a standard-bearer of UK romantic tradition as well as a advocate of the African heritage.

This was where parent and child began to differ.

White America evaluated Samuel by the brilliance of his music rather than the colour of his skin.

Samuel’s African Roots

During his studies at the Royal College of Music, Samuel – the son of a Sierra Leonean father and a white English mother – began embracing his African roots. At the time the African American poet this literary figure arrived in England in 1897, the 21-year-old composer was keen to meet him. He composed this literary work into music and the next year adapted his verses for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral work that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Inspired by this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an international hit, especially with Black Americans who felt shared pride as American society assessed his work by the excellence of his music rather than the colour of his skin.

Activism and Politics

Fame failed to diminish Samuel’s politics. During that period, he participated in the initial Pan African gathering in England where he made the acquaintance of the Black American thinker the renowned Du Bois and saw a range of talks, including on the mistreatment of the Black community there. He remained an advocate throughout his life. He kept connections with early civil rights leaders such as this intellectual and Booker T Washington, spoke publicly on equality for all, and even discussed matters of race with the American leader during an invitation to the White House in the early 1900s. As for his music, reminisced Du Bois, “he wrote his name so notably as a composer that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He died in the early 20th century, in his thirties. However, how would her father have made of his child’s choice to be in South Africa in the 1950s?

Issues and Stance

“Child of Celebrated Artist expresses approval to S African Bias,” declared a title in the Black American publication Jet magazine. The system “appeared to me the appropriate course”, the composer stated Jet. Upon further questioning, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with this policy “fundamentally” and it “ought to be permitted to run its course, guided by good-intentioned people of every background”. Were the composer more attuned to her parent’s beliefs, or from the US under segregation, she may have reconsidered about apartheid. But life had protected her.

Background and Inexperience

“I possess a UK passport,” she said, “and the government agents failed to question me about my ethnicity.” So, with her “light” appearance (according to the magazine), she moved among the Europeans, lifted by their acclaim for her late father. She presented about her family’s work at the educational institution and conducted the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in the city, including the inspiring part of her composition, titled: “Dedicated to my Father.” While a accomplished player personally, she never played as the soloist in her piece. Instead, she consistently conducted as the maestro; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

She desired, in her own words, she “could introduce a shift”. Yet in the mid-1950s, circumstances deteriorated. Once officials became aware of her Black ancestry, she had to depart the land. Her citizenship didn’t protect her, the UK representative advised her to leave or be jailed. She returned to England, deeply ashamed as the scale of her naivety was realized. “The lesson was a difficult one,” she expressed. Adding to her humiliation was the 1955 publication of her controversial discussion, a year after her forced leaving from South Africa.

A Recurring Theme

As I sat with these shadows, I felt a familiar story. The story of being British until you’re not – which recalls troops of color who defended the English during the global conflict and made it through but were not given their earned rewards. Along with the Windrush era,