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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually bore the weight of her father’s heritage. Being the child of the celebrated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the most famous British composers of the turn of the 20th century, her identity was shrouded in the long shadows of bygone eras.

The First Recording

Earlier this year, I reflected on these memories as I made arrangements to record the first-ever recording of Avril’s 1936 piano concerto. Boasting emotional harmonies, expressive melodies, and confident beats, her composition will offer audiences fascinating insight into how the composer – an artist in conflict born in 1903 – conceived of her reality as a woman of colour.

Shadows and Truth

Yet about the past. One needs patience to adapt, to recognize outlines as they actually appear, to distinguish truth from distortion, and I had been afraid to address her history for a while.

I deeply hoped the composer to be following in her father’s footsteps. Partially, that held. The pastoral English palettes of parental inspiration can be observed in many of her works, such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to review the titles of her family’s music to realize how he identified as both a standard-bearer of British Romantic style and also a advocate of the Black diaspora.

It was here that Samuel and Avril began to differ.

American society assessed the composer by the mastery of his art instead of the his ethnicity.

Samuel’s African Roots

As a student at the renowned institution, her father – the son of a African father and a white English mother – started to lean into his African roots. At the time the African American poet the renowned Dunbar arrived in England in the late 19th century, the 21-year-old composer eagerly sought him out. He composed the poet’s African Romances as a composition and the subsequent year incorporated his poetry for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral composition that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Inspired by this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an global success, particularly among the Black community who felt vicarious pride as American society evaluated the composer by the brilliance of his compositions instead of the his race.

Principles and Actions

Success did not temper his beliefs. In 1900, he attended the First Pan African Conference in London where he encountered the Black American thinker this influential figure and observed a series of speeches, including on the oppression of African people in South Africa. He remained an advocate to his final days. He sustained relationships with pioneers of civil rights such as the scholar and the educator Washington, gave addresses on ending discrimination, and even engaged in dialogue on issues of racism with President Theodore Roosevelt on a trip to the presidential residence in that year. Regarding his compositions, reminisced Du Bois, “he made his mark so high as a creative artist that it will long be remembered.” He passed away in 1912, aged 37. Yet how might her father have made of his daughter’s decision to be in this country in the mid-20th century?

Conflict and Policy

“Offspring of Renowned Musician gives OK to S African Bias,” ran a headline in the Black American publication Jet magazine. This policy “appeared to me the appropriate course”, the composer stated Jet. When asked to explain, she qualified her remarks: she did not support with this policy “fundamentally” and it “could be left to resolve itself, guided by well-meaning South Africans of diverse ethnicities”. If Avril had been more aligned to her father’s politics, or from segregated America, she could have hesitated about this system. But life had shielded her.

Background and Inexperience

“I hold a British passport,” she said, “and the authorities did not inquire me about my race.” So, with her “fair” complexion (according to the magazine), she traveled within European circles, lifted by their acclaim for her deceased parent. She gave a talk about her parent’s compositions at the University of Cape Town and conducted the national orchestra in that location, including the inspiring part of her concerto, named: “In remembrance of my Father.” While a skilled pianist herself, she avoided playing as the soloist in her concerto. Rather, she consistently conducted as the maestro; and so the segregated ensemble performed under her direction.

The composer aspired, as she stated, she “may foster a change”. However, by that year, circumstances deteriorated. Once officials discovered her mixed background, she was forced to leave the country. Her British passport offered no defense, the UK representative recommended her departure or face arrest. She returned to England, feeling great shame as the extent of her innocence was realized. “The realization was a difficult one,” she lamented. Compounding her disgrace was the release in 1955 of her ill-fated Jet interview, a year after her unceremonious exit from the country.

A Recurring Theme

Upon contemplating with these shadows, I felt a recurring theme. The account of holding UK citizenship until it’s revoked – which recalls Black soldiers who defended the English in the World War II and made it through but were denied their due compensation. Along with the Windrush era,