🔗 Share this article

Avril Coleridge-Taylor always felt the pressure of her family heritage. As the daughter of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the most famous English composers of the early 20th century, Avril’s identity was cloaked in the long shadows of the past.

A World Premiere

Not long ago, I contemplated these memories as I got ready to record the first-ever recording of the composer’s piano concerto from 1936. Featuring intense musical themes, heartfelt tunes, and confident beats, her composition will offer music lovers valuable perspective into how she – a wartime composer originating from the early 1900s – conceived of her world as a woman of colour.

Shadows and Truth

But here’s the thing about the past. It requires time to acclimate, to recognize outlines as they really are, to separate fact from misinterpretation, and I felt hesitant to face the composer’s background for some time.

I had so wanted her to be her father’s daughter. Partially, she was. The rustic British sounds of her father’s impact can be detected in many of her works, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only review the titles of her parent’s works to understand how he identified as both a champion of English Romanticism and also a representative of the Black diaspora.

This was where parent and child appeared to part ways.

American society evaluated Samuel by the mastery of his art instead of the colour of his skin.

Family Background

During his studies at the Royal College of Music, Samuel – the child of a parent from Sierra Leone and a British mother – turned toward his heritage. Once the African American poet this literary figure visited the UK in 1897, the aspiring artist was keen to meet him. He composed this literary work into music and the subsequent year used the poet’s words for an opera, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral composition that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an worldwide sensation, particularly among Black Americans who felt indirect honor as white America assessed his work by the brilliance of his art rather than the colour of his skin.

Principles and Actions

Fame did not temper his activism. At the turn of the century, he was present at the initial Pan African gathering in London where he made the acquaintance of the prominent scholar this influential figure and witnessed a range of talks, including on the oppression of the Black community there. He was an activist throughout his life. He kept connections with trailblazers for equality including this intellectual and Booker T Washington, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even engaged in dialogue on matters of race with the American leader while visiting to the US capital in the early 1900s. In terms of his art, the scholar reflected, “he made his mark so high as a creative artist that it will endure.” He passed away in that year, aged 37. However, how would the composer have reacted to his child’s choice to be in this country in the that decade?

Conflict and Policy

“Daughter of Famous Composer expresses approval to S African Bias,” appeared as a heading in the Black American publication Jet magazine. This policy “appeared to me the right policy”, Avril told Jet. Upon further questioning, she revised her statement: she was not in favor with apartheid “fundamentally” and it “should be allowed to work itself out, directed by good-intentioned residents of every background”. Had Avril been more aligned to her family’s principles, or born in Jim Crow America, she may have reconsidered about this system. However, existence had sheltered her.

Heritage and Innocence

“I have a UK passport,” she stated, “and the government agents failed to question me about my background.” So, with her “porcelain-white” appearance (as described), she moved among the Europeans, buoyed up by their admiration for her late father. She gave a talk about her father’s music at the University of Cape Town and led the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in that location, programming the bold final section of her Piano Concerto, named: “In remembrance of my Father.” Although a skilled pianist on her own, she did not perform as the soloist in her concerto. On the contrary, she invariably directed as the maestro; and so the segregated ensemble followed her lead.

The composer aspired, in her own words, she “may foster a shift”. However, by that year, the situation collapsed. Once officials became aware of her Black ancestry, she was forced to leave the country. Her citizenship offered no defense, the British high commissioner advised her to leave or face arrest. She went back to the UK, feeling great shame as the extent of her naivety dawned. “The lesson was a painful one,” she lamented. Compounding her humiliation 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 felt a familiar story. The story of being British until it’s revoked – which recalls Black soldiers who defended the British in the global conflict and survived only to be denied their due compensation. Along with the Windrush era,