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Avril Coleridge-Taylor always experienced the pressure of her parent’s reputation. Being the child of the celebrated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the prominent British composers of the 1900s, her name was enveloped in the long shadows of history.

A World Premiere

Not long ago, I contemplated these legacies as I got ready to record the world premiere recording of the composer’s concerto for piano composed in 1936. With its intense musical themes, heartfelt tunes, and confident beats, Avril’s work will grant music lovers fascinating insight into how the composer – a wartime composer born in 1903 – conceived of her existence as a artist with mixed heritage.

Shadows and Truth

But here’s the thing about the past. One needs patience to adjust, to perceive forms as they truly exist, to separate fact from misrepresentation, and I had been afraid to confront her history for a while.

I deeply hoped her to be a reflection of her father. In some ways, this was true. The rustic British sounds of parental inspiration can be heard in numerous compositions, such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to examine the titles of her parent’s works to realize how he identified as not only a champion of English Romanticism and also a representative of the Black diaspora.

This was where parent and child began to differ.

White America evaluated Samuel by the brilliance of his art as opposed to the his ethnicity.

Family Background

During his studies at the prestigious music college, the composer – the offspring of a Sierra Leonean father and a white English mother – began embracing his African roots. When the poet of color Paul Laurence Dunbar visited the UK in that era, the aspiring artist was keen to meet him. He adapted this literary work as a composition and the following year used the poet’s words for an opera, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral composition that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an worldwide sensation, particularly among African Americans who felt shared pride as white America evaluated the composer by the brilliance of his compositions instead of the his race.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Recognition did not temper his activism. In 1900, he was present at the initial Pan African gathering in the UK where he met the African American intellectual the renowned Du Bois and saw a series of speeches, such as the oppression of Black South Africans. He was an activist until the end. He sustained relationships with early civil rights leaders including Du Bois and this leader, delivered his own speeches on racial equality, and even engaged in dialogue on matters of race with President Theodore Roosevelt while visiting to the White House in the early 1900s. In terms of his art, reminisced Du Bois, “he established his reputation so notably as a musician that it will endure.” He died in that year, aged 37. However, how would her father have reacted to his offspring’s move to work in South Africa in the that decade?

Issues and Stance

“Offspring of Renowned Musician expresses approval to South African policy,” declared a title in the Black American publication Jet magazine. Apartheid “seems to me the correct approach”, she informed Jet. When asked to explain, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with the system “as a concept” and it “could be left to resolve itself, guided by benevolent residents of diverse ethnicities”. Were the composer more in tune to her parent’s beliefs, or born in Jim Crow America, she could have hesitated about this system. However, existence had shielded her.

Identity and Naivety

“I hold a British passport,” she said, “and the officials failed to question me about my ethnicity.” Thus, with her “fair” complexion (as Jet put it), she floated among the Europeans, buoyed up by their praise for her renowned family member. She delivered a lecture about her father’s music at the Cape Town university and conducted the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in the city, including the inspiring part of her concerto, subtitled: “In memory of my Father.” While a accomplished player personally, she did not perform as the lead performer in her work. Instead, she consistently conducted as the leader; and so the apartheid orchestra played under her baton.

Avril hoped, as she stated, she “may foster a change”. But by 1954, circumstances deteriorated. Once officials learned of her Black ancestry, she was forced to leave the land. Her citizenship failed to safeguard her, the diplomatic official advised her to leave or risk imprisonment. She came home, embarrassed as the scale of her naivety became clear. “This experience was a painful one,” she stated. Adding to her embarrassment was the printing that year of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her sudden departure from the country.

A Familiar Story

Upon contemplating with these shadows, I felt a recurring theme. The account of identifying as British until you’re not – that brings to mind Black soldiers who served for the UK throughout the global conflict and made it through but were denied their due compensation. And the Windrush generation,