🔗 Share this article

This talented musician continually bore the burden of her parent’s reputation. As the offspring of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the best-known British composers of the turn of the 20th century, the composer’s identity was shrouded in the lingering obscurity of the past.

A World Premiere

Earlier this year, I reflected on these memories as I got ready to make the world premiere recording of the composer’s concerto for piano composed in 1936. With its impassioned harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and valiant rhythms, her composition will grant music lovers deep understanding into how she – a composer during war born in 1903 – envisioned her reality as a woman of colour.

Shadows and Truth

But here’s the thing about legacies. One needs patience to adjust, to recognize outlines as they really are, to distinguish truth from misrepresentation, and I felt hesitant to address Avril’s past for a while.

I deeply hoped the composer to be following in her father’s footsteps. Partially, she was. The idyllic English tones of parental inspiration can be detected in many of her works, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to examine the titles of her parent’s works to see how he viewed himself as not just a champion of British Romantic style as well as a representative of the Black diaspora.

It was here that father and daughter seemed to diverge.

American society assessed the composer by the excellence of his compositions rather than the colour of his skin.

Parental Heritage

As a student at the renowned institution, Samuel – the child of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother – started to lean into his background. Once the African American poet the renowned Dunbar came to London in the late 19th century, the 21-year-old composer was keen to meet him. He composed this literary work to music and the following year used the poet’s words for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral piece that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an worldwide sensation, particularly among the Black community who felt shared pride as white America judged Samuel by the quality of his music as opposed to the colour of his skin.

Principles and Actions

Recognition failed to diminish his activism. In 1900, he participated in the pioneering African conference in London where he met the African American intellectual WEB Du Bois and witnessed a range of talks, such as the oppression of the Black community there. He was a campaigner throughout his life. He kept connections with trailblazers for equality including Du Bois and this leader, gave addresses on ending discrimination, and even discussed racial problems with the US President while visiting to the presidential residence in the early 1900s. As for his music, reminisced Du Bois, “he made his mark so notably as a composer that it will endure.” He passed away in the early 20th century, aged 37. However, how would the composer have reacted to his daughter’s decision to travel to South Africa in the that decade?

Conflict and Policy

“Daughter of Famous Composer shows support to S African Bias,” ran a headline in the Black American publication Jet magazine. Apartheid “struck me as the right policy”, she informed Jet. When asked to explain, she backtracked: she didn’t agree with this policy “fundamentally” and it “should be allowed to resolve itself, directed by benevolent South Africans of every background”. Had Avril been more aligned to her family’s principles, or born in the US under segregation, she could have hesitated about this system. But life had shielded her.

Identity and Naivety

“I have a English document,” she remarked, “and the officials failed to question me about my race.” So, with her “light” complexion (as Jet put it), she floated within European circles, lifted by their acclaim for her late father. She presented about her father’s music at the educational institution and conducted the national orchestra in that location, including the bold final section of her concerto, subtitled: “Dedicated to my Father.” Even though a accomplished player herself, she never played as the soloist in her concerto. On the contrary, she always led as the conductor; and so the orchestra of the era performed under her direction.

The composer aspired, according to her, she “might bring a shift”. However, by that year, circumstances deteriorated. Once officials learned of her mixed background, she was forced to leave the country. Her British passport failed to safeguard her, the diplomatic official advised her to leave or risk imprisonment. She came home, deeply ashamed as the scale of her inexperience was realized. “The lesson was a difficult one,” she expressed. Increasing her embarrassment was the release in 1955 of her controversial discussion, a year after her sudden departure from that nation.

A Familiar Story

While I reflected with these legacies, I felt a recurring theme. The narrative of identifying as British until you’re not – that brings to mind troops of color who defended the British during the second world war and made it through but were refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,