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Avril Coleridge-Taylor constantly bore the pressure of her father’s legacy. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the most famous English composers of the early 20th century, the composer’s name was cloaked in the long shadows of bygone eras.

A World Premiere

Not long ago, I reflected on these legacies as I got ready to produce the world premiere recording of her 1936 piano concerto. Boasting impassioned harmonies, expressive melodies, and bold rhythms, this piece will offer new listeners fascinating insight into how she – an artist in conflict born in 1903 – envisioned her existence as a female composer of color.

Past and Present

But here’s the thing about shadows. One needs patience to adapt, to see shapes as they actually appear, to distinguish truth from distortion, and I was reluctant to confront Avril’s past for a while.

I had so wanted Avril to be her father’s daughter. To some extent, that held. The rustic British sounds of her father’s impact can be detected in several pieces, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to review the names of her family’s music to realize how he heard himself as not only a champion of English Romanticism and also a voice of the Black diaspora.

This was where Samuel and Avril began to differ.

The United States judged Samuel by the brilliance of his music rather than the colour of his skin.

Parental Heritage

As a student at the Royal College of Music, the composer – the son of a Sierra Leonean father and a white English mother – started to lean into his heritage. When the poet of color this literary figure arrived in England in that era, the 21-year-old composer eagerly sought him out. He adapted this literary work to music and the subsequent year incorporated his poetry for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral composition 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 African Americans who felt indirect honor as the majority judged Samuel by the quality of his compositions rather than the colour of his skin.

Principles and Actions

Recognition did not reduce Samuel’s politics. During that period, he participated in the First Pan African Conference in London where he made the acquaintance of the Black American thinker WEB Du Bois and observed a range of talks, including on the subjugation of the Black community there. He was a campaigner throughout his life. He sustained relationships with trailblazers for equality such as Du Bois and this leader, delivered his own speeches on equality for all, and even discussed racial problems with the American leader while visiting to the White House in that year. In terms of his art, reminisced Du Bois, “he wrote his name so prominently as a musician that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He died in the early 20th century, aged 37. But what would the composer have made of his offspring’s move to work in South Africa in the that decade?

Issues and Stance

“Daughter of Famous Composer shows support to S African Bias,” ran a headline in the community journal Jet magazine. This policy “struck me as the appropriate course”, she informed Jet. When pushed to clarify, she qualified her remarks: she did not support with the system “as a concept” and it “should be allowed to work itself out, overseen by well-meaning people of diverse ethnicities”. Were the composer more aligned to her family’s principles, or raised in segregated America, she might have thought twice about this system. But life had sheltered her.

Background and Inexperience

“I possess a English document,” she stated, “and the authorities failed to question me about my ethnicity.” Thus, with her “porcelain-white” complexion (as Jet put it), she floated among the Europeans, buoyed up by their acclaim for her renowned family member. She gave a talk about her family’s work at the University of Cape Town and conducted the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in the city, including the bold final section of her composition, subtitled: “In remembrance of my Father.” Although a accomplished player personally, she never played as the soloist in her concerto. Rather, she invariably directed as the leader; and so the segregated ensemble performed under her direction.

She desired, according to her, she “might bring a transformation”. But by 1954, the situation collapsed. After authorities discovered her African heritage, she had to depart the land. Her UK document didn’t protect her, the British high commissioner recommended her departure or face arrest. She returned to England, deeply ashamed as the scale of her naivety was realized. “The lesson was a painful one,” she stated. Compounding her disgrace was the release in 1955 of her ill-fated Jet interview, a year after her sudden departure from South Africa.

A Familiar Story

Upon contemplating with these shadows, I perceived a known narrative. The narrative of being British until it’s revoked – which recalls Black soldiers who fought on behalf of the British in the World War II and lived only to be refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,