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Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually experienced the burden of her family heritage. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the prominent British artists of the turn of the 20th century, her name was cloaked in the long shadows of the past.

A World Premiere

Earlier this year, I sat with these memories as I made arrangements to produce the first-ever recording of Avril’s piano concerto from 1936. Boasting emotional harmonies, expressive melodies, and bold rhythms, Avril’s work will provide new listeners valuable perspective into how she – an artist in conflict who entered the world in 1903 – envisioned her world as a woman of colour.

Past and Present

However about legacies. It can take a while to adapt, to recognize outlines as they truly exist, to distinguish truth from misrepresentation, and I had been afraid to face the composer’s background for a period.

I earnestly desired Avril to be a reflection of her father. Partially, this was true. The idyllic English tones of her father’s impact can be detected in numerous compositions, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to look at the headings of her family’s music to realize how he heard himself as both a standard-bearer of UK romantic tradition and also a voice of the African diaspora.

This was where parent and child seemed to diverge.

The United States judged Samuel by the brilliance of his art as opposed to the his racial background.

Parental Heritage

As a student at the renowned institution, Samuel – the offspring of a parent from Sierra Leone and a white English mother – turned toward his African roots. When the poet of color the renowned Dunbar visited the UK in that era, the 21-year-old composer was keen to meet him. He composed this literary work as a composition and the following year used the poet’s words for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral composition that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an worldwide sensation, particularly among Black Americans who felt vicarious pride as American society evaluated the composer by the quality of his music rather than the colour of his skin.

Principles and Actions

Success did not temper his beliefs. During that period, he participated in the pioneering African conference in the UK where he made the acquaintance of the African American intellectual this influential figure and observed a variety of discussions, such as the subjugation of African people in South Africa. He remained an advocate until the end. He sustained relationships with early civil rights leaders including this intellectual and Booker T Washington, spoke publicly on ending discrimination, and even engaged in dialogue on racial problems with President Theodore Roosevelt on a trip to the US capital in that year. In terms of his art, Du Bois recalled, “he established his reputation so prominently as a composer that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He died in that year, aged 37. But what would Samuel have reacted to his child’s choice to be in the African nation in the that decade?

Conflict and Policy

“Offspring of Renowned Musician gives OK to South African policy,” appeared as a heading in the African American magazine Jet magazine. The system “seems to me the right policy”, Avril told Jet. Upon further questioning, she backtracked: she didn’t agree with apartheid “in principle” and it “could be left to resolve itself, guided by well-meaning residents of all races”. Had Avril been more in tune to her parent’s beliefs, or raised in segregated America, she may have reconsidered about apartheid. But life had sheltered her.

Heritage and Innocence

“I have a UK passport,” she said, “and the government agents did not inquire me about my background.” Therefore, with her “porcelain-white” appearance (according to the magazine), she moved alongside white society, lifted by their acclaim for her deceased parent. She presented about her family’s work at the Cape Town university and directed the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in the city, featuring the inspiring part of her concerto, named: “In memory of my Father.” While a accomplished player herself, she avoided playing as the featured artist in her concerto. Rather, she always led as the maestro; and so the orchestra of the era performed under her direction.

Avril hoped, as she stated, she “might bring a change”. However, by that year, the situation collapsed. When government agents learned of her African heritage, she had to depart the nation. Her British passport failed to safeguard her, the UK representative urged her to go or be jailed. She returned to England, feeling great shame as the magnitude of her innocence was realized. “The lesson was a difficult one,” she lamented. Adding to her humiliation was the 1955 publication of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her forced leaving from the country.

A Familiar Story

Upon contemplating with these memories, I sensed a familiar story. The narrative of identifying as British until you’re not – which recalls troops of color who fought on behalf of the British during the global conflict and lived only to be not given their earned rewards. Along with the Windrush era,