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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually experienced the burden of her parent’s heritage. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the best-known British composers of the 1900s, the composer’s identity was cloaked in the lingering obscurity of history.

The First Recording

Not long ago, I contemplated these shadows as I made arrangements to make the inaugural album of Avril’s concerto for piano composed in 1936. Featuring intense musical themes, soulful lyricism, and bold rhythms, Avril’s work will grant music lovers deep understanding into how the composer – a composer during war originating from the early 1900s – imagined her world as a female composer of color.

Shadows and Truth

However about shadows. One needs patience to acclimate, to see shapes as they really are, to distinguish truth from misinterpretation, and I was reluctant to confront her history for some time.

I had so wanted Avril to be following in her father’s footsteps. In some ways, this was true. The idyllic English tones of parental inspiration can be heard in many of her works, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to review the names of her father’s compositions to understand how he heard himself as both a flag bearer of British Romantic style as well as a representative of the African diaspora.

At this point parent and child began to differ.

White America evaluated Samuel by the excellence of his art as opposed to the his racial background.

Parental Heritage

During his studies at the renowned institution, Samuel – the son of a African father and a white English mother – started to lean into his background. At the time the African American poet this literary figure came to London in 1897, the 21-year-old composer eagerly sought him out. He set the poet’s African Romances as a composition and the subsequent year used the poet’s words for a musical work, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral piece that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an worldwide sensation, particularly among African Americans who felt vicarious pride as American society judged Samuel by the quality of his compositions rather than the his race.

Activism and Politics

Recognition failed to diminish his beliefs. At the turn of the century, he was present at the initial Pan African gathering in London where he met the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and observed a variety of discussions, covering the subjugation of African people in South Africa. He was a campaigner throughout his life. He kept connections with early civil rights leaders like this intellectual and Booker T Washington, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even engaged in dialogue on issues of racism with the American leader during an invitation to the presidential residence in the early 1900s. In terms of his art, the scholar reflected, “he established his reputation so notably as a composer that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He died in that year, at 37 years old. However, how would her father have reacted to his daughter’s decision to be in the African nation in the that decade?

Issues and Stance

“Daughter of Famous Composer expresses approval to S African Bias,” ran a headline in the Black American publication Jet magazine. The system “struck me as the right policy”, she informed Jet. When pushed to clarify, she revised her statement: she didn’t agree with apartheid “fundamentally” and it “ought to be permitted to work itself out, guided by well-meaning South Africans of all races”. Had Avril been more in tune to her parent’s beliefs, or raised in segregated America, she might have thought twice about the policy. However, existence had shielded her.

Identity and Naivety

“I have a English document,” she remarked, “and the officials did not inquire me about my ethnicity.” So, with her “light” skin (as Jet put it), she moved among the Europeans, supported by their admiration for her late father. She delivered a lecture about her parent’s compositions at the educational institution and directed the national orchestra in Johannesburg, including the inspiring part of her composition, subtitled: “In memory of my Father.” Even though a skilled pianist personally, she did not perform as the featured artist in her piece. On the contrary, she always led as the maestro; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

She desired, in her own words, she “might bring a change”. However, by that year, circumstances deteriorated. Once officials became aware of her Black ancestry, she was forced to leave the land. Her UK document didn’t protect her, the UK representative urged her to go or risk imprisonment. She returned to England, embarrassed as the extent of her innocence dawned. “The lesson was a difficult one,” she lamented. Compounding her embarrassment was the 1955 publication of her controversial discussion, a year after her unceremonious exit from South Africa.

A Recurring Theme

While I reflected with these shadows, I perceived a recurring theme. The story of holding UK citizenship until it’s challenged – one that calls to mind Black soldiers who defended the English throughout the global conflict and survived only to be not given their earned rewards. Along with the Windrush era,