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Avril Coleridge-Taylor constantly experienced the pressure of her father’s reputation. As the offspring of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the most famous UK musicians of the early 20th century, the composer’s reputation was cloaked in the long shadows of the past.

The First Recording

In recent months, I contemplated these shadows as I made arrangements to produce the first-ever recording of Avril’s piano concerto from 1936. Boasting intense musical themes, expressive melodies, and confident beats, Avril’s work will grant new listeners valuable perspective into how she – an artist in conflict who entered the world in 1903 – conceived of her existence as a female composer of color.

Past and Present

Yet about shadows. It requires time to adjust, to see shapes as they really are, to separate fact from distortion, and I felt hesitant to face Avril’s past for a while.

I earnestly desired her to be her father’s daughter. In some ways, that held. The pastoral English palettes of her father’s impact can be heard in many of her works, such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to examine the titles of her father’s compositions to realize how he heard himself as not only a standard-bearer of UK romantic tradition and also a voice of the Black diaspora.

This was where Samuel and Avril appeared to part ways.

The United States judged Samuel by the mastery of his art as opposed to the his ethnicity.

Samuel’s African Roots

During his studies at the prestigious music college, Samuel – the son of a African father and a Caucasian parent – began embracing his heritage. At the time the poet of color the renowned Dunbar arrived in England in 1897, the aspiring artist eagerly sought him out. He set this literary work into music and the subsequent year incorporated his poetry for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral piece that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an global success, particularly among Black Americans who felt vicarious pride as white America judged Samuel by the quality of his compositions instead of the his race.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Success did not reduce his activism. During that period, he attended the pioneering African conference in England where he met the African American intellectual WEB Du Bois and saw a series of speeches, including on the subjugation of the Black community there. He was a campaigner throughout his life. He sustained relationships with trailblazers for equality like Du Bois and this leader, gave addresses on equality for all, and even engaged in dialogue on matters of race with President Theodore Roosevelt during an invitation to the US capital in the early 1900s. Regarding his compositions, reminisced Du Bois, “he made his mark so prominently as a musician that it will endure.” He passed away in 1912, in his thirties. However, how would the composer have made of his offspring’s move to be in the African nation in the that decade?

Conflict and Policy

“Offspring of Renowned Musician gives OK to South African policy,” ran a headline in the African American magazine Jet magazine. This policy “struck me as the appropriate course”, Avril told Jet. Upon further questioning, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with the system “in principle” and it “ought to be permitted to work itself out, overseen by benevolent residents of all races”. Were the composer more in tune to her family’s principles, or born in Jim Crow America, she might have thought twice about the policy. Yet her life had shielded her.

Identity and Naivety

“I have a UK passport,” she remarked, “and the authorities failed to question me about my background.” Thus, with her “light” complexion (as described), she traveled within European circles, lifted by their praise for her late father. She delivered a lecture about her father’s music at the educational institution and led the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in the city, programming the inspiring part of her composition, named: “Dedicated to my Father.” While a skilled pianist herself, she did not perform as the soloist in her concerto. Instead, she invariably directed as the leader; and so the apartheid orchestra performed under her direction.

She desired, as she stated, she “may foster a change”. However, by that year, the situation collapsed. When government agents became aware of her mixed background, she could no longer stay the land. Her citizenship didn’t protect her, the British high commissioner advised her to leave or face arrest. She went back to the UK, feeling great shame as the extent of her inexperience was realized. “The realization was a difficult one,” she lamented. Increasing her embarrassment was the release in 1955 of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her sudden departure from South Africa.

A Familiar Story

While I reflected with these memories, I perceived a known narrative. The story of holding UK citizenship until it’s challenged – which recalls Black soldiers who served for the UK during the second world war and made it through but were refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,