🔗 Share this article

Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually bore the weight of her family reputation. Being the child of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the prominent British composers of the early 20th century, the composer’s name was enveloped in the deep shadows of history.

The First Recording

In recent months, I contemplated these legacies as I got ready to record the inaugural album of her 1936 piano concerto. With its emotional harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and bold rhythms, this piece will provide audiences deep understanding into how she – an artist in conflict originating from the early 1900s – envisioned her existence as a female composer of color.

Shadows and Truth

Yet about shadows. It can take a while to adapt, to see shapes as they truly exist, to distinguish truth from misrepresentation, and I had been afraid to confront Avril’s past for some time.

I earnestly desired the composer to be a reflection of her father. Partially, she was. The idyllic English tones of Samuel’s influence can be heard in numerous compositions, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to examine the titles of her parent’s works to understand how he identified as not just a flag bearer of English Romanticism as well as a representative of the Black diaspora.

It was here that Samuel and Avril seemed to diverge.

White America judged Samuel by the mastery of his compositions rather than the his racial background.

Samuel’s African Roots

During his studies at the Royal College of Music, her father – the son of a parent from Sierra Leone and a Caucasian parent – turned toward his background. Once the poet of color this literary figure arrived in England in the late 19th century, the young musician eagerly sought him out. He set the poet’s African Romances to music and the next year incorporated his poetry for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral work that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an international hit, especially with Black Americans who felt shared pride as the majority judged Samuel by the quality of his music as opposed to the his race.

Activism and Politics

Success failed to diminish his beliefs. In 1900, he participated in the initial Pan African gathering in London where he made the acquaintance of the Black American thinker WEB Du Bois and saw a series of speeches, such as the subjugation of Black South Africans. He remained an advocate until the end. He kept connections with trailblazers for equality such as this intellectual and this leader, spoke publicly on ending discrimination, and even talked about racial problems with President Theodore Roosevelt on a trip to the presidential residence in 1904. Regarding his compositions, Du Bois recalled, “he wrote his name so high as a composer that it will long be remembered.” He passed away in 1912, in his thirties. However, how would her father have thought of his offspring’s move to travel to South Africa in the mid-20th century?

Conflict and Policy

“Offspring of Renowned Musician gives OK to S African Bias,” ran a headline in the Black American publication Jet magazine. The system “appeared to me the right policy”, she informed Jet. When pushed to clarify, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with the system “fundamentally” and it “should be allowed to run its course, overseen by good-intentioned South Africans of diverse ethnicities”. Had Avril been more attuned to her family’s principles, or from Jim Crow America, she could have hesitated about the policy. However, existence had protected her.

Background and Inexperience

“I have a English document,” she remarked, “and the officials failed to question me about my ethnicity.” Therefore, with her “porcelain-white” skin (as Jet put it), she floated alongside white society, buoyed up by their praise for her late father. She gave a talk about her family’s work at the educational institution and directed the broadcasting ensemble in the city, programming the heroic third movement of her concerto, named: “In memory of my Father.” While a skilled pianist personally, she never played as the lead performer in her concerto. Instead, she invariably directed as the leader; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

The composer aspired, according to her, she “may foster a shift”. However, by that year, things fell apart. Once officials discovered her mixed background, she could no longer stay the country. Her citizenship failed to safeguard her, the British high commissioner recommended her departure or risk imprisonment. She returned to England, feeling great shame as the scale of her naivety became clear. “The realization was a painful one,” she expressed. Compounding her disgrace was the printing that year of her controversial discussion, a year after her sudden departure from the country.

A Common Narrative

While I reflected with these shadows, I perceived a recurring theme. The account of identifying as British until you’re not – which recalls Black soldiers who served for the English during the second world war and survived only to be not given their earned rewards. Along with the Windrush era,