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Avril Coleridge-Taylor constantly experienced the burden of her parent’s legacy. As the daughter of the celebrated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the most famous UK composers of the early 20th century, the composer’s identity was shrouded in the deep shadows of the past.

An Inaugural Recording

In recent months, I reflected on these legacies as I prepared to record the world premiere recording of the composer’s 1936 piano concerto. Boasting impassioned harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and valiant rhythms, her composition will provide audiences deep understanding into how the composer – a wartime composer who entered the world in 1903 – envisioned her world as a woman of colour.

Past and Present

Yet about legacies. It can take a while to acclimate, to perceive forms as they truly exist, to separate fact from distortion, and I was reluctant to confront her history for a while.

I earnestly desired her to be a reflection of her father. In some ways, she was. The rustic British sounds of her father’s impact can be observed in many of her works, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to review the headings of her parent’s works to see how he heard himself as not only a champion of UK romantic tradition but a voice of the African diaspora.

This was where parent and child appeared to part ways.

White America judged Samuel by the brilliance of his compositions as opposed to the his racial background.

Family Background

During his studies at the prestigious music college, Samuel – the son of a parent from Sierra Leone and a British mother – turned toward his background. When the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar visited the UK in the late 19th century, the young musician was keen to meet him. He adapted this literary work into music and the subsequent year adapted his verses for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral composition that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an international hit, notably for Black Americans who felt vicarious pride as white America assessed his work by the brilliance of his music instead of the his race.

Activism and Politics

Success failed to diminish his beliefs. During that period, he attended the pioneering African conference in London where he met the African American intellectual the renowned Du Bois and witnessed a variety of discussions, covering the oppression of the Black community there. He remained an advocate to his final days. He maintained ties with trailblazers for equality such as this intellectual and this leader, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even discussed matters of race with President Theodore Roosevelt on a trip to the White House in that year. As for his music, Du Bois recalled, “he established his reputation so prominently as a musician that it will endure.” He passed away in 1912, in his thirties. However, how would her father have made of his child’s choice to be in this country in the 1950s?

Issues and Stance

“Child of Celebrated Artist expresses approval to S African Bias,” appeared as a heading in the community journal Jet magazine. Apartheid “appeared to me the appropriate course”, the composer stated Jet. When asked to explain, she backtracked: she did not support with this policy “in principle” and it “should be allowed to run its course, directed by benevolent South Africans of every background”. Had Avril been more attuned to her father’s politics, or from segregated America, she could have hesitated about this system. However, existence had protected her.

Identity and Naivety

“I possess a British passport,” she remarked, “and the government agents did not inquire me about my ethnicity.” Therefore, with her “light” complexion (as described), she floated alongside white society, supported by their praise for her late father. She delivered a lecture about her parent’s compositions at the Cape Town university and conducted the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in Johannesburg, featuring the bold final section of her Piano Concerto, titled: “Dedicated to my Father.” Even though a skilled pianist personally, she did not perform as the lead performer in her concerto. Instead, she consistently conducted as the leader; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

The composer aspired, as she stated, she “might bring a shift”. But by 1954, the situation collapsed. Once officials became aware of her Black ancestry, she could no longer stay the land. Her British passport didn’t protect her, the UK representative advised her to leave or be jailed. She came home, deeply ashamed as the magnitude of her inexperience became clear. “The realization was a painful one,” she expressed. Increasing her embarrassment was the printing that year of her ill-fated Jet interview, a year after her forced leaving from the country.

A Common Narrative

As I sat with these shadows, I perceived a recurring theme. The narrative of identifying as British until you’re not – that brings to mind African-descended soldiers who fought on behalf of the English during the second world war and made it through but were refused rightful benefits. Along with the Windrush era,