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Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually experienced the burden of her father’s reputation. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the most famous UK musicians of the turn of the 20th century, the composer’s name was enveloped in the lingering obscurity of history.

The First Recording

In recent months, I sat with these memories as I made arrangements to record the inaugural album of her piano concerto from 1936. Featuring emotional harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and valiant rhythms, Avril’s work will grant new listeners valuable perspective into how she – a wartime composer originating from the early 1900s – envisioned her reality as a woman of colour.

Shadows and Truth

However about the past. It can take a while to adjust, to see shapes as they really are, to tell reality from misrepresentation, and I had been afraid to address her history for a while.

I had so wanted the composer to be following in her father’s footsteps. To some extent, that held. The pastoral English palettes of parental inspiration can be detected in several pieces, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to review the names of her family’s music to realize how he identified as both a flag bearer of UK romantic tradition as well as a representative of the African diaspora.

This was where father and daughter appeared to part ways.

American society assessed the composer by the mastery of his music instead of the colour of his skin.

Samuel’s African Roots

As a student at the prestigious music college, Samuel – the offspring of a African father and a white English mother – turned toward his African roots. At the time the poet of color the renowned Dunbar came to London in that era, the 21-year-old composer was keen to meet him. He composed Dunbar’s African Romances to music and the subsequent year used the poet’s words for a musical work, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral work that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an global success, notably for the Black community who felt indirect honor as white America evaluated the composer by the excellence of his compositions rather than the his background.

Principles and Actions

Recognition failed to diminish his activism. At the turn of the century, he attended the pioneering African conference in London where he encountered the African American intellectual this influential figure and witnessed a range of talks, including on the oppression of the Black community there. He remained an advocate throughout his life. He maintained ties with pioneers of civil rights including this intellectual and Booker T Washington, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even engaged in dialogue on racial problems with President Theodore Roosevelt while visiting to the White House in 1904. In terms of his art, reminisced Du Bois, “he established his reputation so high as a musician that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He died in 1912, aged 37. However, how would Samuel have made of his offspring’s move to work in this country in the mid-20th century?

Controversy and Apartheid

“Child of Celebrated Artist gives OK to South African policy,” declared a title in the African American magazine Jet magazine. Apartheid “appeared to me the correct approach”, the composer stated Jet. Upon further questioning, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with apartheid “in principle” and it “ought to be permitted to work itself out, directed by well-meaning people of every background”. Had Avril been more in tune to her parent’s beliefs, or from Jim Crow America, she might have thought twice about the policy. However, existence had sheltered her.

Heritage and Innocence

“I have a English document,” she stated, “and the authorities never asked me about my ethnicity.” Thus, with her “light” complexion (as described), she traveled alongside white society, buoyed up by their praise for her late father. She delivered a lecture about her father’s music at the educational institution and directed the national orchestra in the city, featuring the heroic third movement of her concerto, titled: “In remembrance of my Father.” While a confident pianist personally, she did not perform as the soloist in her work. Rather, she consistently conducted as the leader; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

She desired, as she stated, she “might bring a transformation”. But by 1954, circumstances deteriorated. Once officials discovered her Black ancestry, she could no longer stay the nation. Her UK document didn’t protect her, the diplomatic official urged her to go or face arrest. She came home, embarrassed as the scale of her naivety became clear. “This experience was a difficult one,” she expressed. Increasing her disgrace was the printing that year of her ill-fated Jet interview, a year after her sudden departure from the country.

A Recurring Theme

Upon contemplating with these legacies, I perceived a known narrative. The narrative of holding UK citizenship until it’s challenged – one that calls to mind Black soldiers who fought on behalf of the UK throughout the global conflict and lived only to be refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,