🔗 Share this article

This talented musician constantly felt the pressure of her father’s reputation. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the best-known British artists of the 1900s, Avril’s reputation was cloaked in the deep shadows of bygone eras.

An Inaugural Recording

Earlier this year, I reflected on these memories as I prepared to make the world premiere recording of her piano concerto from 1936. Featuring intense musical themes, soulful lyricism, and bold rhythms, her composition will provide music lovers valuable perspective into how she – a composer during war originating from the early 1900s – envisioned her existence as a woman of colour.

Legacy and Reality

However about shadows. It requires time to adjust, to recognize outlines as they actually appear, to distinguish truth from distortion, and I felt hesitant to face the composer’s background for a while.

I deeply hoped her to be following in her father’s footsteps. In some ways, this was true. The rustic British sounds of Samuel’s influence can be detected in several pieces, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to look at the headings of her parent’s works to realize how he identified as both a champion of British Romantic style and also a advocate of the African heritage.

This was where parent and child appeared to part ways.

American society evaluated Samuel by the mastery of his art instead of the colour of his skin.

Parental Heritage

During his studies at the renowned institution, Samuel – the child of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother – began embracing his background. At the time the Black American writer this literary figure arrived in England in the late 19th century, the young musician was keen to meet him. He adapted this literary work into music and the subsequent year used the poet’s words for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral piece that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an worldwide sensation, notably for the Black community who felt vicarious pride as the majority evaluated the composer by the quality of his art instead of the his race.

Activism and Politics

Recognition did not temper Samuel’s politics. In 1900, he participated in the pioneering African conference in London where he made the acquaintance of the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and saw a variety of discussions, including on the oppression of the Black community there. He was a campaigner throughout his life. He kept connections with trailblazers for equality including Du Bois and the educator Washington, delivered his own speeches on racial equality, and even engaged in dialogue on issues of racism with the US President on a trip to the US capital in that year. In terms of his art, reminisced Du Bois, “he wrote his name so notably as a musician that it will long be remembered.” He succumbed in 1912, in his thirties. But what would Samuel have made of his offspring’s move to work in South Africa in the mid-20th century?

Conflict and Policy

“Offspring of Renowned Musician shows support to South African policy,” ran a headline in the community journal Jet magazine. The system “struck me as the correct approach”, she informed Jet. When pushed to clarify, she revised her statement: she didn’t agree with the system “as a concept” and it “should be allowed to run its course, directed by well-meaning South Africans of all races”. If Avril had been more aligned to her family’s principles, or born in Jim Crow America, she might have thought twice about this system. However, existence had protected her.

Heritage and Innocence

“I possess a British passport,” she remarked, “and the authorities did not inquire me about my background.” Thus, with her “light” appearance (according to the magazine), she floated among the Europeans, supported by their acclaim for her renowned family member. She gave a talk about her family’s work at the University of Cape Town and conducted the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in the city, featuring the bold final section of her composition, named: “In memory of my Father.” Although a skilled pianist personally, she did not perform as the featured artist in her piece. On the contrary, she consistently conducted as the conductor; and so the segregated ensemble performed under her direction.

Avril hoped, in her own words, she “may foster a shift”. Yet in the mid-1950s, things fell apart. After authorities learned of her African heritage, she had to depart the land. Her UK document failed to safeguard her, the British high commissioner recommended her departure or be jailed. She went back to the UK, feeling great shame as the scale of her inexperience became clear. “The realization was a difficult one,” she expressed. Adding to her embarrassment was the 1955 publication of her controversial discussion, a year after her sudden departure from the country.

A Recurring Theme

Upon contemplating with these legacies, I felt a recurring theme. The story of holding UK citizenship until it’s revoked – one that calls to mind African-descended soldiers who fought on behalf of the English in the World War II and survived only to be refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,