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This talented musician continually bore the weight of her parent’s legacy. Being the child of the celebrated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the prominent English artists of the early 20th century, Avril’s identity was enveloped in the long shadows of bygone eras.

A World Premiere

Earlier this year, I contemplated these memories as I prepared to make the world premiere recording of her piano concerto from 1936. Boasting impassioned harmonies, soulful lyricism, and valiant rhythms, this piece will provide music lovers fascinating insight into how she – an artist in conflict who entered the world in 1903 – imagined her reality as a woman of colour.

Legacy and Reality

But here’s the thing about legacies. It requires time to acclimate, to recognize outlines as they actually appear, to distinguish truth from misinterpretation, and I was reluctant to address the composer’s background for a period.

I had so wanted the composer to be a reflection of her father. To some extent, that held. The pastoral English palettes of Samuel’s influence can be detected in numerous compositions, such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only look at the names of her father’s compositions to understand how he heard himself as not only a champion of UK romantic tradition but a representative of the African heritage.

It was here that parent and child seemed to diverge.

White America judged Samuel by the brilliance of his compositions as opposed to the colour of his skin.

Family Background

While he was studying at the prestigious music college, the composer – the offspring of a African father and a British mother – started to lean into his background. When the poet of color the renowned Dunbar visited the UK in 1897, the aspiring artist actively pursued him. He set the poet’s African Romances to music and the subsequent year adapted his verses for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral composition that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an international hit, particularly among African Americans who felt indirect honor as white America judged Samuel by the brilliance of his music as opposed to the colour of his skin.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Fame did not reduce Samuel’s politics. In 1900, he attended the pioneering African conference in London where he met the Black American thinker WEB Du Bois and witnessed a range of talks, including on the subjugation of African people in South Africa. He was a campaigner until the end. He kept connections with pioneers of civil rights like this intellectual and Booker T Washington, gave addresses on ending discrimination, and even discussed matters of race with President Theodore Roosevelt while visiting to the White House in the early 1900s. Regarding his compositions, the scholar reflected, “he established his reputation so prominently as a creative artist that it will endure.” He died in 1912, in his thirties. However, how would the composer have reacted to his offspring’s move to work in the African nation in the mid-20th century?

Issues and Stance

“Offspring of Renowned Musician shows support to S African Bias,” declared a title in the African American magazine Jet magazine. This policy “appeared to me the right policy”, Avril told Jet. When pushed to clarify, she qualified her remarks: she was not in favor with this policy “as a concept” and it “could be left to resolve itself, overseen by good-intentioned residents of diverse ethnicities”. If Avril had been more attuned to her family’s principles, or raised in Jim Crow America, she could have hesitated about this system. Yet her life had protected her.

Identity and Naivety

“I have a British passport,” she said, “and the authorities did not inquire me about my race.” So, with her “fair” complexion (as described), she floated among the Europeans, supported by their acclaim for her late father. She gave a talk about her family’s work at the University of Cape Town and led the broadcasting ensemble in the city, featuring the bold final section of her composition, named: “Dedicated to my Father.” While a accomplished player personally, she never played as the soloist in her piece. Instead, she consistently conducted as the leader; and so the orchestra of the era followed her lead.

She desired, according to her, she “may foster a transformation”. However, by that year, things fell apart. When government agents discovered her mixed background, she had to depart the nation. Her citizenship offered no defense, the diplomatic official recommended her departure or be jailed. She came home, embarrassed as the magnitude of her inexperience was realized. “The lesson was a painful one,” she lamented. Adding to her humiliation was the release in 1955 of her controversial discussion, a year after her forced leaving from South Africa.

A Recurring Theme

Upon contemplating with these shadows, I sensed a known narrative. The narrative of holding UK citizenship until you’re not – one that calls to mind troops of color who fought on behalf of the English throughout the global conflict and lived only to be not given their earned rewards. Along with the Windrush era,