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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor always felt the burden of her father’s legacy. As the offspring of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the best-known English composers of the turn of the 20th century, her name was cloaked in the lingering obscurity of the past.

A World Premiere

In recent months, I reflected on these legacies as I made arrangements to make the inaugural album of Avril’s 1936 piano concerto. With its emotional harmonies, soulful lyricism, and valiant rhythms, this piece will grant music lovers fascinating insight into how she – an artist in conflict originating from the early 1900s – conceived of her existence as a female composer of color.

Shadows and Truth

Yet about the past. It can take a while to acclimate, to recognize outlines as they really are, to distinguish truth from misrepresentation, and I was reluctant to face the composer’s background for a while.

I deeply hoped her to be her father’s daughter. To some extent, this was true. The rustic British sounds of parental inspiration can be detected in many of her works, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to review the headings of her father’s compositions to realize how he viewed himself as not only a flag bearer of English Romanticism but a representative of the African heritage.

At this point parent and child began to differ.

The United States judged Samuel by the brilliance of his music as opposed to the colour of his skin.

Parental Heritage

As a student at the prestigious music college, the composer – the son of a Sierra Leonean father and a Caucasian parent – began embracing his background. At the time the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar came to London in that era, the 21-year-old composer actively pursued him. He composed the poet’s African Romances to music and the next year used the poet’s words for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral composition that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Inspired by this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an global success, notably for African Americans who felt vicarious pride as white America judged Samuel by the brilliance of his art as opposed to the his race.

Principles and Actions

Recognition did not temper his beliefs. At the turn of the century, he participated in the First Pan African Conference in London where he made the acquaintance of the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and saw a variety of discussions, such as the subjugation of the Black community there. He remained an advocate to his final days. He maintained ties with trailblazers for equality like this intellectual and Booker T Washington, delivered his own speeches on racial equality, and even discussed issues of racism with the American leader on a trip to the White House in 1904. Regarding his compositions, the scholar reflected, “he wrote his name so high as a creative artist that it will long be remembered.” He succumbed in that year, in his thirties. But what would Samuel have thought of his child’s choice to work in this country in the mid-20th century?

Issues and Stance

“Child of Celebrated Artist gives OK to South African policy,” declared a title in the community journal Jet magazine. The system “appeared to me the appropriate course”, the composer stated Jet. When pushed to clarify, she qualified her remarks: she was not in favor with apartheid “fundamentally” and it “should be allowed to work itself out, directed by well-meaning residents of all races”. Had Avril been more attuned to her family’s principles, or from the US under segregation, she may have reconsidered about this system. However, existence had sheltered her.

Background and Inexperience

“I possess a UK passport,” she stated, “and the officials never asked me about my ethnicity.” Thus, with her “porcelain-white” appearance (as Jet put it), she traveled among the Europeans, lifted by their admiration for her deceased parent. She delivered a lecture about her family’s work at the educational institution and led the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in that location, including the bold final section of her Piano Concerto, subtitled: “Dedicated to my Father.” While a accomplished player personally, she avoided playing as the lead performer in her concerto. Instead, 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”. However, by that year, circumstances deteriorated. When government agents learned of her African heritage, she was forced to leave the land. Her UK document didn’t protect her, the British high commissioner recommended her departure or face arrest. She came home, feeling great shame as the extent of her innocence was realized. “This experience was a painful one,” she stated. Compounding her embarrassment was the printing that year of her controversial discussion, a year after her sudden departure from South Africa.

A Familiar Story

Upon contemplating with these memories, I perceived a recurring theme. The story of identifying as British until it’s revoked – one that calls to mind troops of color who fought on behalf of the British during the global conflict and made it through but were refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,