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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor always experienced the weight of her family legacy. As the daughter of the celebrated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the prominent English composers of the turn of the 20th century, her identity was cloaked in the long shadows of bygone eras.

A World Premiere

In recent months, I sat with these memories as I made arrangements to produce the first-ever recording of her piano concerto from 1936. Featuring intense musical themes, expressive melodies, and confident beats, Avril’s work will grant new listeners deep understanding into how the composer – a composer during war originating from the early 1900s – imagined her existence as a woman of colour.

Past and Present

Yet about legacies. It can take a while to adjust, to see shapes as they really are, to separate fact from misrepresentation, and I had been afraid to confront Avril’s past for a period.

I had so wanted the composer to be following in her father’s footsteps. To some extent, that held. The idyllic English tones of her father’s impact can be observed in many of her works, such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only review the titles of her family’s music to realize how he identified as both a flag bearer of English Romanticism as well as a advocate of the African heritage.

At this point father and daughter appeared to part ways.

American society assessed the composer by the brilliance of his art rather than the colour of his skin.

Family Background

During his studies at the renowned institution, her father – the son of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother – turned toward his heritage. When the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar arrived in England in that era, the aspiring artist eagerly sought him out. He composed the poet’s African Romances into music and the following year adapted his verses for an opera, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral work that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an global success, notably for Black Americans who felt shared pride as the majority evaluated the composer by the excellence of his art rather than the his background.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Success did not temper his beliefs. During that period, he participated in the pioneering African conference in England where he met the prominent scholar the renowned Du Bois and witnessed a range of talks, including on the oppression of African people in South Africa. He was an activist to his final days. He kept connections with early civil rights leaders like this intellectual and the educator Washington, gave addresses on equality for all, and even discussed matters of race with the US President during an invitation to the presidential residence in 1904. As for his music, the scholar reflected, “he established his reputation so high as a composer that it will long be remembered.” He died in 1912, aged 37. But what would Samuel have thought of his child’s choice to be in South Africa in the mid-20th century?

Issues and Stance

“Child of Celebrated Artist shows support to S African Bias,” ran a headline in the African American magazine Jet magazine. This policy “seems to me the correct approach”, Avril told Jet. When pushed to clarify, she revised her statement: she didn’t agree with apartheid “as a concept” and it “could be left to work itself out, directed by well-meaning people of all races”. Were the composer more attuned to her father’s politics, or raised in the US under segregation, she might have thought twice about this system. However, existence had protected her.

Background and Inexperience

“I hold a English document,” she remarked, “and the government agents did not inquire me about my race.” So, with her “fair” complexion (as described), she floated alongside white society, buoyed up by their acclaim for her deceased parent. She presented about her parent’s compositions at the educational institution and conducted the national orchestra in Johannesburg, programming the bold final section of her concerto, named: “In remembrance of my Father.” Although a confident pianist herself, she did not perform as the soloist in her concerto. On the contrary, she consistently conducted as the leader; and so the apartheid orchestra performed under her direction.

Avril hoped, in her own words, she “could introduce a change”. However, by that year, 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 urged her to go or face arrest. She returned to England, deeply ashamed as the magnitude of her innocence became clear. “The lesson was a painful one,” she expressed. Adding to her humiliation was the 1955 publication of her controversial discussion, a year after her sudden departure from the country.

A Recurring Theme

While I reflected with these legacies, I felt a known narrative. The story of identifying as British until you’re not – that brings to mind Black soldiers who served for the British during the global conflict and made it through but were refused rightful benefits. Along with the Windrush era,