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Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually bore the weight of her father’s legacy. Being the child of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the most famous British musicians of the turn of the 20th century, Avril’s reputation was enveloped in the lingering obscurity of the past.

A World Premiere

Earlier this year, I reflected on these memories as I made arrangements to produce the inaugural album of Avril’s 1936 piano concerto. Featuring emotional harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and bold rhythms, this piece will provide music lovers valuable perspective into how she – a wartime composer originating from the early 1900s – envisioned her world as a female composer of color.

Past and Present

But here’s the thing about legacies. It requires time to adapt, to perceive forms as they actually appear, to separate fact from misrepresentation, and I felt hesitant to address her history for a while.

I earnestly desired Avril to be her father’s daughter. To some extent, she was. The idyllic English tones of Samuel’s influence can be heard in numerous compositions, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only review the titles of her parent’s works to understand how he heard himself as not only a champion of British Romantic style but a advocate of the Black diaspora.

It was here that parent and child began to differ.

American society evaluated Samuel by the brilliance of his music as opposed to the his ethnicity.

Family Background

As a student at the renowned institution, her father – the son of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother – began embracing his African roots. Once the poet of color Paul Laurence Dunbar arrived in England in that era, the aspiring artist actively pursued him. He composed the poet’s African Romances to music and the next year incorporated his poetry for an opera, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral composition that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an international hit, especially with the Black community who felt vicarious pride as the majority judged Samuel by the brilliance of his compositions instead of the his race.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Fame did not temper his beliefs. In 1900, he participated in the pioneering African conference in London where he made the acquaintance of the Black American thinker the renowned Du Bois and witnessed a variety of discussions, such as the mistreatment of African people in South Africa. He remained an advocate to his final days. He kept connections with pioneers of civil rights such as the scholar and this leader, gave addresses on ending discrimination, and even talked about issues of racism with the American leader during an invitation to the presidential residence in that year. Regarding his compositions, the scholar reflected, “he wrote his name so notably as a composer that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He succumbed in 1912, at 37 years old. However, how would the composer have thought of his daughter’s decision to travel to South Africa in the 1950s?

Conflict and Policy

“Child of Celebrated Artist gives OK to South African policy,” ran a headline in the Black American publication Jet magazine. Apartheid “seems to me the appropriate course”, Avril told Jet. When pushed to clarify, she qualified her remarks: she did not support with the system “fundamentally” and it “should be allowed to run its course, directed by good-intentioned residents of all races”. Were the composer more attuned to her family’s principles, or born in Jim Crow America, she could have hesitated about apartheid. But life had protected her.

Background and Inexperience

“I possess a British passport,” she remarked, “and the authorities did not inquire me about my ethnicity.” Thus, with her “fair” appearance (as described), she floated alongside white society, lifted by their praise for her late father. She gave a talk about her father’s music at the University of Cape Town and led the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in the city, featuring the bold final section of her Piano Concerto, subtitled: “Dedicated to my Father.” Although a accomplished player herself, she did not perform as the soloist in her piece. On the contrary, she always led as the leader; and so the orchestra of the era performed under her direction.

Avril hoped, according to her, she “might bring a transformation”. But by 1954, things fell apart. Once officials became aware of her Black ancestry, she could no longer stay the land. Her British passport didn’t protect her, the UK representative recommended her departure or be jailed. She went back to the UK, embarrassed as the magnitude of her innocence was realized. “This experience was a painful one,” she stated. Increasing her disgrace was the printing that year of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her forced leaving from the country.

A Familiar Story

While I reflected with these memories, I perceived a known narrative. The story of identifying as British until you’re not – which recalls African-descended soldiers who fought on behalf of the British during the global conflict and survived only to be denied their due compensation. And the Windrush generation,