🔗 Share this article

This talented musician constantly felt the weight of her parent’s legacy. As the daughter of the celebrated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the prominent English musicians of the turn of the 20th century, Avril’s identity was enveloped in the long shadows of history.

An Inaugural Recording

In recent months, I sat with these legacies as I got ready to record the inaugural album of her piano concerto from 1936. Featuring impassioned harmonies, expressive melodies, and confident beats, this piece will offer new listeners fascinating insight into how she – a composer during war who entered the world in 1903 – conceived of her world as a artist with mixed heritage.

Shadows and Truth

However about legacies. It can take a while to acclimate, to perceive forms as they truly exist, to tell reality from misinterpretation, and I felt hesitant to face the composer’s background for a while.

I deeply hoped Avril to be following in her father’s footsteps. To some extent, she was. The pastoral English palettes of her father’s impact can be observed in several pieces, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to review the headings of her parent’s works to understand how he identified as both a champion of UK romantic tradition and also a representative of the African diaspora.

At this point father and daughter appeared to part ways.

American society evaluated Samuel by the brilliance of his music instead of the his ethnicity.

Samuel’s African Roots

As a student at the prestigious music college, Samuel – the child of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother – started to lean into his African roots. When the poet of color this literary figure arrived in England in that era, the aspiring artist was keen to meet him. He set Dunbar’s African Romances as a composition and the next year used the poet’s words for an opera, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral composition that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an worldwide sensation, especially with Black Americans who felt indirect honor as the majority judged Samuel by the brilliance of his music rather than the his race.

Activism and Politics

Success failed to diminish Samuel’s politics. During that period, he participated in the First Pan African Conference in England where he encountered the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and saw a range of talks, including on the subjugation of the Black community there. He remained an advocate throughout his life. He kept connections with pioneers of civil rights like Du Bois and the educator Washington, spoke publicly on ending discrimination, and even talked about matters of race with the American leader on a trip to the White House in the early 1900s. In terms of his art, the scholar reflected, “he made his mark so notably as a composer that it will long be remembered.” He passed away in the early 20th century, in his thirties. But what would her father have made of his child’s choice to be in the African nation in the mid-20th century?

Conflict and Policy

“Daughter of Famous Composer expresses approval to S African Bias,” ran a headline in the African American magazine Jet magazine. This policy “seems to me the appropriate course”, Avril told Jet. When pushed to clarify, she backtracked: she was not in favor with this policy “fundamentally” and it “ought to be permitted to resolve itself, directed by well-meaning residents of all races”. Had Avril been more in tune to her parent’s beliefs, or from Jim Crow America, she might have thought twice about apartheid. Yet her life had shielded her.

Heritage and Innocence

“I possess a English document,” she said, “and the government agents failed to question me about my race.” Therefore, with her “fair” complexion (as Jet put it), she floated within European circles, lifted by their acclaim for her renowned family member. She delivered a lecture about her father’s music at the University of Cape Town and led the national orchestra in the city, featuring the heroic third movement of her Piano Concerto, named: “Dedicated to my Father.” Even though a skilled pianist personally, she did not perform as the soloist in her piece. Instead, she consistently conducted as the maestro; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

Avril hoped, according to her, she “might bring a transformation”. But by 1954, things fell apart. After authorities learned of her mixed background, she had to depart the nation. Her British passport offered no defense, the UK representative urged her to go or risk imprisonment. She went back to the UK, deeply ashamed as the magnitude of her naivety was realized. “The realization was a painful one,” she expressed. Adding to her disgrace was the 1955 publication of her controversial discussion, a year after her sudden departure from the country.

A Recurring Theme

As I sat with these memories, I perceived a familiar story. The story of holding UK citizenship until it’s revoked – that brings to mind troops of color who served for the UK during the second world war and survived only to be refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,