This talented musician constantly bore the burden of her family legacy. Being the child of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the prominent English composers of the 1900s, Avril’s identity was cloaked in the lingering obscurity of the past.
A World Premiere
Not long ago, I sat with these memories as I prepared to produce the world premiere recording of Avril’s 1936 piano concerto. Featuring impassioned harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and valiant rhythms, Avril’s work will offer audiences fascinating insight into how this artist – a wartime composer who entered the world in 1903 – envisioned her world as a artist with mixed heritage.
Shadows and Truth
However about shadows. It can take a while to adapt, to see shapes as they really are, to tell reality from distortion, and I had been afraid to confront the composer’s background for some time.
I deeply hoped Avril to be a reflection of her father. Partially, this was true. The rustic British sounds of Samuel’s influence can be heard in numerous compositions, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to look at the titles of her father’s compositions to realize how he heard himself as not just a standard-bearer of UK romantic tradition and also a representative of the Black diaspora.
This was where father and daughter began to differ.
The United States assessed the composer by the mastery of his compositions as opposed to the his racial background.
Parental Heritage
During his studies at the renowned institution, the composer – the offspring of a parent from Sierra Leone and a Caucasian parent – began embracing his African roots. Once the African American poet the renowned Dunbar visited the UK in that era, the young musician was keen to meet him. He set Dunbar’s African Romances as a composition and the following year used the poet’s words for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral work that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.
Inspired by this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an international hit, especially with Black Americans who felt shared pride as American society evaluated the composer by the excellence of his music rather than the his background.
Activism and Politics
Success did not reduce Samuel’s politics. In 1900, he was present at the pioneering African conference in London where he encountered the African American intellectual WEB Du Bois and witnessed a variety of discussions, including on the subjugation of the Black community there. He was a campaigner throughout his life. He kept connections with trailblazers for equality including this intellectual and the educator Washington, spoke publicly on equality for all, and even engaged in dialogue on racial problems with the US President on a trip to the US capital in the early 1900s. In terms of his art, Du Bois recalled, “he made his mark so high as a creative artist that it will endure.” He succumbed in 1912, in his thirties. Yet how might her father have made of his offspring’s move to work in this country in the mid-20th century?
Conflict and Policy
“Child of Celebrated Artist shows support to South African policy,” appeared as a heading in the community journal Jet magazine. This policy “appeared to me the right policy”, she informed Jet. When pushed to clarify, she qualified her remarks: she did not support with the system “in principle” and it “could be left to resolve itself, directed by good-intentioned people of all races”. Were the composer more aligned to her parent’s beliefs, or born in Jim Crow America, she might have thought twice about the policy. However, existence had protected her.
Identity and Naivety
“I hold a English document,” she stated, “and the government agents did not inquire me about my ethnicity.” So, with her “fair” appearance (according to the magazine), she moved alongside white society, buoyed up by their admiration for her renowned family member. She delivered a lecture about her family’s work at the Cape Town university and conducted the national orchestra in that location, featuring the heroic third movement of her composition, named: “In remembrance of my Father.” While a confident pianist personally, she avoided playing as the featured artist in her work. On the contrary, she consistently conducted as the conductor; and so the orchestra of the era performed under her direction.
She desired, in her own words, she “could introduce a transformation”. But by 1954, things fell apart. After authorities became aware of her Black ancestry, she could no longer stay the country. Her British passport didn’t protect her, the diplomatic official recommended her departure or be jailed. She went back to the UK, feeling great shame as the magnitude of her innocence dawned. “The realization was a difficult one,” she lamented. Increasing her embarrassment was the 1955 publication of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her sudden departure from the country.
A Recurring Theme
While I reflected with these legacies, I sensed a known narrative. The narrative of holding UK citizenship until it’s revoked – that brings to mind Black soldiers who defended the British in the World War II and made it through but were not given their earned rewards. And the Windrush generation,
