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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor always bore the burden of her father’s heritage. As the offspring of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the prominent UK composers of the turn of the 20th century, Avril’s identity was shrouded in the long shadows of the past.

An Inaugural Recording

Earlier this year, I contemplated these memories as I got ready to make the first-ever recording of her concerto for piano composed in 1936. Featuring intense musical themes, expressive melodies, and confident beats, this piece will offer music lovers deep understanding into how she – a wartime composer born in 1903 – conceived of her existence as a woman of colour.

Past and Present

But here’s the thing about shadows. It can take a while to adjust, to see shapes as they truly exist, to tell reality from distortion, and I had been afraid to face her history for some time.

I had so wanted Avril to be following in her father’s footsteps. In some ways, that held. The rustic British sounds of parental inspiration can be observed in many of her works, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to review the names of her parent’s works to understand how he identified as both a champion of UK romantic tradition as well as a advocate of the African diaspora.

This was where Samuel and Avril began to differ.

American society assessed the composer by the mastery of his art rather than the his ethnicity.

Samuel’s African Roots

While he was studying at the Royal College of Music, Samuel – the son of a parent from Sierra Leone and a British mother – started to lean into his background. At the time the African American poet this literary figure visited the UK in the late 19th century, the young musician was keen to meet him. He composed Dunbar’s African Romances into music and the next year used the poet’s words for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral composition that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Inspired by this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an worldwide sensation, notably for the Black community who felt shared pride as white America assessed his work by the quality of his art instead of the colour of his skin.

Activism and Politics

Fame did not temper his beliefs. During that period, he participated in the initial Pan African gathering in London where he encountered the prominent scholar this influential figure and witnessed a series of speeches, covering the mistreatment of African people in South Africa. He remained an advocate until the end. He sustained relationships with pioneers of civil rights such as the scholar and the educator Washington, gave addresses on equality for all, and even engaged in dialogue on racial problems with the American leader while visiting to the US capital in 1904. Regarding his compositions, Du Bois recalled, “he wrote his name so prominently as a composer that it will endure.” He passed away in that year, at 37 years old. Yet how might the composer have made of his offspring’s move to work in this country in the that decade?

Issues and Stance

“Daughter of Famous Composer gives OK to South African policy,” ran a headline in the Black American publication Jet magazine. Apartheid “appeared to me the right policy”, she informed Jet. Upon further questioning, she revised her statement: she didn’t agree with the system “as a concept” and it “should be allowed to resolve itself, directed by well-meaning residents of every background”. Had Avril been more aligned to her family’s principles, or born in Jim Crow America, she may have reconsidered about this system. However, existence had protected her.

Identity and Naivety

“I possess a UK passport,” she said, “and the authorities did not inquire me about my race.” Thus, with her “fair” skin (according to the magazine), she moved alongside white society, buoyed up by their admiration for her deceased parent. She delivered a lecture about her father’s music at the University of Cape Town and conducted the broadcasting ensemble in that location, featuring the bold final section of her composition, subtitled: “Dedicated to my Father.” Although a skilled pianist on her own, she avoided playing as the lead performer in her concerto. On the contrary, she invariably directed as the leader; and so the orchestra of the era played under her baton.

Avril hoped, as she stated, she “might bring a transformation”. But by 1954, the situation collapsed. Once officials became aware of her Black ancestry, she had to depart the land. Her UK document offered no defense, the British high commissioner urged her to go or risk imprisonment. She went back to the UK, feeling great shame as the magnitude of her naivety dawned. “The realization was a difficult one,” she lamented. Increasing her disgrace was the 1955 publication of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her sudden departure from the country.

A Recurring Theme

As I sat with these memories, I sensed a familiar story. The story of being British until it’s challenged – which recalls African-descended soldiers who defended the English during the second world war and lived only to be not given their earned rewards. Along with the Windrush era,