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This talented musician constantly felt the weight of her family reputation. As the offspring of the celebrated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the most famous British musicians of the early 20th century, the composer’s reputation was enveloped in the long shadows of bygone eras.

The First Recording

In recent months, I sat with these legacies as I prepared to record the world premiere recording of Avril’s concerto for piano composed in 1936. Featuring impassioned harmonies, soulful lyricism, and bold rhythms, her composition will provide new listeners valuable perspective into how she – an artist in conflict who entered the world in 1903 – envisioned her reality as a female composer of color.

Past and Present

Yet about the past. It requires time to adapt, to perceive forms as they truly exist, to separate fact from misinterpretation, and I felt hesitant to address her history for some time.

I earnestly desired the composer to be her father’s daughter. To some extent, this was true. The rustic British sounds of Samuel’s influence can be observed in numerous compositions, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to review the headings of her father’s compositions to realize how he viewed himself as not just a standard-bearer of English Romanticism as well as a representative of the Black diaspora.

It was here that Samuel and Avril seemed to diverge.

White America assessed the composer by the excellence of his music instead of the colour of his skin.

Samuel’s African Roots

While he was studying at the Royal College of Music, her father – the son of a African father and a British mother – began embracing his African roots. Once the Black American writer this literary figure came to London in 1897, the 21-year-old composer eagerly sought him out. He composed the poet’s African Romances to music and the next year adapted his verses for an opera, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral composition that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an worldwide sensation, notably for African Americans who felt indirect honor as white America evaluated the composer by the excellence of his compositions as opposed to the his race.

Activism and Politics

Recognition failed to diminish his activism. At the turn of the century, he attended the initial Pan African gathering in England where he met the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and saw a range of talks, such as the subjugation of the Black community there. He was a campaigner to his final days. He sustained relationships with trailblazers for equality such as this intellectual and Booker T Washington, delivered his own speeches on ending discrimination, and even talked about issues of racism with President Theodore Roosevelt during an invitation to the presidential residence in 1904. As for his music, the scholar reflected, “he made his mark so notably as a musician that it will endure.” He died in 1912, aged 37. However, how would her father have thought of his offspring’s move to be in South Africa in the mid-20th century?

Issues and Stance

“Offspring of Renowned Musician shows support to apartheid system,” appeared as a heading in the African American magazine Jet magazine. Apartheid “seems to me the right policy”, the composer stated Jet. When asked to explain, she revised her statement: she was not in favor with this policy “in principle” and it “should be allowed to work itself out, directed by benevolent South Africans of all races”. Were the composer more attuned to her family’s principles, or born in segregated America, she might have thought twice about this system. Yet her life had shielded her.

Background and Inexperience

“I hold a British passport,” she said, “and the officials failed to question me about my background.” So, with her “light” skin (according to the magazine), she floated alongside white society, supported by their admiration 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 Johannesburg, including the inspiring part of her concerto, subtitled: “In memory of my Father.” Although a skilled pianist personally, she did not perform as the lead performer in her work. Rather, she always led as the maestro; and so the segregated ensemble performed under her direction.

She desired, according to her, she “may foster a transformation”. Yet in the mid-1950s, things fell apart. Once officials became aware of her Black ancestry, she could no longer stay the land. Her UK document failed to safeguard her, the British high commissioner recommended her departure or face arrest. She returned to England, feeling great shame as the extent of her innocence became clear. “The lesson was a painful one,” she expressed. Compounding her humiliation was the printing that year of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her unceremonious exit from South Africa.

A Common Narrative

Upon contemplating with these memories, I perceived a familiar story. The story of being British until you’re not – one that calls to mind Black soldiers who served for the English during the World War II and lived only to be refused rightful benefits. And the Windrush generation,