Stepping from Obscurity: The Reasons Avril Coleridge-Taylor Deserves to Be Heard

Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually felt the pressure of her family reputation. As the daughter of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the prominent UK artists of the turn of the 20th century, the composer’s reputation was cloaked in the long shadows of the past.

A World Premiere

Earlier this year, I contemplated these shadows as I prepared to make the inaugural album of Avril’s concerto for piano composed in 1936. Boasting emotional harmonies, soulful lyricism, and bold rhythms, Avril’s work will grant new listeners valuable perspective into how she – an artist in conflict born in 1903 – envisioned her existence as a female composer of color.

Shadows and Truth

However about the past. One needs patience to adjust, to see shapes as they truly exist, to tell reality from misrepresentation, and I had been afraid to address her history for some time.

I had so wanted her to be her father’s daughter. To some extent, she was. The idyllic English tones of parental inspiration 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 family’s music to understand how he heard himself as both a standard-bearer of British Romantic style but a representative of the African diaspora.

At this point father and daughter appeared to part ways.

The United States judged Samuel by the excellence of his music as opposed to the his ethnicity.

Family Background

During his studies at the renowned institution, Samuel – the offspring of a African father and a Caucasian parent – started to lean into his background. When the poet of color this literary figure came to London in that era, the 21-year-old composer was keen to meet him. He set this literary work to music and the following year adapted his verses for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral composition that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an worldwide sensation, notably for Black Americans who felt vicarious pride as the majority judged Samuel by the quality of his music rather than the colour of his skin.

Activism and Politics

Recognition failed to diminish Samuel’s politics. In 1900, he was present at the pioneering African conference in London where he met the African American intellectual WEB Du Bois and witnessed a series of speeches, covering the subjugation of Black South Africans. He was an activist to his final days. He sustained relationships with trailblazers for equality such as the scholar and this leader, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even engaged in dialogue on racial problems with President Theodore Roosevelt during an invitation to the US capital in the early 1900s. Regarding his compositions, Du Bois recalled, “he made his mark so notably as a creative artist that it will endure.” He passed away in the early 20th century, aged 37. However, how would her father have reacted to his offspring’s move to work in this country in the mid-20th century?

Issues and Stance

“Offspring of Renowned Musician expresses approval to South African policy,” ran a headline in the African American magazine Jet magazine. The system “appeared to me the appropriate course”, Avril told Jet. Upon further questioning, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with apartheid “in principle” and it “could be left to resolve itself, overseen by good-intentioned residents of diverse ethnicities”. If Avril had been more attuned to her father’s politics, or born in segregated America, she could have hesitated about the policy. However, existence had protected her.

Background and Inexperience

“I possess a British passport,” she said, “and the government agents never asked me about my race.” So, with her “fair” skin (according to the magazine), she moved within European circles, lifted by their praise for her deceased parent. She presented about her father’s music at the Cape Town university and directed the broadcasting ensemble in Johannesburg, including the heroic third movement of her concerto, titled: “In memory of my Father.” Even though a skilled pianist herself, she avoided playing as the lead performer in her piece. Rather, she consistently conducted as the maestro; and so the orchestra of the era played under her baton.

The composer aspired, as she stated, she “could introduce a change”. However, by that year, things fell apart. When government agents discovered her mixed background, she had to depart the country. Her UK document failed to safeguard her, the diplomatic official recommended her departure or risk imprisonment. She returned to England, embarrassed as the extent of her innocence dawned. “This experience was a hard one,” she expressed. Compounding her disgrace was the printing that year of her controversial discussion, a year after her unceremonious exit from that nation.

A Recurring Theme

As I sat with these legacies, I sensed a familiar story. The account of holding UK citizenship until it’s revoked – one that calls to mind troops of color who fought on behalf of the English throughout the global conflict and survived only to be not given their earned rewards. Including those from Windrush,