"Avril Coleridge-Taylor always felt the weight of her father's legacy. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the most famous British composers of the early 20th century, Avril's was a name enveloped in the long shadows of history. Earlier this year, I sat with these shadows as I prepared to make the world premiere recording of Avril's 1936 piano concerto with the BBC Philharmonic."
"But here's the thing about shadows. It can take a while to adjust, to see shapes as they really are, to distinguish truth from distortion, and I had been afraid to confront Avril's past for a while. I had so wanted her to be her father's daughter. In some ways, she was. The pastoral English palettes of Samuel's influence can be heard in many of her works, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940)."
"During his studies at the Royal College of Music, Samuel the son of a Sierra Leonean father and a white English mother started to lean into his African roots. When the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar came to London in 1897, the 21-year-old composer eagerly sought him out. He set Dunbar's African Romances to music and the following year used the poet's words for an opera, Dream Lovers."
Avril Coleridge-Taylor navigated the legacy of her father, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, while developing her own musical voice. Her 1936 piano concerto features impassioned harmonies, soulful lyricism and valiant rhythms that reflect her perspective as a wartime composer and a woman of colour. She retained pastoral English elements in works such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940) alongside a complex relationship to ancestry and identity. Samuel embraced his African roots during his studies, set Paul Laurence Dunbar's African Romances to music, created the opera Dream Lovers, and achieved international success with Hiawatha's Wedding Feast.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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