Research Shorts: Bringing Avril Coleridge-Taylor’s music out of the archive

Last week, the combined ensembles of Croydon Youth Orchestra and Trinity Music Academy played the UK premiere of Avril Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘Comet Prelude’ (1952), a forgotten but important piece written by the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The event was hosted by Trinity School. So, I’m going to do something I’ve not done before in Research Shorts and talk about my own research and how it led to the truly joyful experience of seeing children and young people play this extraordinary piece.

The concert as a whole was led by Peter Stark, professor of conducting at the Royal College of Music. ‘Comet Prelude’ was conducted by the brilliant Sam Scheer, one of Peter’s postgraduate student conductors at RCM. The two orchestras were augmented by musicians from Chineke! Orchestra (Chineke! had very generously funded the costs of this) and RCM student musicians. They were performing after a focused intensive two-day rehearsal period. Staff from Croydon’s Music and Arts also played alongside their students and were supported by a packed audience of parents, carers, and music lovers. It was the kind of event that stays with you for a long time after the applause has finished and speaks to the incredible work of music hubs and services across the country in building partnerships.

Alongside my work with Music Mark, I’m also a music historian, and in January 2024, I met with Jon Regan, Co-Head of Croydon Music and Arts at a Music Mark event. Together we talked about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and the recent growth in performances of his work. Coleridge-Taylor was a Black British composer and conductor, born in Croydon, who maintained a lifelong connection with music and education in South London.

Avril Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel died tragically young, and though he had been much beloved in his lifetime, his work has only recently received the celebration and regular performances it deserves. But his daughter, Avril, was also a composer and conductor who was an important figure in her own right. Following my work as co-author of An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre 1900-1950 with Sean Mayes, I had been particularly fascinated by a piece she had written and that I knew was in the Royal College of Music’s library. (In the other half of my week when I’m not working for Music Mark, I also work at RCM and have come to know their wonderful library team led by Peter Linnitt). 

The piece, ‘Comet Prelude’ was written at least in part on board the first commercial passenger flight on a jet engine. Avril had been invited onto the flight – possibly even to do this composition – and she was headed to South Africa to take up work as a conductor. The piece was written at the start of the jet age – at a moment of optimism and joy for travel and new beginnings (there’s much more to say about this piece, you can read more here). The RCM has a considerable collection of Avril’s handwritten scores, and this piece has been sat in a manuscript orchestral score and piano reduction for many years. In my role there I was able to access internal funding to have the score digitised and parts properly set, by a wonderful doctoral student, Tom Edney, and the support of the library team who contacted Avril’s family. 

All these threads, driven by the tireless work of Jon Regan, led to Avril’s music being heard in Croydon some seventy years after the piece was written. I got to sit and hear it, which would have been wonderful enough, but that the piece was played by extraordinary children and young people and led by an emerging conductor with such passion and delight made it all the more special. Research can help in all sorts of ways, and I feel hugely lucky to have been involved in this one.

Written by Sarah K. Whitfield – Research Manager for Music Mark