Thank you for this superb rarity. As an Australian, I should perhaps be embarrassed that I have never heard of, let alone heard the music of, either composer and even more so when I found a lengthy entry in Wikipedia. With its brooding Baxian soundworld and finely detailed orchestration, I wonder how a self-taught composer developed such a style. Is the other piece on the record similar in style?
Thanks to Sicmu for the Hughes upload.
I'm not familiar with many Oz composers, but my favorite is Alfted Hill (1870-1960). Among other things, I have a recording of what is purportedly Symphony #3 in b subtitled Australia. But #3 is in Bb and is subtitled the Joy of Life - my favorite of the bunch. So is the b minor #2?
Who are other Romantic composers from Australia? Are they played as little on their home turf as Romantic American composers are here in the US?
Jerry
Jerfilm, Hill's Symphony No.2 in E flat is "The Joy of Life". It has a very attractive choral finale. Although I have quite a few of the non-commercially recorded Hill symphonies in my collection, I'm afraid that I don't have a note of any in B minor.
Thanks Mark. I'm not sure how my database got changed for the Joy of Life. The choral finale of Symphony #2 that you pointed out is one of my (many) favorite moments in all of music. It's melody sounds like some hymn you have heard but you can't put your finger on it. Probably becuz it isn't a hymn.....
Anyway, I did some internet research and found the 13 symphonys of Hill and they are as follows:
Alfred Hill Symphonys
Symphony # 1 in B – later retitled Maori Symphony
Symphony # 2 in Eb – The Joy of Life
Symphony # 3 in b - Australia
Symphony # 4 in c -The Pursuit of Happiness
Symphony # 5 in a – The Carnival
Symphony # 6 in Bb – Celtic
Symphony # 7 in e
Symphony # 8 in A for string orchestra
Symphony # 9 in E for string orchestra - Melodious
Symphony #10 in C – Short Symphony with a Beethoven Orchestra
Symphony #11 in Eb for string orchestra – The Four Nations
Symphony #12 in Eb for full orchestra
Symphony #13 in a for string orchestra
Numbers 2-10 have all shown up in one form or another in the last 40 years but I don't find 11,12,13 anywhere. Incidentally, most sources say that any number of his symphonys were reworkings of string quartets. One reason I that several are only for string orchestra.
Jerry
Jerry, I have recordings of Symphonies Nos.12 and 13. If they are of any interest to you, or anyone else, I'll happily upload them.
That would be GREAT, Mark.
I have Fritz Hart's symphonic poem THE BUSH from a broadcast if anyone is interested in that.
Jerry
Uploads of the Hill 12 and 13 would be greatly appreciated, as I've only ever heard the earlier ones. The 3rd - 'Australian' - includes some beautiful melodies and is a favourite. Clearly Hill loved Australia even though he was a Kiwi and has been called "New Zealand's Dvorak". I haven't heard the ABC broadcast much of his in recent years, with the exception of a sentimental piece for narrator and orchestra entitled "Green Water". The viola concerto can readily be heard on YouTube, ánd has appeared on WRC and HMV/EMI LPs, but there's currently no CD as far as I can tell. Among more recent Australian symphonists, I would note Brenton Broadstock. His five symphonies are stunning works (see Wikipedia entry for CD details)... and I hope he doesn't become an "Unsung Composer" in time to come!
Jim, you posted just as I was sending the above ..... anyway, yes, yes, please!
Jerry, Semloh, I'll upload the Symphonies Nos.12 & 13 in the next few days - a busy weekend will get in the way of doing it immediately I'm afraid. Jim, much as I'm sure that Hill would have liked and deserved to have been knighted, I don't think that he ever was. Plain Mr Hill, to you! :)
I've found a few minutes to upload Hill's Symphonies Nos.12 and 13. I also have Nos.1, 2, 8 and 9 of those unavailable commercially if any one is interested, although they would definitely have to wait a few days before upload. Just say the word.
Interested here, thank you. any of Hill's string quartets (only one of which I know of a CD recording of, though parts of nos. 1 and 2 were published in the early 1920s as I recall) too (yes, I know most of the symphonies are related to the quartets, or otherwise to other preexisting works- but I file this under "good to know, interesting information" rather than "makes them boring" if I am being at all clear which I fear I am not... though I'm not sure I've heard even the ones that have been recently commercially available, at that.)? (I note from Worldcat that the early Hill symphonies are being published in new editions from ms., which is all to the good...)
Quote from: semloh on Friday 12 August 2011, 08:41
Thank you for this superb rarity. As an Australian, I should perhaps be embarrassed that I have never heard of, let alone heard the music of, either composer and even more so when I found a lengthy entry in Wikipedia. With its brooding Baxian soundworld and finely detailed orchestration, I wonder how a self-taught composer developed such a style. Is the other piece on the record similar in style?
The Tahourdin is pretty modern and atonal but I have other orchestral pieces by Hughes, and also by Clive Douglas who composed in the same vein ( at least for one of his periods).
Thx for the Hill symphonies, IMO he is a very conservative composer, more connected with the german tradition than with the english one but his symphonies ( most of them arrangements from String quartets) are enjoyable and I'm looking forward to hearing more of these !
Thanks, much, Mark. Now only #11 and 1 are missing....
Jerry
No problem, Jerry. Unfortunately the Tenth is the only one I don't have. I'll upload Nos.1, 2, 8 & 9 for others, though.
I may be a Yank, but if I'm not mistaken, Order of the British Empire and knighthood aren't the same. And you have to be knighted to be called "Sir".
Jerry, I missed out on welcoming your kind offer of the 'The Bush' by Hart. I think any Australian music by 'unsungs' is like gold dust.... so yes, please. Do by any chance have any Bracanin? It seems the ABC's Eurocentrism - at least as far as recording is concerned - means most Australian composers are destined for obscurity! Easton appeared on Naxos, Broadstock on a Russian (?) label, and so it goes...
I have the Marshall-Hall Symphony in E-flat on an old CD (the obscure 'Move' label!), along with the Adagio from his Symphony in C minor. I'll upload these if anyone is interested, provided I can confirm there are no copyright issues.
Quote from: Mark Thomas on Saturday 13 August 2011, 11:56
I've found a few minutes to upload Hill's Symphonies Nos.12 and 13. I also have Nos.1, 2, 8 and 9 of those unavailable commercially if any one is interested, although they would definitely have to wait a few days before upload. Just say the word.
Wow! You actually HAVE a recording of the Symphony No.1? I too, would love to hear it!
So far, Marco Polo has released Alfred Hill's symphonies 3-7 and 10 with some of the shorter orchestral works. There are also three volumes of the String Quartets on Naxos. Also, there's a recording of the Horn Concerto with an amateur suburban Sydney orchestra: Hill Horn Concerto (http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/product/beecroft-horn-harp-and-voices). The horn player is very good, but the string players aren't quite so...
Anyone interested might also want to check out YouTube: Symphonies 2 and 8 have been uploaded by quarrion100, as well as the Viola Concerto and the tone-poems The Sea and Linthorpe. And a video of Symphony No.11 is here: Hill Symphony No.11 (http://www.naxosvideolibrary.com/title/EXERO0036/) although apparently you have to be with an educational institution to see it :( ...very frustrating!
The Bush has been uploaded here: https://rapidshare.com/files/1179740578/Hart__Fritz_The_Bush_Symphonic_Poem.mp3 (ftp://rapidshare.com/files/1179740578/Hart__Fritz_The_Bush_Symphonic_Poem.mp3)
I am sorry to report that I have no information on the performers. It is from an Australian radio broadcast.
Jerry
on the other hand on the scanning-scores side the Australian libraries are doing as well, in my own and not wholly well-informed opinion, by their heritage as the US, France, and some other countries by theirs, judging from the music digitization projects of the NLA, LOC, BNF the last few years...
Yes, Eschiss1, I agree - rather a good job being done there.
I was searching around for details about the Fritz Hart piece when I discovered this webpage from ABC radio (Australia):
Australian Music Performances (http://www.abc.net.au/classic/australianmusic/presented/)
There are all sorts of wonderful works by Australian composers here! I am particularly happy to see Eric Gross' gorgeous piece for strings called Moonscape available to hear (you will need either Windows Media Player 11 or Real Player)
I've added Alfred Hill's Symphonies Nos.1 & 2 and 8 & 9 to my previous post which had links to recordings of the Symphonies Nos.12 & 13. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that my recording of No.1 isn't of the full original four movement work, but of a later condensed 17 minute tone poem which Hill made using the same material. If anyone has a recording of the original work (there is one out there, I know) then I'd really appreciate an upload if it's legal to do so.
The same goes for any of these Hill works, performances of which have, I believe, been made (although not commercially):
Cantata: Hinemoa
Commemorative Ode for Choir & Orchestra
Horn Concerto
Overture of Welcome
Drysdale Overture
Gosh, thanks Mark for these additional Hill uploads. Hope someone has the complete Symphony #1.
Fuhred, the ABC radio site is where The Bush came from, so those are the performers.
TIP: you can download from all of these sites if you have Movavi Screen Capture - a program which lets you capture whatever part of your screen you desire and then will convert the captured material into the audio (or video) format of your choice.....
Jerry
QuoteI'd forgotten that my recording of No.1 isn't of the full original four movement work, but of a later condensed 17 minute tone poem which Hill made using the same material. If anyone has a recording of the original work (there is one out there, I know) then I'd really appreciate an upload if it's legal to do so.
I've uploaded the complete original version of #1, with almost twenty minutes of additional music. Thanks, Mark, for the condensed version, which my collection was lacking -- now we have both versions!
Oh, tremendous. Thank you so much. What a wonderful thing the internet can be...
Thank you indeed for these wonderful Hill recordings, which are a delicious prospect. I'm listening to the 1st as I type and it's a joy. People here are so generous.
Hill is unjustly neglected here in Australia and I fear will remain so, unless the ABC can be persuaded to release a complete set of the symphonies. That would need a high profile champion, which is unlikely since we still import our conductors and directors from overseas and I doubt that they've even heard of him! Home grown conductors and performers feel a need to prove themselves in Europe and with the standard European-Russian repertoire, so no joy there either. How lucky we are to have people on this forum who can nonethless supply us with the music!
As to Australian composers who I hope to hear more of and have actually heard (I have a little from LP or CD that's been sent my way) I'd list- for instance- Margaret Sutherland.
Yes! I'd love to hear more Margaret Sutherland as well. Her Violin Concerto and symphonic poem The Haunted Hills are magnificent. I have no non-commercial recordings of her music -- perhaps someone else can help?
I'd also like to hear more Fritz Hart. His symphonic suite The Bush, which has gotten some buzz here lately, is great. I've never heard anything else of his, though.
The Australian website mentioned previously also has a terrific symphony by Alfred Hill's wife, Mirrie Hill. I'd love to hear more of her music as well.
I have just uploaded Hill's Viola Concerto, please check the link in the music downloads section
the only work by Sutherland I have besides the violin concerto is, I think, a concerto for strings (NLA mentions they have the manuscript, 1953) and I notice that was semi-recently (2001?) along with the violin concerto released on CD... probably in the same recording I have, at that.
I am keen to contribute to the downloads folder, but I'm afraid I can't upload the Marshall-Hall Symphony in E-flat as it is still in the catalogue of Move Records. This is a small label based in Melbourne, specializing in Australian composers and their catalogue is well worth a visit:
http://www.move.com.au/result.cfm?style=a
... well, unless the CD I mentioned becomes NLA (I am sure the NLA hears that pun a lot, and is why the ONB prefers ... never mind)
any other works by Marshall-Hall that aren't so fortunate, tho'?
I'm sorry, I have nothing else by Marshall-Hall. I wish I had, so that I could post something in return for all the fascinating music everyone is sharing. I am looking forward to listening to the work by Mrs Hill, another neglected talent. There's a rather amusing biog. note about her, by the way, at the Music Australia site (http://www.musicaustralia.org/)
Thank you especially for the Hill Viola Concerto - time to get re-acquainted! I would be interested to hear what members think of it, because although it may not be truly great music, I can't see why it hasn't established a place in the regular concert repertoire (here, or beyond Australia). Are we short of viola players?!
I have a fascinating collaborative work which I will upload soon. It is 'Variations on a Theme of Alfred Hill' by John Antill, Raymond Hanson, Dulcie Holland, Miriam Hyde and Clive Douglas. It is from a live concert in Brisbane. Keep an eye out in the downloads section.
The Marshall-Hall Symphony in Eb is available as an online MP3 download from Australianmusiccentre.com.au for $7.23 (I presume Aussie Dollars). A good buy and a treat to listen to.
Jerry
Thanks to fuhred for that rather strange but lovely piece based on a theme of Alfred Hill. It is certainly an exception to the usual "designed by a committee" cliche. Do you happen to know where the theme appears in Hill's music, if it does?
Quote from: semloh on Wednesday 24 August 2011, 14:05
Thanks to fuhred for that rather strange but lovely piece based on a theme of Alfred Hill. It is certainly an exception to the usual "designed by a committee" cliche. Do you happen to know where the theme appears in Hill's music, if it does?
Unfortunately I haven't been able to identify the original theme. Sorry... :(
I just want to mention another almost forgotten Australian composer, Dorian Le Gallienne (nonetheless well covered by Wikipedia), who is credited with a substantial list of works. His brilliant Symphony in E (1953), rated as second only to the Hughes symphony of the period, has still not made it to CD as far as I can tell. I certainly cherish my taped performance, which I believe it can be heard on-line, courtesy of the ABC.
hadn't heard of him, I think, but the Wikipedia and Australian Dictionary of Biography bios are interesting, and the prospect of a Susskind-conducted performance on that 1950s limited-distribution radio-produced LP is interesting too, if someone makes a remastering (onto CD or - is CD still the thing anyway or is it now becoming outdated too, anyway?... ...) of that.
Sorry to say, the download of Fritz Hart's symphonic poem The Bush will expire around September 10th
So much for RapidShare.
Jerry
A few members have asked me for more details about Melbourne's Dorian Le Gallienne. The ABC's online performance of his short Sinfonietta (1956) is at: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/australianmusic/stories/s2347780.htm
BTW - for a full list of ABC classics online, mostly by unsung composers, see: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/australianmusic/presented/default.htm
Alas, Le Gallienne's Symphony (1953), described in 1967 by the music critic Roger Covell as 'still the most accomplished and purposive ... written by an Australian', is still not available on-line or on CD. I have it on cassette tape, ex-radio, and will upload it as soon as I am able (I'm still not set up again for digitizing, after a complete computer change earlier this year).
A detailed, illustrated biography of Le Gallienne, in several parts, starts at: http://www.malsmusings.info/index_files/DORIAN_First.htm
Jerry wrote:
Quotethe download of Fritz Hart's symphonic poem The Bush will expire around September 10th
You can still hear the whole work here (http://www.abc.net.au/classic/australianmusic/stories/s2347597.htm) and record the thing as it plays...
Arbuckle - thank you so much for this. I will try hard to get the Symphony up over the next few weeks.
as to Hill's symphony no.2 in E-flat, I see three tracks (with the first movement perhaps missing, and the middle track/file about 3.5 minutes long- brief scherzo?) rather than four movements...- was the absence of the first movement file explained along the line? Thanks! (haven't listened yet, if the first two movements are in the first file together I will be suitably embarrassed :) - and fortunate, of course. Must rush so won't be able to see the answer for about an hour..) (Hrm. Checking Worldcat, no ,sym.2 is indeed missing a movement lasting 17 minutes or so - the movements that are there last x minutes, the symphony as a whole lasts 36 and a half minutes or so according to Worldcat in this recording, the difference is about 17 minutes.)
Also wondering- was Alfred L Hill born in 1869 or 1870, and why is there disagreement :)
Also, this seems worth pointing out separately-
according to the publisher of the score of the quartet it is arranged from,
Stiles Music (http://www.stilesmusicpublications.com/Alfred%20Hill/Hill%20editions/S96%20Hill%20SQ9.htm) there seems no ground to call the symphony "no.13" in A minor anything but symphony in A minor for strings or possibly "Serenade in A minor" (a title the composer considered using) - but probably just the former. (The symphony also has a page - here (http://www.stilesmusicpublications.com/Alfred%20Hill/Hill%20editions/S110%20Symphony%20in%20A%20Minor%20for%20string%20orchestra.htm)).
Scratch that about movement titles. Stiles (http://www.stilesmusicpublications.com/Alfred%20Hill/Alfred%20Hill%20Catalogue/Alfred%20Hill%20-%201%20Instrumental.htm) also has a -big- page of movement titles of Hill's symphonies and instrumental works (how rare! :) see link). It goes by catalog name, not "symphony no." - SyEm1 (first symphony of this many in E minor... I think... but the correspondence can be found elsewhere, I think.)
In addition to the issue of the missing First Movement of Alfred Hill's Symphony No.2.....
there appears to be a problem with the file for the Second Movement of Symphony No.9; everytime I try to download Mediafire is telling me there is a problem.
I don't know if these can be fixed, Mark?
I was able to download the 2nd movement of symphony 9 but it was very slow...
MediaFire has obviously been having a senior moment. I have no idea where the Second Symphony's first movement went or why the Ninth's second movement wouldn't download properly. Anyway, I have uploaded replacement movements in each case and all seems fine now. Do let me know if that isn't the case. The links given in the Downloads Board remain the same.
Thanks very much!
Problems solved :)
Hrm. I see that the BBC recorded Goossens' phantasy concerto op.63 for violin at some point (unclear- it became a Chester promotional CD, can't work out the date)... (I'd hoped to find listed too a recording of his 2nd string quartet though maybe Australian Radio recorded that at some point. Or maybe there's a commercial recording of it that I've missed or know of but have forgotten about :) ) Anyone have this perchance and would it be legal to upload ? ...
Sorry eschiss1 - all I have is the 3-CD set from ABC. Do you particularly like Goossens'music?
I must say that although I really don't care much for his symphonies, the other works - such as the Variations on a Chinese Theme, Kaleidoscope, and the Concertino - are are quite engaging. Although I have no knowledge of the intricacies of musical composition, he strikes me as a technically expert composer, the orchestration always sounds ideal, and his string writing seems especially good. I think the Concertino stands up well alongside similar works by British composers like Bridge and Finzi.
don't know it all that well, though a look at the 2nd quartet in score back in college intrigued greatly.
Can I raise the name of Malcolm Williamson?
Chandos launched a Williamson series with the Iceland Symphony Orchesrra under Ramon Gamba but, after two releases(optimistically headed Volumes I and II), seem to have aborted it.
Symphony No.2(1969)
Symphony No.3 "The Icy Mirror" for soprano, mezzo-soprano, two baritones, chorus and orchestra(1972; Cheltenham Festival)
Symphony No.4 "Jubilee"(1977)-the work which, notoriously, the composer delivered too late for the Queen's Jubilee and never performed
Symphony No.6(1982)-the massive work written for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's orchestras
...have not been recorded.
Nor, of course, has Williamson's huge Mass of Christ the King :(
I wonder...surely someone in Australia must have at least recorded Symphony No.6?
Hrm. Symphony 1 has been recorded twice, but - good question.
BBC has tapes of George Hurst's recording of the 2nd symphony (broadcast April 7 1970), Del Mar's of the 5th (broadcast January 6 1982).
I think it's fair to say that the music of Malcolm Williamson is almost unknown here in Australia, Dundonnell, apart from the suite from Our Man in Havana. The ABC has no doubt broadcast them at some time, but I don't recall hearing any of his symphonies.
Apart from the first Chandos CD, I have only his 5th Sym. - a r2r tape recording of the BBC R3 broadcast of 1982 mentioned by eschiss1.... no idea if/when I would be able to get it digitized. :(
I do hope someone has something to share. :)
My alma mater has a score of the 5th symphony (it's also in New Jersey, nowhere near me) and LPs and CDs of a few chamber works and concertante works (2-piano concerto, organ concerto, violin concerto, e.g.) of his. I checked since I was fairly sure it was in their open stacks I first heard of his music (not a viola concerto- that was probably an alphabetically nearby composer :) ). (Actually, the library of my ex-grad-school, which -is- just up the street, also has sym. 5 in score, and syms. 1 and 2 too, now I check. Hrm.)
Chandos recorded Symphonies Nos. 1 and 5 in their 2 Volume "Series" ;D
and symphony 1 was recorded on Argo, I think, years before. I am guessing that this impression I had that symphony 7 was recorded at some point is illusory... :)
Quote from: eschiss1 on Thursday 13 October 2011, 17:00
and symphony 1 was recorded on Argo, I think, years before. I am guessing that this impression I had that symphony 7 was recorded at some point is illusory... :)
No...Symphony No.7 IS available on cd :)
How long does the Hughes symphony last? According to the scanned materials there are 2 symphonies in the recording but no durations are listed..
Please clarify
Thanks
Three works by Malcolm Williamson will be uploaded shortly:
Piano Concerto No.2 (for piano and strings: 1960) in a performance in which the composer is the soloist. The work is not available on cd.
Serenade and Aubade for strings(two movements from his Symphonic Variations of 1965): authorised as a separate work.
Hammarskjold Portrait for soprano and strings(1974) sung by April Cantelo and not otherwise available.
Hard to be sure whether works by Williamson should go here. Arthur Benjamin seems to have become an honorary Englishman ;D
Re the Kelly - is that the opus 5 (D minor, published 1913) available at IMSLP here (http://imslp.org/wiki/Theme,_Variations_and_Fugue,_Op.5_(Kelly,_Frederick_Septimus)) (via the National Library of Australia - or the other way around, apologies)?
Quote from: Dundonnell on Friday 18 November 2011, 15:40
Three works by Malcolm Williamson will be uploaded shortly:
Piano Concerto No.2 (for piano and strings: 1960) in a performance in which the composer is the soloist. The work is not available on cd.
Serenade and Aubade for strings(two movements from his Symphonic Variations of 1965): authorised as a separate work.
Hammarskjold Portrait for soprano and strings(1974) sung by April Cantelo and not otherwise available.
Hard to be sure whether works by Williamson should go here. Arthur Benjamin seems to have become an honorary Englishman ;D
Many thanks for these. I did wonder if I was the only person in the world who admired Malcolm's music!
Quote from: hattoff on Monday 28 November 2011, 17:36
Many thanks for these. I did wonder if I was the only person in the world who admired Malcolm's music!
There's a few of us around! ;D
Last Monday (21st), the ABC celebrated what would have been his 80th birthday with an afternoon of his music, comprising the 2nd PC, and several large scale works commercially unavailable. I taped it all, but my equipment for digitizing has to be replaced so it's yet another item in the "pending" tray! :'(
Most appreciated. Sounds great. :)
For people who have trouble hearing the pianists announced in the first track of the (worth hearing!) introduction of the Kelly, one has a Wikipedia page, and the other a website - they're a brother-sister team Michael Kieran-Harvey and Bernadette Harvey-Balkus.
Have wondered what this lovely-seeming piece would sound like (since it is indeed the opus 5 "in question" that was scanned in by the NLA) and the answer is- well, 4 minutes in ... :) ... lovely!!! - Looking forward to the fugue.)
(The tracks are,
1. Introduction (announcer) ;
2.Theme and Variations I and II ;
3. Variations III-VI ;
4. Variations VII-XI and Fugue.
The tempo indications of the various variations are, for those w/o access to IMSLP or the National Library of Australia site or with access to them but whose PDF reader won't read the file (as happens to me with some),
Theme: Andante con moto
Var. I: Poco animato
Var. II: Allegro agitato
Var. III: Andante mosso
Var. IV Energico e agitato (lo stesso tempo)
Var. V Allegro con brio
Var. VI Andante con moto, piùttosto allegretto
Var. VII Andante con moto
Var. VIII Adagio
Var. IX Allegretto, ma non troppo
Var. X Leggiero e scintillante
Var. XI Poco sostenuto e maestoso
Fugue. Allegro vivace.
Thanks, Atsushi, for the downloads of two young Australian composer's music :)
Both pieces are pretty avant-garde pieces and the Dorman doesn't do much for me but you are quite correct in saying that the Kats-Chernin is 'colourful' ;D
If young avant-garde composers write music which is rich and warm in its sonority-as this is-and colourfully orchestrated with a sense of real grandeur then not only do I have no difficulty with it I welcome and embrace the music :)
.....oh, I see Elena Kats-Chernin is 54 years old so perhaps 'young' is a bit misleading ;D
The Kats-Chernin symphony is incredible!!!! Thanks for downloading this for us! Malito
Kats-Chernin has written some much more 'lighter' music. I have a fantastic disc of her music that has a lot of ragtime and salon type pieces, with I don't believe any avant-garde sound at all.
Quote from: TerraEpon on Friday 27 January 2012, 20:48
Kats-Chernin has written some much more 'lighter' music. I have a fantastic disc of her music that has a lot of ragtime and salon type pieces, with I don't believe any avant-garde sound at all.
Yes, I thought she was best known in Australia for her rags and piano pieces (notably
Russian Rag), but I see that she had a single item in the ABC's Top 100 20thC music list, her ballet music
Wild Swans. She is the composer-in-residence of the Queensland SO in Brisbane.
She's not really an "unsung" - at least not here in Australia. :)
I'm glad to hear comment by everyone. Well, Both works are 'avant-garde'. But at the same time ,I felt both works are very interesting.
I didn't know name of Kats-Chernin is well known at Australia. But maybe her name will well known around the world soon. :D
Quote from: A.S on Saturday 28 January 2012, 01:31
I didn't know name of Kats-Chernin is well known at Australia. But maybe her name will well known around the world soon. :D
This raises the issue - perhaps best to avoid! - of what constitues an "unsung composer", since one may be "unsung" in some places and not in others. ;)
Well Kats Chernin, whatever her merits, is very well known.
Quote from: isokani on Saturday 28 January 2012, 20:43
Well Kats Chernin ...is very well known.
But not outside Australia, surely? ???
I've posted the
Violin Concerto of Australian Composer
Ian Cugley in the Downloads section. (He did also spend much of his live in Tasmania and the UK—but the Australians call them his own.) I'd have to say he was one of the most interesting characters I've run across here, and can't resist sharing more about him, not just in terms of what must have been an original personality, but also what we may grow to expect in the "footprint" composers will leave in the digital age going forward.. I've also found out more about the soloist on this recording. Please pardon the epic-length announcement.
About Ian Cugley: (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Ian_Cugley_%282005%29.jpg/800px-Ian_Cugley_%282005%29.jpg)
Wikepedia Entry: He was born in Melbourne in 1945. He gained early prominence with two orchestral works, Pan, the Lake and Prelude for Orchestra, which were performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1967 and subsequently recorded on EMI. His career after then was less spectacular, and he had a propensity for hiding away and concentrating on composition without seeming overly concerned with performance. He rarely attended performances of his music unless they happened to be close at hand.
He lectured in Music and Computing at the University of Tasmania for many years, including a period in charge of the small Music department there, and was a percussionist with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. During his time in Tasmania he wrote mainly chamber music, usually on commission for bodies or performers outside Tasmania. A
notable exception is the Violin Concerto commissioned by the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music for Jan Sedivka, who was soloist at the first performance in 1980 (with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Patrick Thomas).Cugley left Tasmania in the early 1980s to go to the United Kingdom and virtually disappeared into the Dorset countryside, gaining a meagre income by selling his watercolour paintings, and then as a part-time lecturer in computing in Bournemouth and London.
Unable to work for many years because of illness, he broke his silence and returned to composing only in the last years of his life. Since he was largely forgotten in his own country, and unknown in the UK, performances were few. He regarded this as an advantage, not only because he resented the work involved in preparing for performance as a distraction from composing itself, but also because he was acutely shy and hated being present when his music was performed.
He claimed to hear only the wrong notes when his music was played.In 2010 he was working again on a set of symphonies first started in 1973.
His stated ambition was to die before they were complete, to save all the fuss associated with performance.He died in November 2010, aged 65.
From the Australian Music Centre: Self Portrait in Charcoal
(http://cdn.australianmusiccentre.com.au/images/par_211_150w.jpg)
Australian-born composer
Ian Cugley passed away on 4 November in the UK. A former student of Peter Sculthorpe, Cugley came to prominence through his 1960s orchestral works Pan, the Lake and Prelude for orchestra. Prior to his move to the UK in the 1980s, he was active in Tasmania where he composed, taught music and computing at the University of Tasmania, and worked as a percussionist.
Since his move to the UK, and partly due to his deteriorating health, Cugley no longer considered himself an active composer.
'I used to be a composer, reasonably well recognised in my own country, but I don't do that now and I tend not to dwell on the past', he stated on his website. His friend and former composition teacher, however, considered Cugley as one of his most gifted students. Sculthorpe and Cugley maintained their friendship through sporadic correspondence:
'While I was deeply concerned about his health problems, his letters, always quirkily-expressed, were remarkably cheerful. He kept me abreast of the music that he was writing and the physical difficulties involved in committing it to paper', said Sculthorpe.
Cugley's Pan, the Lake, recorded by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1968, was based on a theme from Sculthorpe's Irkanda IV.
'Now, whenever I hear this piece, thoughts of Ian will come flooding into my heart. After Ian died, his sister Mavis told me that he'd recently managed to write a guitar solo for his son James. He also wrote a string quartet for a friend. All his life, he took joy in writing music for those who were dear to him. I treasure the fact that he wrote his Little Adagio for strings especially for my fiftieth birthday, in 1979. He was a special composer and a special friend', said Sculthorpe.
Tasmanian composer Don Kay met Cugley in the late 1960s. He remembers Cugley as a multitalented artist who had a formidable intellect but who also harboured many personal demons.
'I first met Ian Cugley when he came to dinner at my house in Hobart in 1969. He had arrived that very day to take up his position of Tutor of Music at the University of Tasmania, at the invitation of Rex Hobcroft, then Lecturer of Music there. By the time Ian left Hobart in 1982, he had established a high reputation as a teacher of harmony and analysis at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music. His students responded to him with great respect and much affection. His own specially devised book on harmony became something of a Bible to them.'
'Perhaps his major work, before leaving Hobart, was his very challenging Violin Concerto, written for and premiered by Jan Sedivka in the late 1970s, with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. I particularly remember a piano work, Aquarelles (notable for its intricate and delicate traceries of sound), which was broadcast on the ABC by Beryl Sedivka in 1971, in a program of works by Tasmanian composers. Ian possessed a wry and charming self-depreciating sense of humour, as well as impressive artistic talents. I feel very sad that his personal difficulties deprived us of a more significant body of work', Kay said.
________________________________________
by Stefan Karpiniec on 25 November, 2010, 5:35pm Near the end of my time as a student at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music I heard Ian somewhat cynically lament: "There are two types of students, those who will learn it anyway, no matter what you do, and those who will never learn it, no matter what you do". As far as I was concerned this was far from the truth, for Ian's teaching expanded both my concept and understanding of "it" far more than would have ever happened had I been left to my own devices. His lectures were engaging, erudite and delivered with both passion and scintillating wit. I found them so attractive that I would fill my quota of elective units each semester first by selecting anything with Ian's name attached to it, and then anything else of interest. Among the units I studied with him were Australian Music since 1950, European Music since 1960, Electronic Music I & II, Orchestration I & II and Japanese Music. He was a sociable teacher, supplementing his formal classes with "listening nights", when we would gather at someone's residence equipped with quantities of both relevant recordings and alcohol, and listen to and discuss works such as Hymnen or Drumming until the early hours.
Ian always stressed the primacy of actual sound above its representation printed on a page, once remarking "a musicologist is a person who can read music but can't hear it", a statement which still causes me feelings of annoyance and guilt, as to this day I am unable to analyse music as well aurally as I can by looking at a score. He used metaphor very effectively in his teaching, and I well remember him comparing the development of western harmony from c.1600 to the late 19th century to the evolution of the bodywork of the 1957 Studebaker (or some similar car).
He was keen to spread the word to the wider community, co-hosting (with Anne Shirley) a contemporary music program on community radio (7CAE FM/ THE FM), was active in running the station, also contributing articles, cartoons and other artwork to its magazine. Along the way he taught me how to record a concert, and how to broadcast, all with his usual precision and dry humour:
Me (on first entering the radio studio): "Tell me how this works",
Ian: "I can't tell you how it works. I can tell you how to use it".
I regained contact with Ian about seven years ago, at which time he seemed to be publicly admitting an interest in music again, and I sent him a recording of the "Voices of History" concert http://www.bicentenary.tas.gov.au/events/event.php?id=21 performed to mark Hobart's 200th anniversary, which opened with his Canzona for brass and organ. I lost his email address subsequent to that, but found him again via facebook about a year ago, and am pleased to have had insight into his thoughts and the occasional exchange with him over that time. The date of the last entry on his facebook page is that of the day before his death. His sense of humour had not deserted him.
His facebook comments also reveal that he had started to compose again, although he made characteristic self-deprecatory remarks about his endeavours in a comment to Michael Sydney Jones:
"Paint — no, eyesight precludes. Write — not really, can't remember how to spell and the few words I can spell I can't type. Compose — I pretend. "Going through the motions" is a phrase more often associated with swimming near a sewage outlet, but it's more or less what I do, and with similar results"
I remember many people with affection for having helped develop my passion for music, but I value Ian above all others for helping me to understand it.
Recollections by Helgart Mahler:
In Tasmania I also met the composer Ian Cugley, a highly intelligent man and unusually generous with his time and insights. We had regular discussion sessions and in subtle ways he taught me an enormous lot. Not how to compose, but by constant feedback and probing questions he helped me analyse and gain a more intelligent control of the direction in which my work was going.
Internet Footprint: The use of the internet by today's composers offers some interesting capabilities to document them further, but also some drawback. Cugley had both his own website (which is no longer active ), a facebook page (which doesn't seem to make any of his specific posts available anymore-- ), and it seems he was also involved in an the help center chat group for the music software program Sibelius. I'm reproducing some of his posts on the Digeridoo and classical music notation from that site, as I think it gives some insight into the man and his values.
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?com=thread&start=484264&groupid=3&&guest=1#484316 (http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?com=thread&start=484264&groupid=3&&guest=1#484316)
QuoteRe: Sib. 5.x: Notation Of a Didgeridoo
Posted by Ian Cugley - 15 Feb 10:52AM
There are some specific shapes derived from indigenous Australian symbols which are sometimes used to indicate the specific blowing or choking techniques. I imagine these could be turned in simplified graphic shapes for notational purposes, though I know of no consensus about ways of writing for this instrument.
In the scores I've seen there is usually just a line to show where the player should improvise and no indication of what the player should do. I never know who gets the royalties in such as case, but it ought not to be to the sole benefit of the 'composer'.
Here's one example of figurative notation:
http://www.ausbushcraft.com.au/html/Didgeridoo_Notation.html (http://www.ausbushcraft.com.au/html/Didgeridoo_Notation.html)
QuoteRe: Sib. 5.x: Notation Of a Didgeridoo
Posted by Ian Cugley - 15 Feb 06:47PM
>perhaps you can focus some of your research efforts on how other 'Drone' style instruments get scored for.
I'm sorry to come over all schoolmarmish, but it's not overly polite (and possibly not PC, for those who would endose such a term) to call this instrument a drone — you might well call a cello a drone because it has open strings. I was at the first performance in 1971 of the Dreyfus/Winunguj sextet you linked to and the sounds were anything but drone-like or monophonic. The range of overtones, multiphonics, screeches, growls and rasps is considerable, even with traditional playing styles (which George Winunguj used). What some of the current rock- or pop-oriented players do nowadays is astonishing. Stockhausen would have given his right arm for some of the noises . . .
The score at that link is one of those I was thinking of when I spoke in my earlier post of 'just a line to show where the player should improvise'.
QuoteRe: Sib. 5.x: Notation Of a Didgeridoo
Posted by Ian Cugley - 16 Feb 10:51AM (edited 16 Feb 10:52AM)
Jim said:
>Where did the 'Derogatory Overtone' come from in my using the term 'Drone'?
I'm sorry. I've fallen into the trap of taking offence on behalf of others. I was being schoolmarmish, though without the bicycle. Cellos have a nice overtone series too, so if I have offended any cellists I'm sorry for that too.
Although I seem to have made the point intemperately, the point still has some validity, though impressions and tastes will vary: the didgeridoo rarely functions as a drone either in (what remains of) tribal musics or in most Western-style music. Much the same is true of the cello.
It has to be admitted that some earlier Australian composers who hadn't heard the instrument except in recordings might have attempted to imitate or evoke the didgeridoo sound with a drone. This convention rebounded on me with a piece of mine which began with that most European of devices, a pedal point, and that most characteristic of Latin instruments, claves. The critics assumed immediately that I was writing 'aboriginal' music, with the 'drone' of the didgeridoo and the clicking of message sticks. I was offended that they assumed that I might think that that was what a didgeridoo was like. Perhaps I'm still smarting from that insult and was more dogmatic in my earlier post than I ought to have been.
Tangent #1: If you Google "Sibelius" and "Ian Cugley", you'll find more. It is almost like stumbling across a cache of letters by the composer—but for the moment they are accessible to all. However, unless someone backs them up and preserves them, they may disappear like the content on his web site and likely his facebook page. There are web-catching programs out there that "mirror: and preserve a given site for a given point in time. (As the infamous Heaven's Gate s site which is preserved in mirrors after the infamous mass suicide closed the original.) I'm wondering how current music historians are approaching the issue of preserving a composer's internet footprint. It's a shame to let it all wither.
Tangent #2: Another idea I find fascinating (but then again, I'm a geek) is that he was writing Sibelius plugins and sharing them, a couple for Harp are documented here
http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?category=22 (http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?category=22)
This is a total tangent, but I can't help but wonder where composers can go with plugins, and writing scripts for composing software. I must admit that one thing I've always wanted to do with the Harmony Assistant software program I use (from time to time) is to write a script that can generate an orchestra version of Terry Riley's In C, where groups of instruments will be in unison, rather than each instrument. I've got an algorithm in my head for using a variant of markov chains to control the behavior for each group—but I've never had time to chase this down.
Back to the subject: Cugley's MySpace Blog is still in existence here, most written in the last year of his life.
http://www.myspace.com/dadcug/blog (http://www.myspace.com/dadcug/blog)
Something from there you would never expect a composer of this Violin Concerto, or someone with an interest in classical percussion to admit:
QuoteTurning to domestic news, James has bought himself Guitar Hero World Tour for the X-Box, and thus now owns three plastic toy guitars, a microphone, and a small electronic drum kit. I have secretly practiced the drum part of Michael Jackson's Beat It, and I can get 93% on Easy (76% on Medium). .
I've also found his son's journal-- http://damiancugley.livejournal.com (http://damiancugley.livejournal.com)/ . I'm not sure how much he appreciated his father's music (Adam Ant was one of the son's "faves"), but he clearly appreciated him and a very creative and caring person.
Soloist: In this case, I've also found something about the soloist in this recording:
(http://media.australianmusiccentre.com.au/images/static/jan_sedivka.jpg)
Jan Sedivka (1917-2009) made a career as a concert violinist and as one of Australia's most important music pedagogues. Sedivka was born in Czechoslovakia and continued his musical training in France and England. He moved to Australia in the 1960s and, after some years in Queensland, soon found his home in Tasmania. There he became the influential teacher of generations of string players who went on to take positions in orchestras all over Australia and abroad. Sedivka was also known as a performer to whom many Australian composers (Larry Sitsky, James Penberthy,
Ian Cugley, Don Kay, Colin Brumby, Edward Cowie, Eric Gross) dedicated their works. Prof Sedivka was the Director of the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music from 1972 to 1982, and taught regularly at the Shanghai Conservatorium of Music in China. He held the positions of Honorary Professor both in Shanghai University and University of Tasmania, and was the Master Musician in Residence at the University of Tasmania Conservatorium from his retirement in 1983 until his death. Read University of Tasmania's tribute for Jan Sedivka.
I've posted a link for Gerad Brophy: Concerto for Amplified Violin and Orchestra "Exu" (1983) in the downloads folder.
He is still active, and does a lot of work integrating electronics and third world elements with orchestral compositions.
(http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/image/3823732-1x1-340x340.bmp)
A bio from his own website:
http://gerardbrophy.com.au/ (http://gerardbrophy.com.au/)
Bio from his site:
After an increasingly musical adolescence, Gerard Brophy began his studies in the classical guitar at the age of twenty-two. In the late seventies he worked closely with Brazilian guitarist Turibio Santos and the Argentine composer Mauricio Kagel before studying composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music.
He has been commissioned and performed by some of the world's leading ensembles, including the Melbourne, Queensland, Tasmanian, West Australian, Sydney and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras: the Malaysian Philharmonic; and the BBC Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras, to name a few. Over recent years he has developed a keen interest in collaborating with artists from other disciplines and he is particularly active in the areas of ballet, dance and electronica. He has also been involved in exciting collaborations with musicians from other cultures among them the great Senegalese master drummers, the N'Diaye Rose family, and the timbila virtuoso Venancio Mbande from Mozambique.
Recent performances include the sell-out season of his ballet Yo Yai Pakebi, Man Mai Yapobi choreographed by Regina van Berkel and performed by the Residentie Orkest and the Nederlands Dans Theater; the premiere seasons of Semele and Halcyon as part of the Australian Ballet's highly successful INTERPLAY and EDGE OF NIGHT programmes, and the Song Company's tour of Gethsemane, his contemporary passion play.
Currently he divides his time between Brisbane and Calcutta.
Another blurb I've dug up:
Gerard Brophy is a contemporary Australian composer. His music has been performed at all the major festivals including the Gaudeamus Music Week, Warsaw Autumn, Nuove Consonanza, Nuovi Spazi Musicali and the Zagreeb Biennale.
Gerard Brophy began his music studies in classical guitar. He studied composition with Don Banks, Anthony Gilbert and Richard Toop at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and graduated as Student of the Year in 1982. Brophy has been awarded numerous composition prizes here and overseas and his works have been selected for performance at the 1981, 1984, 1986 and 1991 ISCM World Music Days.
Brophy has received Australia Council Composer Fellowship, an Italian government scholarship and scholarships from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena and the Paris Conservatoire. His music has been commissioned and performed by some of the world's leading ensembles - the St Louis, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, Nash Ensemble, Het Nieuw Ensemble, Gruppo Musica d'Oggi, Het Trio, Chicago Pro Musica, Ensemble Octandre and Ensemble l'Itineraire, and it has been regularly broadcast in Europe, Japan, United States and Australia. In late 1983, Brophy was appointed the inaugural Composer-in-Residence at Musica Viva Australia. This was followed by other residencies with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Queensland Conservatorium and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.
Here is a brief "audio" Bio from the Austrailian Broadcasting Corp
http://www.abc.net.au/classic/nma/img/brophy.mp3 (http://www.abc.net.au/classic/nma/img/brophy.mp3)
Violin Concerto by George Tibbits has been posted in the downloads section.
(http://voice.unimelb.edu.au/sites/voice.unimelb.edu.au/files/voice/v8n01/Tibbits_0.jpg)
University of Melbourne
Guide to George Tibbits' Papers
George Richard Tibbits was born in Boulder, Western Australia, 7th November 1933 and was educated at State schools in W.A. and Colac, Victoria, and at The University of Melbourne (B. Arch. Dip. TRP). An architectural historian, George Tibbitts has studied and reported on the history of a number of University buildings, an activity he has continued since his retirement from the Architecture School. As a composer, he is largely self-taught, acquiring a theoretical grounding through the study of composers such as Schonberg and Cage. "Indeed," he wrote in 1976, "as an outsider in music, I have been greatly stimulated by the critical disinterest and hostility which my participation has created". Tibbits was a foundation member of the Carlton Association in it siege against the Victorian Housing Commission's notions of 'slum' clearance and urban renewal. For related information see both the Carlton Association Records and the Frank Strahan Papers.
Wikipedia:
George Richard Tibbits (7 November 1933 - 6 July 2008) [1] was an Australian composer and architect.
Tibbits was born in Boulder, Western Australia, to a family of mining prospectors, and when his father returned wounded from the First World War, the family moved to Colac, Victoria, to take up dairying. He studied architecture at the University of Melbourne, [2] and eventually taught urban studies and architectural history there and established the urban studies program. He initiated the first heritage conservation study, the Beechworth Historical Reconstruction Project. He was also prominent in opposing the former Housing Commission's slum reclamation project in inner Melbourne.
He was not formally trained in music and worked outside of the main channels of art music production in Australia. At age 16 he wrote his first major work, Otway Ranges Symphony. His early works show the influence of his interest in the music of Indonesia, as well as American modernists such as Milton Babbitt and John Cage.[3] He would often jot down pieces of tunes while travelling on public transport. Late in the 1950s, he concentrated on works depicting what he referred to as the 'brutalist' aspects of urban civilization, but by the 1960s had returned to a more lyrical style. He became more interested in rock and pop music after a 1965 trip to England to work on urban planning.[3] Later compositions incorporate elements of parody and collage. He set some poems by Vin Buckley to music for soprano and orchestra, as Golden Builders. 1976 was a setting of a 1906 newspaper article describing a massacre of aborigines in Gippsland. He wrote 45 works in total, and all but one were given performances by professional orchestras or chamber groups. They include 5 string quartets, an octet for wind called Battue, and other works. [1]
In 1975 he won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award.
At the end of the Wikipedia article on the Australian composer Dorian Le Gallienne, whose delightful Sinfonietta I have reuploaded tonight, there is a link to a paper on Australian Symphonies of the 1950s written by Dr. Rhoderick McNeill of the University of Southern Queensland.
It is well worth reading as a corrective to the far too common alternative view which I read recently when I did a Google search for Horace Perkins. That alternative runs along the lines of:
'Before Peter Sculthorpe came along Australian Music was hopelessly old-fashioned and out of date, beholden to the influence of conservative British composers with whom many Australians had studied or by whom they were too heavily influenced, composers like Vaughan Williams, Ireland, Bax, Herbert Howells and Gordon Jacob. Until Australian Music could break free of these colonial cultural bonds there was no possibility of establishing an independent Australian music culture or identity.' (I paraphrase ;D)
McNeill's excellent paper discusses those fine Australian composers like Alfred Hill, Robert Hughes and Dorian Le Gallienne whose music has been consigned to a stereotyped ghetto in modern Australia and is virtually never heard now in that country.
Well worth your attention if you like the music of Alfred Hill or Robert Hughes :)
Joanna Drimatis wrote her thesis covering this period, and focusing on Hughes's first symphony, and the appendices provide a detailed listing of unpublished works by several composers of that period, including Dorian Le Gallienne, All told, this is a labor of love running more than 600 pages.
http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/63475/4/01front.pdf (http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/63475/4/01front.pdf)
http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/63475/1/04concl-append-list_of_sources_v.2.pdf (http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/63475/1/04concl-append-list_of_sources_v.2.pdf)
She also wrote an article about some of the issues and versions of Hughes magnificent first symphony.
http://www.jmro.org.au/papers/Drimatis-Hughes-2011-128.pdf (http://www.jmro.org.au/papers/Drimatis-Hughes-2011-128.pdf)
Bill, it was my upload and I just checked it and got it to download.
Here's the link again: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?szf75oc5p6ehbyp (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?szf75oc5p6ehbyp)
If someone else has problems, let me know please and I'll re upload it.
Jerry
That Le Gallienne Sinfonietta (in A, in case anybody was wondering) is absolutely delightful! Is there a movement listing anywhere?
Quote from: JimL on Saturday 25 February 2012, 16:25
That Le Gallienne Sinfonietta (in A, in case anybody was wondering) is absolutely delightful! Is there a movement listing anywhere?
Jim--Here is what I have:
1. Allegro
2.Andante molto tranquillo
3. Allegro con spirito
Great! I'm going to split this puppy up, and put it on a CD with a monster concerto!
I have put in the Australian Music folder a great fun piece by Sir Malcolm Williamson written for the 1971 Last Night of the Proms:
The Stone Wall - A Cassation for Audience and Orchestra
BBC Chorus, BBC Choral Society, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis
(from a long-out-of-print BBC cassette)
He wrote some other Cassations (see http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_c/cassations.htm ) - does anyone know if any have ever been recorded?
(I also put this into the British Music folder...)
Quote from: semloh on Sunday 29 January 2012, 03:03
Quote from: isokani on Saturday 28 January 2012, 20:43
Well Kats Chernin ...is very well known.
But not outside Australia, surely? ???
The "Eliza aria" from her
Wild Swans suite was used in Lloyds TSB's 2007 ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3xe9dSY7zM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3xe9dSY7zM)
Quote from: MikeW on Sunday 29 April 2012, 12:15
Quote from: semloh on Sunday 29 January 2012, 03:03
Quote from: isokani on Saturday 28 January 2012, 20:43
Well Kats Chernin ...is very well known.
But not outside Australia, surely? ???
The "Eliza aria" from her Wild Swans suite was used in Lloyds TSB's 2007 ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3xe9dSY7zM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3xe9dSY7zM)
It would be nice to think her music was known beyond the big brown land, Mike, but I expect few British people would know it was composed by Kats-Chernin. ::)
I didn't make any claims to her wide notoriety, but I expect few British people know who composed much of anything outside of classical pops really.
Radio Broadcasts of two Exotic Works
I'm placing The Heart of the Night (by Ross Edwards) and Rain Forest by Graeme Koehne in the downloads folder. Both are radio broadcasts, and they make a nice pair.
Ross Edwards: The Heart of the Night
(http://www.hindson.com.au/ross/RossEdwardsNo9.jpg)
This is some very mystical, meditative music- it seems to combine a part for a bass Shakuhachi (Japanese) flute, but much of the accompaniment reminds me of the free-metered Alap that opens a work of Hindustani classical music. Whatever it is , I really like it, but you need to be in a contemplative mood. One thing you''ll find out after the broadcast was that this work was performed in nearly complete darkness, until the last few bars which were performed in total darkness. His comments are also very informative at the end of the work.
Here are the performance details:
Ross Edwards: The Heart of Night
Riley Lee, Shakuhachi
West Australian Symphony Orchestra
Paul Daniel, Conductor
26 Jan 2007, (Radio Broadcast-)
1- Radio Intro
2. The Heart of the Night
3. Interview with Composer
Anyway, this seems to be the standard bio from his press kit:
Ross Edwards (b. 1943)
Australian composer Ross Edwards has created a unique sound world which seeks to reconnect music with elemental forces and restore such qualities as ritual, spontaneity and the impulse to dance. His early teachers included Peter Sculthorpe, Richard Meale and Sandor Veress and he also studied with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in Australia and in London. Intensely aware of his vocation as a composer, he has largely followed his own path, rejecting most of the standard prerequisites for career development and depending on the music's ability to speak for itself. He gratefully acknowledges the award of two Keating Fellowships in the 1990s as having been crucial in his development
Edwards considers it his responsibility to make the most effective use of one of the planet's most potent forces to communicate vividly and widely at the highest possible artistic level. His music, whose global significance has been acknowledged, is at the same time deeply connected to its roots in Australia, whose cultural diversity it celebrates, and from whose natural environment it draws many of its shapes and patterns - notably birdsong and the mysterious drones of summer insects. Edwards' belief in the healing power of music is reflected in a body of meditational works inspired by the Australian landscape.
Ross Edwards' compositions, which are performed worldwide, include symphonies, concertos, chamber and vocal music, children's music, film scores and music for dance. Works designed for the concert hall sometimes require special lighting, movement, costume and visual accompaniment. Recent works include the highly acclaimed oboe concerto Bird Spirit Dreaming, commissioned for the Sydney Symphony, whose U.S. premiere was given in February 2005 by Diana Doherty, Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic; and The Heart of Night, premiered in April 2005 by the shakuhachi master Riley Lee, Hiroyuki Iwaki and the Melbourne Symphony. His 5th Symphony - The Promised Land, with a text by David Malouf, will be given its world premiere in October 2006 by the Sydney Symphony and Sydney Children's Choir. Edwards' work has won numerous accolades and awards, the most recent of which, APRA/AMC's 'Best Orchestral Work for 2005', is for the ABC Classics recording of his Guitar Concerto by Karin Schaupp, Richard Mills and the Tasmanian Symphony.
Ross Edwards bases himself in Sydney where he lives with his wife Helen, spending as much time as possible working in his studio in the Blue Mountains. His music is mainly published by Ricordi London www.ricordi.co.uk For more information and a complete catalogue of works and recordings, see his website www.rossedwards.com
Finally, from his site, these are his notes for the work:
The Heart of Night (2004, rev. 2005)
For shakuhachi and orchestra
In 1995 I began to compose for the shakuhachi, a five-holed end-blown Japanese bamboo flute originally played by mendicant Buddhist priests. An apparently simple instrument, it's capable, in the hands of a master performer, of an astonishing range of expression and colour. In the 18th century it flourished under the auspices of the Kinko school, whose legacy is a repertory of profound meditational solos known as honkyoku.
For years people had been observing that the phraseology of some of my more quiescent compositions, especially The Tower of Remoteness (1978) for clarinet and piano, recalls the classical honkyoku pieces. This had hap- pened naturally: I'd come to regard certain of my own works as musical contemplation objects and my source of inspiration was the timeless and mysterious continuum of the natural sound world, especially the insect chorus. And since these works were designed to focus attention inwards and create trance-like stillness, the similarity to the honkyoku was as inevitable as my being drawn to compose for the shakuhachi.
With Riley Lee's encouragement I composed Raft Song at Sunrise (1995) for Riley to perform at an exhibition of Ross Mellick's bamboo construction 'Raft No. 3′ at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in January 1996. Later that year Riley made an important contribution to my music for Bruce Beresford's feature film Paradise Road. Our collaboration has continued over the years with such works as Tyalgum Mantras (1999), in which the shakuhachi is joined by didjeridu and percussion; and Dawn Mantras, my piece for Australia's new millenium telecast to the world from the sails of the Sydney Opera House, which has solos for shakuhachi as well as saxophone, didjeiridu and child soprano.
Having combined the shakuhachi with voices and other instruments, the logical next step was to compose for shakuhachi and orchestra. The Heart of Night, commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony and Symphony Australia, explores the intuitive "night" mode of consciousness in which linear, or clock time is suspended and lis- teners are invited to turn their attention inwards in present-centered contemplation. This is not the sort of listening normally associated with western concert halls where symphonic dramas are played out. It's actually the response you'd expect to the traditional honkyoku pieces which have the effect of relaxing the body while keeping the mind calmly alert. This capacity to still the unquiet mind has been universally recognised through the ages as one of music's great blessings to humanity, but it's been neglected in the western world in recent centuries. One cause for optimism in these turbulent times is that we're beginning to rediscover its importance.
The Heart of Night was first performed in Hamer Hall, Melbourne, on 7 April 2005. The soloist was Riley Lee, to whom the work is dedicated, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Hiroyuki Iwaki.
Rain Forest, by Graeme Koehne
(http://www.graemekoehne.com/images/gallery09.jpg)
Another "Non-Western" Australian work. Koehne started as a major follow of Boulez, and has been on an anti-modernist trajectory, where now he is writing extremely triadic, melodic music. "Rain Forest" stands somewhere in the middle, like a mixture of Ravel and early Messaien. A bit edgier than the Edwards, but still sounds more impressionist than modernist to me.
Details:
Graeme Koehne,. Rain Forest
Australian Youth Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conduction
14 Sept, 1990 (Radio Broadcast)
1. Radio Intro
2. Rain Forest
3. Radio Outro
Bio (Wikipedia= I think.)
Graeme Koehne (born 3 August 1956) is an Australian composer and music educator. He is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of triadic tonality. His orchestral trilogy Unchained Melody, Powerhouse, and Elevator Music makes allusions to Hollywood film score traditions, cartoon music, popular Latin music and other dance forms. He cites influences from "much-maligned and misunderstood" work by composers Les Baxter, Nelson Riddle, Henry Mancini and John Barry.
Koehne was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, studying composition with Richard Meale.
In 1984, Koehne was awarded the Harkness Fellowship to work at the School of Music, Yale University. Here he studied with Louis Andriessen and Jacob Druckman. For two years of the fellowship he also took private lessons with Virgil Thomson in New York, whose influence is immediately discernible in the radically simplified, direct and anti-modern style of subsequent scores.[1]
He returned to Australia in 1986 and was appointed Lecturer in Composition at the Elder Conservatorium of Music.
He gained national attention at the 1992 Adelaide Festival of Arts when he was awarded the Young Composers Prize for his orchestral work Rainforest. Around this time, Graeme commenced his long and fruitful collaboration with choreographer Graeme Murphy, which included a children's ballet based on Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant and the full-length work Nearly Beloved.
As of 2005, Koehne is Head of Composition at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. Until recently he also chaired the Music Board of the Australia Council and was a Board Member of the Council.
jowcol - thank you for the opportunity to hear these pieces, by two of Australia's most valued composers. Greatly appreciated! :)
Ross Edwards' violin concerto - Maninyas - popped up on the "most uplifting music" thread and is much loved here. Graham Koehne is very prolific, and well-recorded, but I think perhaps he is best known for the very short Elevator Music (1997) and the (naturally! ;D) longer In-Flight Entertainment (2000). He has an informative webpage, which includes details of his compositions at: http://www.graemekoehne.com/music.html
Is there anyplace I can get the movements of the Glanville-Hicks Viola Concerto? I'm listening to it now. Like what I've heard so far. :)
Hrm. Australian Music Centre gives just that the Concerto Romantico (http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/workversion/glanville-hicks-peggy-concerto-romantico/494) was composed in 1956 (not 1957) and dedicated to Walter Trampler.
However: The Free Library Catalog of Philadelphia has score and parts (published 1957 - grah, will people stop taking date of publication for date of composition, I should shut up about that.. right.. but I won't)
and gives
Maestoso -- Lento moderato e molto espressivo -- Molto spiritoso.
Much obliged! ;D
Peggy Glanville-Hicks' opera Sappho is getting its first recording now and should be available in a few months. This is her centenary year, and also that of its librettist Lawrence Durrell.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/forgotten-opera-rises-from-ruins-20120731-23cs1.html