Music by Australian Composers

[Paddys]

Here's a little something by Sefton Daly.

Sefton Daly Brown Study.PDF

I believe he plays the Brown Study himself in a movie 'Wherever She Goes', a movie about Australian pianist Eileen Joyce. The Brown Study is charming and ever so slightly Schumannesque.

P.

[fredbucket]

Here's a little something by Sefton Daly.

Very neat. A quick search via Google came up with this - http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=5296- perhaps Iano or Davida would know more.

Regards
Fred

[puffermcsmith]

Hello,
I heard a great arrangement of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" made by Grainger. Here is a youtube audio clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDosOA7ru9E.
Does anyone have the sheet music? I couldn't find it in on the internet for sale or otherwise.
Thank you for your time.

[FW190]

Hi,
the full text of a 1988 book on Australian composers by John Jenkins can be read at the NMA archive:
http://www.rainerlinz.net/NMA/22CAC/TOC.html

Regards,

Leo

[davida march]

I had a class today with Larry Sitsky and David Bollard, Larry has a very low opinion of Grainger in regards to Australian identity, he told this story today though, it was hilarious...

It's a shame that many of the older Australian musical identities like Larry still affect this attitude, especially those who have not bothered to investigate very far. But then, there are others, like Vincent Plush, who have moved forward and are helping in the process of reappraisal of a whole era of music-making. Vincent is of the view that it would be more productive if the Australian musical chattering classes would concern themselves less with the evanescent 'Australian sound' or Australian identity' (laughably cringeworthy ideas in some ways) and be open enough to want to learn more about our real heritage, warts 'n' all. Included in that heritage would be all those composers we have, for one reason or another, forgotten about or relegated, mostly without really listening to or playing them. As for the jibes about Percy and his whips: too predictable and superficial for words. One would expect more from a putative intellectual like Sitsky.

Davida would remember the Grainger centenary 'celebrations' in Melbourne back in 1982. There was a terrific lecture recital given by Ronald Stevenson at the Conservatorium, to an audience of perhaps twenty people. The persistence of the prejudice against Grainger is a curious thing. It was alive in the 1980s and is alive still. And yet, just as Constant Lambert said of English critics regarding Satie, once you ask Grainger haters what they have heard, you realise that their opinions are based on very little knowledge of the actual music. I stand to be corrected, but has there ever been a performance of the complete Jungle Book settings here in Oz? I doubt it. Whenever I suggest it to promoters, choirs and ensembles, I am met with polite but bemused indifference, despite the fact that is the best music by one of our best composers.

Yes - 1982 was the best year of my life. Only Melbourne could create the genius of Grainger and the rest of the world is jealous, hence jibes at Australian identity. That year I lived opposite the Grainger Museum, although not in homage http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collectio ... er/museum/; attended the great play Percy & Rose http://www.singlelane.com/proplay/percy.html with a fashion designer at the MTC with self in a leather jacket (a mild faux pas) & him proclaiming - you musicians are really weird; did that abomination of a Grainger recording (supposed to sound like gamelans) using mallets on the A strings with a well-known Australian harpist and soprano actually lying over the sustaining pedals - we managed to miss every A even though we only had to line up the mallets every 16 bars & made my own clothing modelled on:

[fredbucket]

Yes - 1982 was the best year of my life.

Will you be celebrating the 30th anniversary, and if so, what kind of party and where?

Only Melbourne could create the genius of Grainger and the rest of the world is jealous

Yes, he liked it so much that he left at the age of 17...

That year I lived opposite the Grainger Museum, attended the great play Percy & Rose

...which if I remember rightly had Dennis Olsen as Percy?

we managed to miss every A even though we only had to line up the mallets every 16 bars & made my own clothing modelled on

Do you still have the clothing, and does it still fit? In which case, PP requires a photograph.

Regards
Fred

[fhimpsl]

Hello All, I recently uncovered a score by Australian-born composer George F. Boyle (1886-1948); his Serenade from "Four Compositions For PIano." Not knowing anything about Boyle, a quick web search turned up the following information from the National Library Of Australia:


"This dissertation examines three areas of the professional career of Australia-born George Frederick Boyle (1886-1948): those of pianist, teacher, and composer. The first chapter deals with his early life in Australia, from 1886 to 1910, and the beginnings of his career as a pianist and composer. Chapters II and III explore his career as pianist, composer, and teacher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, from 1910 to 1922; at the Curtis Institute, from 1922 to 1924; and at the Institute of Musical Art (now called The Juilliard School), from 1923 to 1940. In Chapter IV George Boyle's ideas about the approach to the piano and his teaching techniques are discussed. Several articles written by Boyle and published during his lifetime are synopsized. These include his view on scales, practicing with the metronome, promoting keyboard accuracy, and unscrambling difficult passages. Many articles are quoted in full in Appendix E of the dissertation.

In the fifth chapter of the dissertation, selected piano compositions of George Boyle are analyzed. The works are chosen from three different time periods: his early compositions from Australia and Europe; pieces from the middle period, or his Peabody years; and works from the final period, while at Curtis and Juilliard. This study contains five appendices. The first appendix is three interviews, two with his wife, Pearle Boyle, and another with one of Boyle's former students at Peabody, Elmer Burgess. Appendix B is a chronological list of the complete works of George Frederick Boyle with dates of publications. In Appendix C is a full score of the Ballade written in 1921 for piano. A cassette recording of the Ballade by Irene Weiss Peery is in the Peabody record library. Recital programs of Boyle and those of his students are printed in Appendix D. Complete articles on Boyle's philosophies on teaching and folk music are found in Appendix E.

A complete bibliography is included at the end."

Attached is the score for Boyle's "Serenade." Enjoy!

Frank

Boyle - Serenade From Four Compositions.pdf

[iano]

Thanks fhimpsl. Charming fluff. Any more from the suite? I'd be interested to know more, having overlooked this composer.

[iano]

Hi,
the full text of a 1988 book on Australian composers by John Jenkins can be read at the NMA archive:
http://www.rainerlinz.net/NMA/22CAC/TOC.html

Regards,

Leo

I've just been having a look at this, as a result of a Facebook brouhaha quite unrelated to PP. Here's the beginning of the preface:

"The 22 composers represented in this book, while in no sense constituting a school or movement, belong to a generation which has emerged since the 1960s and, collectively, they have been connected with most of the major breakthroughs in New Music that have taken place in this country for the past two decades. Within this period, their work has arguably been amongst the most exciting, and certainly amongst the most innovative, within Australian music as a whole."

...and the end:

"Most of the composers in this book are still in their 20s, 30s and early 40s; and their vigorous experimental approach, intellectual liveliness and commitment to innovation should ensure they continue to help set the agenda for Australian music for decades to come."

And yet, out of the 22 composers mentioned (in 1988), I would say that perhaps three of them are heard at all now, and pretty infrequently at that. I can't say I have even heard of most of them.

"Breakthroughs"? "Innovative"? "Experimental"? "Commitment to innovation"? "Agenda"?

I just had to remind myself by reading some of this bumf that I wasn't dreaming during the 80s: we really were assailed by such vacuous nonsense. And now we've moved on. I do feel sorry for some of the bewildered 'innovators' who have been left behind, couldn't or wouldn't adapt, but I can't feel very sorry that we don't hear much of their music any more.

[rob]

Oooooooerrrr - I've never heard of ANY of 'em. And if any had made any impact outside of Oz then I would certainly have heard of 'em. Talk about hype!!!