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The earliest western musical influences in Australia can be traced to two distinct sources: in the first settlements, the large body of convicts, soldiers and sailors who brought the traditional folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland;[1] and the first free settlers, some of whom had been exposed to the European classical music tradition in their upbringing. An example of original music by a convict would be an 1861 tune dedicated to settler James Gordon by fiddler constable Alexander Laing.[2][3] Very little music has survived from this early period, although there are samples of music originating from Sydney and Hobart that date back to the early 19th century.[4] Musical publications from this period preserved in Australian libraries include works by Charles Edward Horsley, William Stanley (composer), Isaac Nathan, Charles Sandys Packer, Frederick Augustus Packer, Carl Linger, Francis Hartwell Henslowe, Frederick Ellard, Raimund Pechotsch and Julius Siede.
Isaac Nathan's 1847 Don John of Austria was the first opera to be written, composed and produced in Australia. The establishment of choral societies (c. 1850) and symphony orchestras (c. 1890) led to increased compositional activity, although most Australian classical composers of this period worked entirely within European models and many undertook their training in composition in Europe or the United Kingdom. One of the earliest known composers was George Tolhurst, whose oratorio Ruth was the first composed in the then colony of Victoria in 1864. Some works leading up to the first part of the 20th century were heavily influenced by folk music (Percy Grainger's "English Country Gardens" of 1908 being a good example of this).[4] An estimated 10,000 Australians and New Zealanders traveled to Britain each year from the late 1880s to the early 20th century, and the number doubled between the World Wars. A majority was likely female, often a musician; in 1907 one commentator said that Australia's principal exports to Britain were "frozen sheep and pretty-voiced girls". Success in London was often seen as a prerequisite for fame in Australia for singers such as Nellie Melba, Amy Sherwin, and Ada Crossley.[5]
Even for composers, a trip abroad could make a career:[6]George Frederick Boyle, who was born in New South Wales in 1886, had a great career in Australia as a piano prodigy but did not meet with international success as a composer until he traveled to Europe and the United States.[7]
From the time of Australia's Federation in 1901, a growing sense of national identity[8] began to emerge in the arts, although a patriotic attachment with the "mother country"[9] or "Home",[5] that is Britain, and the Empire, continued to dominate musical taste. In the war and post-war eras, as the Australian national identity continued to build, composers looked to their surroundings for inspiration. John Antill in his ballet Corroboree, Peter Sculthorpe and others began to incorporate elements of Aboriginal music, Richard Meale drew influence from south-east Asia (notably using the harmonic properties of the Balinesegamelan), while Nigel Butterley combined his penchant for International modernism with an own individual voice.[4]
Leading chamber ensembles include the Australian String Quartet, the Goldner String Quartet, the Australia Ensemble,[26] Synergy Percussion,[27] Dean Emerson,[28] TRIOZ,[29] the Sydney Soloists,[30] the Southern Cross Soloists,[31] Guitar Trek,[32] Collusion (chamber ensemble),[33] the Elandra String Quartet, the Zephyr Quartet,[34] and the Tinalley String Quartet.[35] Chamber ensembles involved in historically informed performance include Marais Project,[36] Accademia Arcadia,[37] La Compania,[38] Ironwood[39] and probably Australia's oldest group of this kind, The Renaissance Players.[40]
Musica Viva Australia, now the largest entrepreneur of chamber music in the world,[41] was founded in 1945 and has provided a major stimulus for public interest in chamber music by organising annual subscription programs of concerts by leading international and Australian ensembles.[42] Further interest has been stimulated by events such as the Australian Festival of Chamber Music[43] which was founded in 1991 and is held each year in Townsville, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and the Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition, both of which are organised by Chamber Music Australia[44] and held every four years in Melbourne.
Several Australian composers have written chamber works. Among the older composers, Peter Sculthorpe stands out because he has written 17 string quartets up to 2010,[45] with performances in Australia and overseas and recordings by leading groups such as the Kronos Quartet. In the next generation, Brett Dean, himself a violist of note and a composer who has received world-wide recognition, has written several works for various ensembles including a string quartet called "Eclipse" which was commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie[46] for the Auryn Quartet,[47] a string quintet entitled "Epitaphs" premiered in 2010 at the Cheltenham Music Festival,[48] the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival,[49] La Jolla Music Society|La Jolla SummerFest[50] and the Cologne Philharmonie, and a sonata for violin and piano commissioned by Midori[51] for performance in 2010 in Stockholm and the Wigmore Hall,[52] London. Dean's near-contemporary, Julian Yu[53] has written over 30 works for various chamber ensembles including conventional trios and quartets, as well as unusual combinations such as a quintet for four percussions and piano, a septet for flute, percussion, harp, violin, viola, cello and double bass entitled "Pentatonicophilia", and an unconventional reworking[54] of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for 16 instruments.
Other piano and chamber works of special merit include Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Concertino da camera for flute, clarinet, bassoon and piano, Richard Meale's "Las Alboradas" for flute, violin, horn, and piano, Riccardo Formosa's "Vertigo" for flute (piccolo), oboe, clarinet and piano, Nigel Westlake's "Refractions at Summer Cloud Bay" for flute, bass flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, violin, cello and piano, the piano works of Julian Cochran, Ross Edwards' "Laikan" for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello, Carl Vine's String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5, his Elegy for flute, cello, trombone, piano four-hands, organ and percussion, and "Inner World" for amplified cello and tape.[55]
1950 ballet performance of John Antill's Corroboree.
Broadcasts
Music broadcasting has played an important role in providing classical music and jazz to the Australian public. Prior to the introduction of FM into the country, the ABC produced classical music programs which were broadcast through their local stations. Professor Alfred Ernest Floyd's program "Music Lover's Hour" was heard for over 25 years, beginning first on the local Melbourne ABC station in 1944 before being broadcast nationally.[56] Pianist and academic Lindley Evans[57] broadcast a series of programs called "Adventures in Music" on the ABC, but was probably better known and more influential through his appearances each Thursday under the pseudonym "Mr Music" on the ABC's national "Argonauts Club" program. Ralph Collins, formerly a record librarian at the ABC with an acute knowledge of music, hosted his own national music program for over 30 years from the early 1960s, and he was eventually nicknamed "Mr Sunday Morning" by the general public. John Cargher, a record retailer, avid collector of records and author of many books, presented two programs. The most popular was "Singers of Renown", which began on the local Melbourne ABC station in 1966 and was transferred by public demand to Radio National at the end of only 10 weeks and remained on air for 42 years. The other program, "Music for Pleasure", began on Radio National in 1967 and continued until 1996.
The national FM music network ABC Classic FM[58] was established in 1976 to broadcast classical music, jazz, operas, recitals and live concerts from Australia and overseas, music analysis programs and news about music activities. Its audience is now estimated as being about one million people,[59] not taking into account a growing number of international users who access its programs via its online service.[60] At about the same time, community not-for-profit FM stations were set up to enable volunteers to produce and present classical music and jazz programs. These included 2MBS FM[61] in Sydney, 3MBS FM[62] in Melbourne and 4MBS Classic FM[63] in Brisbane. More recently a similar station, 5MBS. has been established in Adelaide.
Carl Vine,, is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music. From 1975 he has worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a variety of theatre and dance companies, and ensembles. Vine's catalogue includes eight symphonies, twelve concertos, music for film, television and theatre, electronic music and numerous chamber works. Since 2000 he has been the Artistic Director of Musica Viva Australia. In 2005 he was awarded the Don Banks Music Award. In the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours List, Vine was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), "for distinguished service to the performing arts as a composer, conductor, academic and artistic director, and to the support and mentoring of emerging performers."
Richard John MillsDMus BA(Hons), is an Australian conductor and composer. He is currently the Artistic Director of Victorian Opera, and formerly Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera and Artistic Consultant with Orchestra Victoria. He was commissioned by the Victorian State Opera to write his opera Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996) and by Opera Australia to write the opera Batavia (2001).
Ross Edwards AM is an Australian composer of a wide variety of music including orchestral and chamber music, choral music, children's music, opera and film music. His distinctive sound world reflects his interest in deep ecology and his belief in the need to reconnect music with elemental forces, as well as restore its traditional association with ritual and dance. He also recognises the profound importance of music as an agent of healing. His music, universal in that it is concerned with age-old mysteries surrounding humanity, is at the same time connected to its roots in Australia, whose cultural diversity it celebrates, and from whose natural environment it draws inspiration, especially birdsong and the mysterious patterns and drones of insects. As a composer living and working on the Pacific Rim, he is aware of the exciting potential of this vast region.
Musica Viva Australia was founded in 1945 by Romanian-born violinist Richard Goldner, with the aim of bringing chamber music to Australia. The co-founder was German-born musicologist Walter Dullo. In 1945 Musica Viva was a string ensemble performing chamber music to small groups of European immigrants. In 2013, Musica Viva has become the largest chamber music presenter in the world.
Richard Leo Tognetti, AO is a leading Australian musician recognised internationally as a violin soloist, ensemble player, leader, composer and arranger, conductor and artistic director. He is currently artistic director and leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and artistic director of the Festival Maribor in Maribor, Slovenia.
Matthew John Hindson AM is an Australian composer.
Andrew Ford is an English-born Australian composer, writer and radio presenter.
Ian Munro is an Australian pianist, composer, writer and music educator. His career has taken him to over 30 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia.
David Pereira is an Australian classical cellist, considered one of the finest working today. He was Senior Lecturer in Cello at the Canberra School of Music from 1990 to 2008. Later he worked there as a Distinguished Artist in Residence. Since April 2017 he again teaches cello there as a Senior Lecturer.
Marshall McGuire is an Australian harpist, teacher, conductor and musical administrator. He has been described as the world's greatest champion of new music for the harp. Tristram Cary has written "A new school of harp music is emerging from the enterprise of this innovative master performer".
Emeritus Professor Barry Ernest Conyngham,, is an Australian composer and academic. He has over seventy published works and over thirty recordings featuring his compositions, and his works have been premiered or performed in Australia, Japan, North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe. His output is largely for orchestra, ensemble or dramatic forces. He is an Emeritus Professor of both the University of Wollongong and Southern Cross University. He is currently Dean of the Faculty of the Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne.
Katia Tiutiunnik is an Australian violist, scholar and composer. She is of Russian, Ukrainian and Irish descent.
Julia Gomelskaya was a Ukrainian composer of contemporary classical music.
Jorge Grundman Isla is a Spanish classical composer, musicologist, musician and professor who has helped to recover the music of Robert Kahn and Adalbert Gyrowetz among others through the non-profit music foundation created by him.
The Limelight Awards were an annual celebration of the performances, recordings and music personalities in Australian classical music. Sponsored by the monthly classical arts magazine Limelight, they were the only publicly voted awards of their kind in Australia. In 2012 the awards attracted more than 4,500 votes.
Kristian Chong is an Australian concert pianist who has performed extensively throughout Australia, the UK, and in China, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, USA, and Africa.
Daniel Rojas is a Chilean-born Australian pianist and composer. Rojas' work as a composer and improviser draws upon indigenous, folk, popular and classical Latin American traditions.
Anthony Maydwell is an Australian harpist, educator, musicologist and director of the Summa Musica Chamber Choir and Ensemble.
Lyle Chan is an Australian composer known for his unique approach of writing cumulative works with only one work per genre.
Alessandro Solbiati is an Italian composer of classical music, who composed instrumental music for chamber ensembles and orchestra, art songs and operas. He received international commissions and awards, and many of his works are recorded. He is also an academic, teaching in Italy and France.
↑ Although referred to by some as a "transcription", this work is described on the score as "a moderately modern rendition by immodest Julian Yu." – see .
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