Michael Hannan (composer)

Last updated

Michael Francis Hannan (born 1949) is an Australian composer, keyboardist, and musicologist. Described in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians as a composer "exceptionally gifted for the exploration of tonal, polytonal, and atonal techniques", Hannan is also the author of a critical biography of the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. [1] He has been a music professor at Southern Cross University since 1986.

Contents

Life and career

Hannan was born in Newcastle, New South Wales. He studied musicology at the University of Sydney where he received his BA in 1972 and his PhD in 1979, followed by a diploma in music composition in 1982. He then spent a year in Los Angeles on a Fulbright scholarship carrying out postdoctoral research on ethnomusicology at UCLA as well as studying composition with Elaine Barkin. [2] During the 1970s and early 1980s he also worked as commercial composer and arranger, rock performer, piano accompanist, music journalist and music editor. [3] In 1986 Hannan was appointed to the Northern Rivers College of Advanced Education (now Southern Cross University) to develop a BA program in contemporary popular music (the first in Australia) and in 1987 became head of the college's Performing Arts and Music Divisions. As of 2015 he remains an adjunct professor of music in the Southern Cross University School of Arts and Social Sciences. [4] [1]

Hannan's early academic career was particularly associated with the work of Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. He first became interested in Sculthorpe's piano compositions while still a high school student in New South Wales and decided to write his final year music essay on the composer, which according to musicologist Graeme Skinner proved to be "the most thorough and perceptive analysis of Scunthorpe's output to date [1967]". [5] One of Hannan's instructors at the University of New England summer school had arranged a meeting with the composer which in turn led to Hannan working as Sculthorpe's assistant from 1969 to 1971 and for other shorter periods throughout the 1970s. Sculthorpe dedicated his three pieces composed for solo piano in 1971, Snow, Moon, and Flowers, to Hannan who went on to write his undergraduate honours dissertation on Sculthorpe's piano music. [5] In 1980–1981 Hannan studied composition under Sculthorpe and in 1982 published Peter Sculthorpe: His music and ideas, 1929–1979. The book was the first published biography of Sculthorpe and primarily focused on a critical analysis of Sculthorpe's compositional techniques and their origins. [6]

Hannan's own compositions explore tonal as well as polytonal, and atonal techniques and are often leavened with humour, e.g., the radiophonic works Alphabeat and Slonimsky Variations and Beespeak and Cat's Night Out for trumpet and digital manipulation. His piano compositions frequently involve pieces for pianos whose interiors have been altered in some way, including burning pianos. His 2003 Burning Questions, a radiophonic work commissioned by ABC Radio National included the sounds of a burning baby grand piano, the observers' reactions, and Hannan playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano prior to setting it alight. The sounds of nature, especially bird calls, have also figured prominently in his later work. [7] [ self-published source ] [8] [1]

Recordings

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atonality</span> Music that lacks a tonal center or key

Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality, in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a single, central triad is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale function independently of one another. More narrowly, the term atonality describes music that does not conform to the system of tonal hierarchies that characterized European classical music between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. "The repertory of atonal music is characterized by the occurrence of pitches in novel combinations, as well as by the occurrence of familiar pitch combinations in unfamiliar environments".

Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial music, electronic music, experimental music, and minimalist music. Newer forms of music include spectral music, and post-minimalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sculthorpe</span> Australian composer (1929–2014)

Peter Joshua Sculthorpe was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighbouring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aboriginal Australian music with that of the heritage of the West. He was known primarily for his orchestral and chamber music, such as Kakadu (1988) and Earth Cry (1986), which evoke the sounds and feeling of the Australian bushland and outback. He also wrote 18 string quartets, using unusual timbral effects, works for piano, and two operas. He stated that he wanted his music to make people feel better and happier for having listened to it. He typically avoided the dense, atonal techniques of many of his contemporary composers. His work was often characterised by its distinctive use of percussion. As one of the compositional pioneers of a distinctively Australian sound, Sculthorpe and his music have been likened to the role played by Aaron Copland in America's musical coming of age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Perle</span> American composer

George Perle was an American composer and music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. This serialist style, and atonality in general, was the subject of much of his theoretical writings. His 1962 book, Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern remains a standard text for 20th-century classical music theory. Among Perle's awards was the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Wind Quintet No. 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modernism (music)</span> Changes in musical form during the early 20th Century

In music, modernism is an aesthetic stance underlying the period of change and development in musical language that occurred around the turn of the 20th century, a period of diverse reactions in challenging and reinterpreting older categories of music, innovations that led to new ways of organizing and approaching harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of music, and changes in aesthetic worldviews in close relation to the larger identifiable period of modernism in the arts of the time. The operative word most associated with it is "innovation". Its leading feature is a "linguistic plurality", which is to say that no one music genre ever assumed a dominant position.

Inherent within musical modernism is the conviction that music is not a static phenomenon defined by timeless truths and classical principles, but rather something which is intrinsically historical and developmental. While belief in musical progress or in the principle of innovation is not new or unique to modernism, such values are particularly important within modernist aesthetic stances.

Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley CBE was an English composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francisco Mignone</span>

Francisco Paulo Mignone was one of the most significant figures in Brazilian classical music, and one of the most significant Brazilian composers after Heitor Villa-Lobos. In 1968 he was chosen as Brazilian composer of the year.

Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer, conductor, author, and professor. During the course of a professional career which ranges over six decades he has served as a faculty member at both the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. In addition, he is credited with founding and conducting the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra which participated in the cultural diplomacy initiatives of the United States in Germany and throughout Europe in the aftermath of World War II. Adler's musical catalogue includes over 400 published compositions. He has been honored with several awards including Germany's Order of Merit – Officer's Cross.

Jacques Hétu was a Canadian composer and music educator. He is the most frequently performed of Canadian classical composers, both within Canada and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Meale</span> Australian composer

Richard Graham Meale, AM, MBE was an Australian composer of instrumental works and operas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drei Klavierstücke (Schoenberg)</span> 1909 composition by Arnold Schoenberg

Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11, is a set of pieces for solo piano written by the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg in 1909. They represent an early example of atonality in the composer's work.

Phillip Maurice Treloar is an Australian jazz drummer, percussionist and composer. In an extensive career devoted to creative pursuit Treloar has addressed himself to the problems of relationship found at the intersection of notated music-composition and improvisation. In 1987 Treloar coined the term, Collective Autonomy, to signify his endeavor in this field of work. Fundamental in this has been composition- and performance-development projects, with these at times involving electronic media. Collaborations have, and continue to be, crucial.

Tall Poppies Records is an Australian record label founded in September 1991 by Belinda Webster. It focuses on recording solo and chamber music in the classical genre. It is particularly dedicated to promoting the work of Australian composers.

Ian Munro is an Australian pianist, composer, and music educator. His career has taken him to many countries in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australasia.

Clare Maclean is a New Zealand composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Carlos Paz</span> Argentine composer (1897–1972)

Juan Carlos Paz was an Argentine composer and music theorist.

Rites of Passage is a music theatre work written by the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe in 1972–73. It is often categorised as an opera, but it does not conform to the traditional concept of opera. It is written for dancers depicting the ritual of initiation of the Aranda people, an indigenous tribe; double SATB chorus singing words from Boethius and others; three percussionists, two tubas, piano (echoed), six cellos and four double basses; but no parts for individual singers. Sculthorpe drew on the approach espoused by Jean-Baptiste Lully, in which dance, drama and music are not separated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian classical music</span> Genre of music of Australia

Australian classical music has developed from early years in the Australian colonies, until today. Today, each state has an orchestra and there are many major venues where classical music is performed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 6 (Villa-Lobos)</span>

Symphony No. 6Sobre a linha das montanhas do Brasil is a composition by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written in 1944. It lasts about twenty-five minutes in performance.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura (2001). "Hannan, Michael (Francis)". Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians . Schirmer Books. ISBN   9780028655253. Online version. Retrieved 16 November 2015 (subscription required).
  2. Saintilan, Nicole; Schultz, Andrew; Stanhope, Paul (1996). Biographical Directory of Australian Composers, p. 101. Australian Music Centre Limited. ISBN   0646294199
  3. Hannan, Michael (2001). "The future of tertiary music training in Australia". Music Forum, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 14–17. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  4. Southern Cross University. Staff directory: Michael Hannan. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  5. 1 2 Skinner, Graeme (2007). Peter Sculthorpe: The Making of an Australian Composer, pp. 537–538; 570; 672. UNSW Press. ISBN   0868409413
  6. Hayes, Deborah (March 2009). "Review: Peter Sculthorpe: The Making of an Australian Composer by Graeme Skinner". Notes , Second Series, Vol. 65, No. 3, pp. 510–512. JSTOR   27669889. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  7. Pleskun, Stephen (2014). A Chronological History of Australian Composers and Their Compositions: Vol. 4 1999–2013, pp. 144; 209; 404; 691. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN   1493135376
  8. Southern Cross University News. (31 October 2005). "SCU composer presents piano concert". Retrieved 15 November 2015.