Australian Music

[eschiss1]

... 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'?

[semloh]

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?!

[fuhred]

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.

[jerfilm]

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

[semloh]

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?

[fuhred]

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... 

[semloh]

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.

[eschiss1]

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.

[jerfilm]

Sorry to say, the download of Fritz Hart's symphonic poem The Bush will expire around September 10th

So much for RapidShare.

Jerry

[semloh]

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

[Mark Thomas]

Jerry wrote:

the download of Fritz Hart's symphonic poem The Bush will expire around September 10th

You can still hear the whole work here and record the thing as it plays...

[semloh]

Arbuckle - thank you so much for this. I will try hard to get the Symphony up over the next few weeks.

[eschiss1]

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

[eschiss1]

Also, this seems worth pointing out separately-
according to the publisher of the score of the quartet it is arranged from,
Stiles Music 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).
Scratch that about movement titles. Stiles 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.)

[Dundonnell]

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?