Sculthorpe Peter Sculthorpe

Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native 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 distinguished by its distinctive use of percussion.

Style and themes

Much of Sculthorpe's early work demonstrates the influence of Asian music, but he said that these influences dwindled through the 1970s as indigenous music became more important. He said that he had been interested in indigenous culture since his teens, mainly because of his father "who told me many stories of past wrongs in Tasmania. I think he was quite extraordinary for that time, as was my mother". However, it was only with the advent of recordings and books on the subject around the 1970s that he started to incorporate indigenous motifs in his work.

Sculthorpe said he was political in his work – and that his work had also always been about "the preservation of the environment and more recently, climate change". His 16th String Quartet was inspired by extracts from letters written by asylum seekers in Australian detention centres.

Sculthorpe came to regard Russell "Tass" Drysdale as a role model, admiring the way he reworked familiar material in new ways. He said "In later years he was often accused of painting the same picture over and over again. But his answer was that he was no different to a Renaissance artist, striving again and again to paint the perfect Madonna-and-Child. Since then, I've never had a problem about the idea of reusing and reworking my material. Like Tass, I've come to look on my whole output as one slowly emerging work".

Personal life

In the early 1970s Sculthorpe was engaged to the Australian composer and music educator, Anne Boyd, but he never married. In 1982 a painting of Sculthorpe by artist Eric Smith won the Archibald Prize.

Honours

• 1970: Queen's Birthday Honours List: named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
• 1977: MBE upgraded to Officer status (OBE).
• 1990: Australia Day Honours: appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).
• 1999: made one of Australia's 45 Icons
• He was an Australian Living Treasure.
• He held four honorary doctorates.
• Irkanda IV was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2008.

Works

Orchestral

• The Fifth Continent for speaker and orchestra (1963)
• Sun Music I (1965)
• Sun Music II (1969)
• Sun Music III (1967)
• Sun Music IV (1967)
• Love 200 (a collaboration with Tully) (1970)
• Music for Japan (1970)
• "Love 200" (a collaboration with Fraternity (1972)
• Small Town for solo oboe, two trumpets, timpani and strings (1976) (see Thirroul, New South Wales#In popular culture)
• Port Essington for string trio and string orchestra (1977) (see Port Essington)
• Mangrove (1979)
• Earth Cry (1986)
• Kakadu (1988)
• Memento Mori (1993)
• Cello Dreaming (1998)
• From Oceania (2003)
• Beethoven Variations (2006)
• Songs of Sea and Sky, also arranged for different instruments such as flute and clarinet
• Mangrove, for orchestra
• My Country Childhood
• Shining Island (2011), for strings (remembering Henryk Górecki)

Concertante

• Piano Concerto (1983)
• Earth Cry, for didgeridoo and orchestra (1986)
• Nourlangie, for solo guitar, strings and percussion (1989)
• Sydney Singing, for clarinet, harp, percussion, and strings (2003)
• Elegy, for solo viola and strings (2006)

Vocal/choral

• Morning Song for the Christ Child (1966)
• The Birthday of thy King (1988)
• Requiem (2004)

Opera

• Rites of Passage (music theatre; 1972–73)
• Quiros (1982)

Chamber/instrumental

• Sonata for Viola and Percussion (1960)
• Requiem for cello alone (1979; commissioned and premiered by Nathan Waks)
• From Kakadu for solo guitar (1993)
• Into the Dreaming for solo guitar (1994)
• Earth Cry arr. for string quartet (1994)
• 18 string quartets (including 4 quartets with optional didjeridu - No. 12 "From Ubirr", No. 14 "Quamby", No. 16, No. 18)

Piano

• Between Five Bells
• Djilile (included in the works accompanying Tim Winton's Dirt Music)
• Mountains
• Night Pieces [Snow, Moon, Flowers, Night, Stars]
• Nocturnal
• Piano Sonatina
• Riverina
• Rose Bay Quadrilles*Song for a Penny
• Simori
• Thoughts from Home (intended to form part of the Gallipoli Symphony for Anzac Day 2015)
• A Little Book of Hours

Film soundtracks

• Age of Consent (1969)
• Manganinnie (1980) – Winner AFI Award, Best Original Music Score
• Burke & Wills (1985)