Peggy Glanville-Hicks
is perhaps one of the most important female composers of the 20th century. Born
in Melbourne to an English father and New Zealand-born mother. Encouraged by
her mother—an amateur singer and artist—Peggy began composing at the age of
seven. She studied composition at the Albert Street Conservatorium, leaving
Australia afterwards to study at the Royal College of Music in London (a
traveling scholarship she had been awarded additionally allowed her to study in
Vienna and Paris). Peggy Glanville-Hicks was the first Australian (and one of
the youngest composers represented) to have their music performed at a concert
for the International Society of Contemporary Music. Glanville-Hicks moved to
New York in 1941 and several years later began her career as a respected critic
and commentator on modern music when she published a review of an ISCM festival
held in Copenhagen in 1947. Basing herself in the United States, Peggy gained
prominence as an “exotic” composer and advocate of performance of new music. Glanville-Hicks
served on the junior council of the Museum of Modern Art as well as the
director of the Composers’ Forum. Via these positions she initiated several
concerts to premiere and promote new music and contributed over 100 articles to
the 1954 edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
While making a name for herself as a
scholar and reviewer of music, Glanville-Hicks was still breaking barriers and
pushing the envelope in her compositions. The Transposed Heads (1954)—an opera
commissioned by the Louisville Philharmonic Society—solidified her status as an
important composer of her time as well as expressed her interest in Indian
music and promoted the fusion of Eastern and Western composition. Glanville-Hicks’
interest in the relationship amongst music forms continued well in to the 60s
when she was awarded grants to study the relationships among music forms in the
West, the Middle East, and Asia as well as an award devoted to research on the
traditional music of Greece. Glanville-Hick’s opera Nausicaa (1960) illustrated
this interest when it was performed at the Athens Festival in 1961 with an
imported company of Greek-American singers. This performance was broadcast in
the USA and received universal praise and recognition for “its lyricism and
ingenious orchestration”. Later works of Glanville-Hicks were primarily ballets
often created with the assistance of New York choreographer John Butler.
Glanville-Hicks’ composing output was greatly limited when a pituitary tumor
robbed her of her eyesight later in life. Major surgery in 1969 to remove the
tumor restored her eyesight but resulted in a loss of smell.
Towards the end of her
life, Peggy Glanville-Hicks returned to Australia permanently in 1975. Her fondness
for the Asian inspirations of younger composers led to her being a consultant
for the Asian Music Studies at the Australia Music Centre in Sydney. She
received an honorary Music Doctorate from the University of Sydney in 1987, and
passed away in Darlinghurst, Sydney at the age of 77. Peggy Glanville-Hicks is
an important mid-twentieth composer who blurred the culture divides of
composition, and the Michigan Philharmonic is excited to be performing her Etruscan Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra
(1954) Sunday, March 18th during our “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” at
the First United Methodist Church in Plymouth.
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| via http://musictrust.com.au/ |
