The stature of Margaret Sutherland is unique in Australian music. She is honoured both as a distinguished composer and as one who continuously generated fresh interest and activity in the field of music. She asserted the importance of new music, particularly the work of Australian composers, and demonstrated her commitment to this belief by an extraordinary range of activities.
Her work spans more than fifty-five years, with more than ninety compositions, years of inspired teaching, recitals, and close personal involvement with Australian poets, young composers, with music education, and with the wider struggle for the recognition of the arts in Australia.
Margaret Sutherland was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on November 20th, 1897. When she was four years old, her family, noted for its artistic and musical interests, moved to Melbourne, Victoria, where she lived until her death in 1984.
In 1914 she was awarded a scholarship to study piano with Edward Goll, and composition with Fritz Hart at the Marshall Hall Conservatorium, where she completed her term of scholarship, after which she taught piano and theory and worked as assistant to Edward Goll.
In 1923 she went to London and Vienna where she became involved in the musical life of these cities and absorbed the influences of European culture. In England, Sir Arnold Bax became a valued friend and musical mentor. She returned to Australia in 1925. During World War II she arranged midday chamber music concerts for the Red Cross and became a member of the Council for Education, Music and the Arts (CEMA). For many years she was associated with the Australian Advisory Committee for UNESCO, and was a member of the Advisory Board for the Australian Music Fund as well as a Council Member of the National Gallery Society of Victoria. She was also instrumental in promoting the plan for the present Victorian Arts Centre.
Margaret Sutherland’s only opera The Young Kabbarli,based on an incident in the life of Daisy Bates, was composed in 1964, and received its first performance at the Theatre Royal, Hobart, in 1965. It was again performed by the State Opera of South Australia, in Adelaide and in Melbourne in 1972, and was honoured as the first Australian opera recorded in Australia.
More than half of Margaret Sutherland’s compositions are chamber works, reflecting her life-long participation in this form and her final reputation will almost certainly rest on the body of this work. Her music generally displays cogent and sinewy strength of argument happily merged with a rich and humane emotionalism.
In 1976, Graeme Murphy choreographed her orchestral work Haunted Hills in the award-winning Glimpses which has been performed with great success by the Australian Ballet and the Dance Company of New south Wales (now the Sydney Dance Company).
In 1969 Margaret Sutherland was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Melbourne in recognition of her contribution to Australian music. In 1970 Commonwealth recognition followed with the awarding of an OBE.
It was Margaret Sutherland who pioneered new music in the first half of this century in Australia, at a time when Australian composers experienced public indifference and a profound sense of isolation. Also she laboured under the extreme disadvantage in Australia, of being a woman. But for her example, it is unlikely that Australia would have produced such a proliferation of woman composers.
https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/sutherland-margaret
David Symons has written her biography:
https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/product/the-music-of-margaret-sutherland
SONATA FOR CLARINET AND PIANO
Jack Harrison performed the Perth premiere of Margaret Sutherland’s “Sonata for Clarinet and Piano” (1949) with Stephen Dornan (piano) in a Festival of Perth’s Australian Composers’ Workshop held at the Basil Kirke Memorial Studio at the A.B.C. in Western Australia. Jack performed on the first commercial recording in 1972: LP compilation titled Australian Festival of Music, Volume 8.
Peter Jenkins: “I suspect Jack’s was probably the first recording. (Festival SFC 80025) Ian Morgan’s excellent PHD thesis suggests that it was. Ian was Assoc. Principal clarinet of the MSO for many years.
The premiere was almost certainly given by Thomas White. He was Principal Clarinet of the Melbourne Symphony for many years and worked with Margaret on many occasions.
I don’t know if Gabor Reeves played it. I actually never asked but I did get the music from him.
My connection with the piece was hearing you dads recording of it on ABC radio on a number of occasions. I was at high school then and the wireless was always on when I returned home from school. I remember both Jacks beautiful playing and the piece. Many years later Richard Vella who was responsible for music with currency press asked my about works that were unpublished for clarinet. The Sutherland Sonata sprang to mind. It also suited the AMEB syllabus which ensured ongoing sales.”
CHAMBER MUSIC AT CHRISTMAS GATHERING
For its Christmas gathering last night British Music Society invited its members to hear a quintet in A major (Mozart), and quartet in A major (Brahms). In the quintet, clarinet and strings, and in the quartet, piano, violin, viola, and ‘cello, were heard to great advantage. Players were Paul McDermott and Ronald Wilkinson (violins), Eric Challinor (viola), Eldon Fox (‘cello), Thomas White (clarinet), Margaret Sutherland (piano).
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12158638
The very first sound archival recording of Margaret Sutherland’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano was captured in 1949 (the exact year it was composed) by Thomas (Tom) White on clarinet and Margaret Sutherland herself on the piano.
Later, the first commercially pressed release to widely distribute the work was featured on a 1972 gatefold LP compilation titled Australian Festival of Music, Volume 8. For that historic commercial release, the piece was performed by Jack Harrison (clarinet) and Stephen Dorman (piano).
Workshop at its most attractive
By MARY TANNOCK
Thursday February 18 1971
Last night’s Australian composers workshop program at the Basil Kirke Studio was distinguished by the presence of Dr Andre Jurres, president of the International Society of Contemporary Music and the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. They were members of the panel chaired by Professor Frank Callaway. It was also the most attractive of the workshop series in the festival so far. Works by Margaret Sutherland, Colin Brumby, John Exton, Peter Sculthorpe and Trevor Jones were performed by Molly McGurk (soprano), Jack Harrison (clarinet), Stephen Dornan (piano) and the Oriel Quartet. Peter Sculthorpe’s “The stars turn” opened with wistful echoes from Gregorian Chant and a sea shanty and dissipated quickly into the character of the song. With limpid tones Miss McGurk sensitively delineated the shifting patterns of a lyrical line. Again, with Colin Brumby’s “Three Italian Songs for High Voice and String Quartet”, she infused chiselled and graceful declamation into the string line, throwing into relief its undulating fluidity. Trevor Jones’s “Essay for String Quartet” was alive with dense pulsating rhythms and sometimes fugal growth. Its textural complexity was skilfully highlighted by the Oriel Quartet.
In Margaret Sutherland’s “Sonata for Clarinet and Piano” traditional texture and techniques were cleverly reconciled to the clarinet line and the accompanist Stephen Dornan’s deft chordal Textures in the piano provided neat and subtle undertones. [1]
Composers’ Workshop an Evening of Contrasts
By ALAN BONDS
Thursday February 18 1971
The workshop program presented in the Basil Kirke Studio last night was an evening of contrasts. The programme began with a polished rendition by Jack Harrison and Stephen Dornan of a “polished” Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Dr. Margaret Sutherland. The work’s appeal was immediate, its form was basically straightforward and concealed few intricacies for cerebral digestion. The cycle of three songs by Colin Brumby further enhanced this composer’s reputation for skilful handling of texts. The work was witty and sensitive, but I feel that the texture of the accompanying string quartet was frequently too thick and overpowered the refined singing of Molly McGurk. For those interested, last Thursday’s performance of John Exton’s String Quartet (1969) was their fourth opportunity to hear the work in as many months and the work could easily stand a fourth hearing. It is completely absorbing, combining the all-embracing logic of serialism with a wonderful sense of contrast and colour. The performance by the Oriel Quartet was both accurate and persuasive, skilfully handling textures, which demand fine precision and control. “The Stars Turn” (1970) by Peter Sculthorpe was I feel more notable for the performance than the music which was performed. The piece itself was expressive and moving in the skull for tradition of Irkanda and the Quartets but I couldn’t help it feel that I had heard it all before. Molly McGurk did a splendid job moulding and phrasing as she might to Schubert or Brahms. The Oriel Quartet concluded the performance with a performance of Trevor Jones’s “Essay for string Quartet”. It would be fair to say that much of the work is reminiscent of Bartok’s quartet writing. The Essay was easily sectionalised thematically with frequent excursions through poly modality to atonalism. [2]
| 18.2.1971 | Dr Margaret Sutherland Clarinet Sonata (1949) PERTH PREMIERE FIRST COMMERCIAL RECORDING | Jack Harrison (clarinet) Stephen Dornan (piano) | FOP Australian Composers’ Workshop Basil Kirke Studio A.B.C. Adelaide Terrace, Perth, Western Australia RECORD: Australian Festival of Music Volume 8 |
[1] The West Australian February 19 1971
[2] The Sunday Times February 21 1971