Person

BRUMBY, Colin

Colin Brumby was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1933 and educated at the Glen Iris State School, Spring Road Central School, and Melbourne Boys’ High School. While enrolled in the Bachelor of Music Course at the Conservatorium of Music, he began to develop an interest in composition A suggestion from the conductor Verdon Williams, that he should write something for solo instrument and orchestra, resulted in his first work to receive a professional performance: Romance for Oboe and Strings was performed on radio by the Jiri Tancibudek with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1954. On graduating from the Melbourne University Conservatorium of Music, Colin Brumby was appointed Music Master at Sunshine High School. After teaching for three years, however, in 1959 he decided to head north to Queensland where he was promptly appointed a Junior Lecturer in Music on the staff of the (then) Kelvin Grove Teachers’ College In 1962 he left to take up a scholarship awarded by the Spanish Government to study advanced musical composition under Philipp Jarnach at an international music course in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It was there that he met with fellow-Australian, guitarist John Williams, who suggested that Colin should continue on to London at the conclusion of the course in Spain. Taking up John Williams’s advice, he was appointed Head of Music at Greenford Grammar School, and studied composition privately with Alexander Goehr, resulting in his major orchestral work, Fibonacci Variations. He returned to Australia in 1964 to take up a lectureship in the Department of Music at the University of Queensland. In the late ’60s, at the invitation of the Queensland Division of the Arts Council of Australia, he composed several twenty-minute operettas for children, which were toured around the state where they were enjoyed by more than 70,000 children annually. In 1972, he was awarded a Doctorate in Music by the Melbourne University, prior to returning to Europe for twelve months’ further study in advanced music composition with Franco Evangelisti in Rome, Italy. Because, however, of his increasing dissatisfaction with the prevailing atonal style of composition, he returned composing tonal music in The Phoenix and the Turtle, a work written in response to a commission from Musica Viva for the 1974 Australian tour of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner. This work marked a lasting change of compositional style for Brumby, who said at the time, ‘I became convinced that the atonal style of composition attempted to elevate gibberish to an art-form, and that I wanted no further part in it.’ The immediate appeal that his extremely large musical output makes to performer and listener alike means that he is one of Australia’s most frequently broadcast and performed composers. His list of works, many of them commissions, includes symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, film scores, musicals, chamber music, songs and choral works…in fact, music in almost every genre. Colin Brumby passed away in Brisbane on 3 January 2018. https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/brumby-colin
1966 PARTITE FOR CLARINET AND STRING ORCHESTRA On 30th September 1966 Jack Harrison performed the Perth Premiere of the Colin Brumby Partite for Clarinet and String Orchestra with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Basil Kirke Studio, A.B.C. as part of the Festival of Perth.  I can’t find who did the Premiere, but probably someone in Queensland, where Colin Brumby was based at the time.
Letter from Colin Brumby
1967 On Sunday, January 29, 1967, Jack Harrison performed in the Australian premiere of “Strophe” (written in 1964 for violin, clarinet, and piano) by Australian composer Colin Brumby as part of the Recital of Australian Contemporary Composers during the 1967 Festival of Perth. The performance took place live in the Basil Kirke Studio (ABC Studio 620 on Adelaide Terrace) with John Exton (violin) and Alice Carrard (piano). TRIO FOR CLARINET VIOLIN AND PIANO 1967 MUSIC By Peter Hellstrom The opening musical performance of the Festival Of Perth at 3 pm tomorrow week will be a free recital of contemporary Australian chamber music in the A.B.C. Basil Kirke Studio. The festival committee is to be congratulated on the emphasis it has given this year to Australian music.  As a result of its cooperation with the Fellowship of Australian composers, 14 of the 55 composers represented in the Festival are Australian.   The opening recital is by the Oriel Quartet with which will appear pianist Alice Carrard, violinist John Exton and clarinettist Jack Harrison. Many of the works will be given their first W.A. performances. They include Sydney composer Peter Sculthorpe’s Sixth String Quartet, Colin Brumby’s Trio for clarinet violin and piano and Peter Tahourdin ’s Clarinet and Piano Sonata.  West Australian compositions will include Jennifer Fowler’s String Trio and Ashley Arbuckle’s Movements for String Trio.  The West Australian January 21 1967 page 35
30.09.1966 Colin Brumby Partite for Clarinet and String Orchestra PERTH PREMIERE Jack Harrison (clarinet)   West Australian Symphony Orchestra Festival of Perth Basil Kirke Studio ABC Letter from Colin Brumby
29.1.1967 Colin Brumby Strophe for Clarinet, Violin and Piano (1964) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE   Peter Tahourdin Clarinet Sonata PERTH PREMIERE Jack Harrison (clarinet) Alice Carrard (piano) John Exton (violin) Festival of Perth Free Studio Recital Basil Kirke Studio A.B.C. Adelaide Terrace, Perth, Western Australia
 
1968 MUSIC FESTIVAL OF PERTH 1968 By Peter Hellstrom An aspect of the Festival of Perth already creating interest throughout Australia is a workshop series of four Australian composers to be presented by the A.B.C. in conjunction with the festival committee. The workshops will consist of programs of works mainly for Orchestra. Several will be first performances they will be given in the Basil Kirke Studio at 6 pm on February 15, 22 and 29 and March 7. Each program will have a different conductor. The conductors will be Henry Kripps, Patrick Thomas, John Hopkins and Thomas Mayer. A further special feature of each program will be the presence of at least one interstate composer who will come to Perth for the occasion. The composers are Nigel Butterley, Larry Sitsky, Felix Werder and Richard Meale.   Other interstate composers whose works will be performed are Colin Brumby, George Dreyfus Helen Gifford, Peter Sculthorpe and David Ahern.  The four W.A. composers contributing to the programs are James Penberthy, Dr John Exton, David Tunley and Jennifer Fowler. As a contrast to the formality of the normal concert presentation, the workshops will include discussion between conductors, composers and members of the audiences.  In several of the concerts, provision has been made for some works to be played twice to give listeners a further opportunity of coming to grips with the new music. The chairman of the Festival Of Perth music committee, Professor Frank Callaway, said yesterday that W.A. compositions would include Mr Tunley’s Concerto for Clarinet and Strings (with soloist Jack Harrison), Dr Exton’s Movements for Orchestra, a recently completed string Quartet by Jennifer Fowler to be played by the Oriel Quartet and James Penberthy’s Cantata for Chorus and Orchestra “The Swan of  Bibbulman”. This will be performed by the Lyrics Singers and the W.A. Symphony Orchestra. The work is set to a poem by Mary Durack.  The West Australian Saturday December 23 1967

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