PUBLIC LECTURE: School of Music presents: Research Seminar Series - David Symons

David Symons: Antill After Corroboree: A Return to Conservatism?

This paper investigates one of the widespread perceptions in much critical comment on the music of John Antill following the composition of his famous ballet Corroboree – namely, that the composer reverted to a ‘quieter’ and more conservative musical style in his later output in the 1950s and 1960s. The generally negatively-toned criticisms of Antill’s later work are assessed from two standpoints – that of musical ‘style’ or ‘character’ and that of musical ‘language’ or idiom. While Antill never wrote another work as ‘barbaric’ or ‘abrasive’ in manner as Corroboree, his later works explore a wider expressive palette in which there are some examples of the milder English ‘pastoral’ style, but the predominant ‘language’ is that of between-the-wars neoclassicism or neo-tonality of Bartok, Hindemith and Stravinsky. In this respect Antill shares a general stylistic range with the more progressive Australian composers of the same period such as Margaret Sutherland, Dorian Le Gallienne, Raymond Hanson and Robert Hughes.