PETER Sculthorpe was the fun-loving, avuncular figure of Australian composition, but also a deeply sensitive artist who heard the sound of the continent and gave it expression in music.
Sculthorpe, who died in Sydney yesterday at age 85, has been remembered as Australia’s greatest composer.
Best known for his orchestral and chamber works, the Launceston-born Sculthorpe had a long career that started with his earliest compositions at age nine. His output included 18 string quartets, two operas, a choral Requiem and orchestral works including Kakadu, Mangrove and Earth Cry.
Sculthorpe’s achievement in music has been compared with Sidney Nolan’s in painting, and with Patrick White’s in literature, in that he gave expression to the Australian condition.
Richard Tognetti, artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, recalled hearing the ACO performing Sculthorpe at concerts in Wollongong.
“It was the music of the orchestra, way before I joined it,” Tognetti said last night. “People were playing his music and loving it.”
Brett Dean, the violist and composer, said he performed Sun Music III with the Australian Youth Orchestra at the London Proms in the 1980s, and found the occasion a powerful expression of Australian music in an international setting.
“There was an enormous reception for this piece by an Australian composer at the Proms, that was a significant experience,” Dean said.
“This voice had such clarity and such strength ... capturing something of the country in sound.”
Sculthorpe turned his cultural compass to Asia — particularly the music of Japan and Bali — and also to indigenous Australia.
He adapted melodies from Aboriginal song, and made the didgeridoo a solo instrument alongside the Western symphony orchestra.
Sculthorpe, who taught composition at the University of Sydney, loved being the bon vivant and had a mischievous streak, but he was also a serious artist who needed quiet time in which to write music.
