Composers and Authors

Biography of Dulcie Holland co-authored by Rita Crews OAM and Jeanell Carrigan AM

This wonderful Australian woman composer deserved to have her life and music celebrated much earlier, not twenty years after her death. But now it is been written by two musicians: one who knew Holland and had the opportunity to discuss her music with her; and one who has come to know Dulcie Holland from playing many of her remarkable compositions. Fortunately, there are detailed interviews available, giving a very good insight into Holland’s thought processes and providing an absolute wealth of information​.

Holland was such a modest woman that she probably would have thought her music - and her life - was not worth writing about. She was always described as having an engaging and outgoing personality. She considered herself to be first a pianist, then a composer and thirdly a teacher, but composed music well into her eighties.
Her compositions, numbering at least 330, included music in all genres except opera, though her musical play Jenolan Adventure, was certainly a work of drama for the stage. Documentary films, chamber music, works for orchestra, instrumental solos, many keyboard works and at least thirty songs are all part of her immense contribution to Australian composition.

She is undoubtedly best known for the numerous musicianship and theory textbooks that she wrote over many years. Even the catalogue listing at the National Library mentions that “Holland’s name became synonymous with music theory in Australia.” Despite the obvious advantages of being the Australian expert on music theory, it has meant that Holland herself and some of her more serious compositions have been overlooked by musical critics.

It is a tragedy that a biography and discussion about Holland’s music has taken until now to be written. She is certainly a composer who deserves to be celebrated. In her own words:

But after many years of writing music, simply because I had the urge to do so, I have reached the strong conclusion that music is greater than the sum of all those who contribute to it, and that instead of adding to the volume of music that has been composed, it would be much more valuable to make new converts for music, to share my enthusiasm for it with those possibly as yet unaware, and to stimulate them to find out more of its mysteries and delights. I have had first-hand opportunities to observe how young people develop, how their tastes may be formed, and their imagination fired, and ultimately how their lives can be enriched by a knowledge and love of music. To encourage others along these lines has become my mission in life, and I dare to hope that my influence for good may continue long after my earthly life ends, thus adding significantly to the quality of life in at least one small part of this world.

Composing is very difficult. It needs a lot of concentration and dedication to get things just right. I feel I’m a missionary in music in a way. [Dulcie Holland. 'Contemporary Music Review', 1994, Vol. 11]

 https://youtu.be/9WpdT2cehzA  Presented by Dr Rita Crews for KCC Music Professional Development

ISBN 9781876829643

Arranged for alto saxophone and piano, c.5'00.  Grade 4

This Aria was originally composed for alto saxophone and string orchestra, with an incomplete piano reduction. This new edition for saxophone and piano includes all the dynamic and articulation markings from the full string orchestra score, adding specificity to the piano reduction of this Aria and unifying the dynamics between the piano and saxophone.

Composed 1954

Researched and edited by Nessyah Gallagher.

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• Aria - sheet music
  

ISMN 9790720249810

$20.00 for instant digital download of score and part

Piano music by Australian Women Composers

The composers in this volume:  

Esther Rofe (1904-2000); Meta Overman (1907-1993); Majorie Hesse (1911-1986); Josephine Bell (1912-2006); Peggy Glanville Hicks(1912-1990); Miriam Hyde (1913-2005); Dulcie Holland (1913-2000); Phyllis Batchelor (1915-1999).

 "Nostalgia" CD is a collection of 28 works from these volumes and is available online.   Nostalgia

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• Samples pages of each work 
  

Esther Rofe (1904-2000)

• Echo di Vienne
• Miniature Variations
• Miniature Variations on a Theme in A minor

Meta Overman (1907-1993)

• 19 Charivari Variations 
• Ritsel (Rattle) 

Marjorie Hesse (1911-1986)

• The Ballerina
• Valse Gracieuse.  Licentiate Level 3, AMEB Piano

Josephine Bell (1912-2006)

• Murmuring Trees
• In A Thoughtful Mood

Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990)

• Obeisance to a Lucite Spectrum
• Pastorale

Miriam Hyde (1913-2005)

• Blackbird’s Song
• Ballerina
• The Fountain

Dulcie Holland (1913-2000)

• Asterisk
• The Lake
• Nocturne for Piano

Phyllis Batchelor (1915-1999)

• Prelude
• Sarabande
• Waltz

ISMN 9790720166940

$35.00 for instant PDF download: 

Features 32 songs from six song cycles by prominent Australian composers - Ian Cooper, John Peterson, Richard Charlton, Margaret Sutherland, Dulcie Holland and Nigel Butterley who have set poems by Jane Adamson, William Blake, Kenneth Slessor, Mary Gilmore, Robin Gurr.    Performed by Wendy Dixon (soprano) and David Miller (piano).
Wirr 036

Print music for First Person Feminine, Eternity's Sunrise, Four Blake Songs and Child in Nature are available online.

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First Person Feminine - Ian Cooper (Adamson)
1  i ,  - 2  ii   , - 3  iii , - 4 iv ,  - 5 v,   - 6  vi,   - 7  vii
Eternity's Sunrise - John Peterson (Blake)
8  Auguries of Innocence
9  On Another's Sorrow
10 Holy Thursday
11 Endless Night
12  Eternity
Statues - Richard Charlton (Slessor)
13  The Statues Awake
14  Venus and Apollo
15  Flowers- 16 The ghosts of flesh
17  Reality
Four Blake Songs - Margaret Sutherland (Blake)
18  Memory, hither come
19  Piping down the valley wild
20  How sweet I roamed
21  I love the jocund dance
Four Mary Gilmore Songs - Dulcie Holland (Gilmour)
22  Whom shall I praise?
23  Spring
24  The loving heart
25  Rittle rattle rittle
Child in Nature - Nigel Butterley (Gurr)
26  The Child
27  The Bird
28  Brown Jack 
29  Spider's Web 
30  The Cricket 
31  The Wind and the Song 
32  A Dark Glow About Me 

Early twentieth century Australian women composers and their piano music. There were a relatively large number of women born in Australia between 1860 and 1915 who became composers of piano music. For many of them this was not an easy task. They did not always receive encouragement. Certainly many could not earn a living at this creative work and they battled not only the gender inequality that still largely exists today but also against musical fashion and trends that their works did not always reflect, as well as the backlash which came from being born into a ‘colonial’ country.  This is their story. Australian Heritage Collection - the piano works of these women have been published in three volumes as researched and edited by Jeanell. Each volume contains a CD of the works within.  A CD Nostalgia has been released with many of these works recorded by Jeanell.  It was featured as ABC Classic FM "CD of the week", November 2016.  All piano works available online - Australian Heritage Collection Volumes I, II, III ISBN 9781876829421

For violin, cello and piano , c.17'00

It is a work in one movement. Within the movement there is a mixture of a standard sonata-allegro form and three distinct movements characterized by different tempi.

The trio is very late romantic in style with occasional glimpses of harmony which could have been used by one of the impressionist composers such as Ravel, Fauré or Debussy. Considering it is such an early work it shows wonderful maturity and great promise for the compositions which would follow.

 Composed 1938

The volume includes a CD performed by Goetz Richter (violin), Minah Choe (cello)  and Jeanell Carrigan (piano).  Fantasy Trio is also recorded on In Tribute (Wirr 105) available online

Researched, edited and recorded by Jeanell Carrigan

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• Fantasy Trio - sheet music and audio
  

ISMN 9790720227191
$50.00 for instant PDF download of score and parts

For orchestra , c.4'30

It has a little theme which as Holland described came from the rhythm of the words, “Northside Arts Festival, so that it is meant to be characteristic of a festival.

Described as attractive, optimistic, bright and bustling it opens with continuous quavers in the woodwinds and, unusually, the theme played by violas and cellos.

The work is mostly in compound time alternating between 6/8 and 2/4 when the rhythmical motive is presented.

Composed 1965

Researched and edited  by Jeanell Carrigan

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• Festival Flourish- sheet music
  

ISMN 9790720227375
$100.00 for instant PDF download of score and parts 

Seven Piano Trios by renowned Australian composers such as Dulcie Holland, Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards, Roger Smalley and Mike Nock, performed by the Apollo Trio: Thomas Tsai, Daniel Herscovitch and Maria Lindsay, and Elizabeth Neville.
Wirr 054.  

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[1-3] Piano Trio (Dulcie Holland)
  -  Allegro non troppo
  -  Fast
  -  Allegro maestro
4  Night Song (Peter Sculthorpe)
[5-7 Piano Trio (Ross Edwards)
  -  Allegretto
  -  poco adagio e mesto, quasi recitativo
  -  Allegro Assai
[8]  From Irkanda III (Peter Sculthorpe)
[9-10] Piano Trio (Roger Smalley)
  -  Part 1  1: Prelude   II: Scherzo
  -  Part 2  III: Passacaglia   IV: Variations
[11]  Cradle Song (Dulcie Holland)
[12]  Fictional Realities (Mike Nock)

Heritage Australian Art Songs

Margaret Schindler (soprano), Philip Mayers (piano)
The collection covers a wide ground.  Some of these songs were never intended to be considered as High Art; written for relatively uncritical consumption, they and others of their sort were aimed at the home music market, at times when singing together around the piano was a common evening pastime. An all-pervading sense of innocence prevails, maybe reflective of the publishing strictures of the times. Choosing the material for this recording was a journey of rediscovery for the artists which resulted in representative appraisals of a past revisited, and you will find amongst the acknowledged classics the sort of tunes some may primly dismiss as too light a fare. 
Choosing the name for this CD was not hard.  Ask any Australian abroad what remembered sound most triggers their nostalgia, and the inimitable rusty-gate chortle of the magpie will usually be the answer.  [extracts from the liner notes by Philip Mayers]
Wirr 076  
             

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1 Mopoke (Alfred Hill)
2 A Bush Bird in a Blue Gum Tree (Horace Gleeson)
3 There's a Whisper in the Air (May H Brahe)
4 The Piper from Over the Way (May H Brahe)
5 The Fairy Bridge (Alfred Hill)
6   The Call of the Maytime (May H Brahe)
7   Idyll (Then Comes the Dawn) (Olive Ingall)
8   The Pixie Piper Man (Leslie Elliott)
9   In Spite of All (Mirrie Hill)
10  Lovely Morning (Horace Gleeson)
11  The Thrush (Edith Harrhy)
12  My Bird Singing (Mirrie Hill)
13  Spring Mirth (John Villaume)
14  By the Moongate (John Villaume)
15  You came to me in May (Edith Harrhy)
16  Flowers of Sleep (Roy Agnew)
17  Come Sleep (Peggy Glanville Hicks)
18  I Thought I Heard a Magpie Call (Alfred Hill) 
19  A Little Town (Alfred Hill)
20  Bush Silence (William G James)
21  An Australian Lullaby (Edith Harrhy)
22  Brown Bird (John Villaume)
23  I Heard a Sound of Singing (Mirrie Hill)
24  In Early Green Summer (Marjorie Hesse)
25  Down Sunlit Glades (Mirrie Hill)
26  A Pastoral Madonna (Dulcie Holland)
27  Summer is Dying (Edith Harrhy)
28  Autumn Leaves (Edith Harrhy)
29  In Early Green Summer (Marjorie Hesse)
30  If I Should Make a Garden (Louis Lavater)
31  Our Friend (Alfred Hill)
32  Nature's Requiem (John Villaume)

Fantasy for violin and piano upon a theme of Hooper Brewster-Jones, c.8'00

It is a fantasy based on a theme by South Australian composer Hooper Brewster-Jones. The theme being the melody in the middle of the piece played by both the violin and the piano, which accompanies the theme with very lush harmony. The work opens in a very dramatic fashion, fanfare–style, and the influence of Richard Strauss or Richard Wagner is fairly obvious in the use of harmonic progressions and the density of harmony used. Alfred Hill, who would have been Holland’s main mentor in 1932 was a fanatical Wagnerite!  Composed 1932

The volume includes a CD performed by Goetz Richter (violin) and Jeanell Carrigan (piano) and recorded as In Tribute (Wirr 105) available online

Researched, edited and recorded by Jeanell Carrigan

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• In Tribute - sheet music and audio
  

ISMN 9790720227207
$25.00 for instant PDF download of score and part

  Chamber music by Dulcie Holland
  Goetz Richter violin, Minah Choe cello, Jeanell Carrigan piano.

  The works on this recording are mainly examples of early works –
  some even written before Holland had any formal composition instruction. In Tribute was written in 1932 and despite being such an early work shows great maturity. It is fantasy written in tribute to the South Australian-born composer Hooper Brewster-Jones and based on a short melodic theme that he contributed. The work is for violin and piano, each with a part of equal difficulty, in one movement, and it is assumed that the work was written for inclusion in a composition competition. Holland was very fond of entering in such competitions and had great success with many of her songs and some of her chamber works.

This recording is part of a large project involving a book about the Life and Music of Dulcie Holland and a series of published scores. The title of the CD ‘In Tribute’ is of course the name of one of the works included on the recording but has the double meaning that this CD is made as a tribute to Dulcie Holland whose musical legacy deserves to be rediscovered and honoured.

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[1-3]  Sonata for Cello and Piano (1993)
Allegro ritmico
Lento
Allegro
[4] Ballad for clarinet and piano (transcribed for violin and piano by Jeanell Carrigan) (1950, trans. 2020)
[5-8]  Four Aspects (1997)
Grieving
Stress
Hope
Healing
[9]  In Tribute (violin and piano) (1932) A fantasy on a theme by Hooper Brewster-Jones
[10]  An Evening Stroll
[11]  The Lake
[12]  Nocturne for Piano
[13]  Fantasy Trio (1938)

Wirr 105

For String Orchestra, c.16'00

The Kambala Suite was composed while teaching at Kambala School for Girls in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.  The suite, consisting of five movements, was subtitled “Impressions of Kambala – An Old House”.
In a review The Kambala Suite was described as a work “with an intelligent and vital quality which spelt more confidence.”
Composed 1937

• Parade
• Dark Tall Pines
• Interlude
• The Winding Drive
• Epilogue

Researched and edited by Jeanell Carrigan

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• Sample page of each movement

ISMN 9790720227344
$80.00 for instant PDF download of score and parts