Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)

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.

When she was four years old, her family, noted for its artistic and musical interests, moved to Melbourne, where she lived until her death. 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 the Second World War 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.

Margaret Sutherland pioneered new music in the first half of this century in Australia, at a time when Australian composers, especially women composers, experienced public indifference and a profound sense of isolation. She acted as a central role model for a proliferation of woman composers.

Information from
Record number
54440
Other names
  • Margaret Sutherland
  • Margaret Ada Sutherland
  • Dr Margaret Ada Sutherland
Born
  • 20 November 1897, Adelaide, SA
Died
  • 12 August 1984, Melbourne, Vic
Gender
female
Activities
  • composer
  • pianist
  • music teacher
  • musician
Honours
  • The Order of the British Empire - Officer (Civil), Music, 13 June 1970
  • Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), for service to music, 8 June 1981
  • Honorary Doctorate of Music, University of Melbourne, 1969
References

  • "Margaret Sutherland", Australian Music Centre composer biography, http://www.amcoz.com.au/comp/s/msutland.htm accessed 6 May 2004

  • Symons, David, "Sutherland, Margaret Ada", in Bebbington, Warren (ed.), Oxford Companion to Australian Music (Melbourne: OUP, 1997), pp. 535-537

  • "Margaret Sutherland" in Schultz, Andrew (ed.), Biographical Directory of Australian Composers (Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 1996), p. 214

  • NLA Collections

Updated
06 May 2004
To cite this page
http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-ma-ANL%3AMA~54440

Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)

Information from
Record number
000000054440
Other names
  • Margaret Ada Sutherland (1897-1984)
  • M. (Margaret), Sutherland (1897-1984)
Born
  • 1897
Died
  • 1984
Updated
13 March 1995

Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)

Information from
Record number
000000055666
Born
  • 1897
Died
  • 1984
Updated
02 November 1990

Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)

Information from
Record number
000000102066
Born
  • 1897
Died
  • 1984
Updated
21 January 1993

Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)

Information from
Record number
000000102113
Born
  • 1897
Died
  • 1984
Updated
21 January 1993

Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)

Information from
Record number
000000102122
Born
  • 1897
Died
  • 1984
Updated
21 January 1993

Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)

Information from
Record number
000000128930
Other names
  • M. (Margaret), Sutherland (1897-1984)
Born
  • 1897
Died
  • 1984
Updated
18 September 1996

Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)

Information from
Record number
000000219684
Born
  • 1897
Died
  • 1984
Updated
13 March 1995