Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE FAHA (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was a well-known Australian composer and teacher. His music was influenced by the sounds of countries near Australia and by combining elements of Aboriginal Australian music with Western musical traditions. He is best known for his orchestral and chamber music, such as Kakadu (1988) and Earth Cry (1986), which reflect the sounds and atmosphere of Australia’s bushland and outback. He also composed 18 string quartets, used unusual musical effects, wrote pieces for piano, and created two operas. Sculthorpe aimed to create music that made listeners feel happier and more positive. He avoided the complex, atonal styles used by many of his contemporaries. His work often included unique use of percussion instruments. As a leader in creating a unique Australian musical style, Sculthorpe’s contributions are often compared to the influence of Aaron Copland in shaping American music.

Early life

Peter Sculthorpe was born and raised in Launceston, Tasmania. His mother, Edna, loved English literature and was the first woman in Tasmania to have a driver's licence. His father, Joshua, enjoyed fishing and spending time in nature. Sculthorpe attended the Launceston Church Grammar School for his education.

He started writing music when he was seven or eight years old, after taking his first piano lesson. He continued composing in secret when his piano teacher punished him for this activity. By the age of 14, he decided to pursue a career in music, even though many people, including his father, encouraged him to choose other paths. Sculthorpe believed that the music he created was the only thing that truly belonged to him. In his early teens, he tried to learn composition by studying Ernst Krenek's Studies in Counterpoint, which he later described as "a very difficult book." He studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music from 1946 to 1950, then returned to Tasmania.

His Piano Sonatina was performed at the ISCM Festival in Baden-Baden in 1955. The piece had been rejected for an ABC competition because it was considered "too modern."

Sculthorpe won a scholarship to study at Wadham College, Oxford, where he studied under Egon Wellesz. Through Wellesz, he met Wilfrid Mellers, who was interested in Australian literature and encouraged Sculthorpe to read D. H. Lawrence's Kangaroo. This inspired Sculthorpe to compose Irkanda II (String Quartet No. 5). His song-cycle Sun, based on three poems by Lawrence, was dedicated to Mellers. These works were later withdrawn, but Lawrence's words later appeared in a revised version of Irkanda IV and in The Fifth Continent. Sculthorpe left Wadham before completing his doctorate because his father became very ill. He wrote his first mature composition, Irkanda IV, in memory of his father.

Soon after, he met the painter Russell Drysdale, who had recently lost his son to suicide. The two spent time together on a houseboat on the Tamar River. Later, Drysdale's wife, Bonnie, who had introduced Sculthorpe to Drysdale, also took her own life. Sculthorpe's String Quartet No. 6 was dedicated to Bonnie Drysdale's memory. His Piano Sonata (later withdrawn and re-released as Callabonna) was dedicated to Russell Drysdale, who used Lake Callabonna in South Australia as a setting in his paintings.

Musical career

In 1963, he became a lecturer at the University of Sydney and stayed there for many years, eventually becoming a professor emeritus. In the mid-1960s, he was a composer in residence at Yale University. In 1965, he wrote Sun Music I for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's first overseas tour, as requested by Sir Bernard Heinze, who wanted a piece without rhythm, harmony, or melody. After the premiere of Sun Music I, Neville Cardus wrote that Sculthorpe was preparing to "lay the foundations of an original and characteristic Australian music." In 1968, Sun Music was used in a ballet choreographed by Sir Robert Helpmann, which received attention worldwide.

In the late 1960s, Sculthorpe worked with Patrick White on an opera about Eliza Fraser, but White decided to end the collaboration. Later, Sculthorpe wrote an opera (Rites of Passage, 1972–73), using his own text that included Latin and the Australian indigenous language Arrernte. Another opera, Quiros, was completed in 1982.

In 2003, the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra performed the premiere of Sydney Singing, a piece Sculthorpe composed for clarinet, harp, percussion, and string orchestra. Sculthorpe was a composer associated with the Australian Music Centre and was published by Faber Music Ltd. He was the second composer to be contracted by Faber, following Benjamin Britten.

Style and themes

Much of Sculthorpe's early work shows the influence of Asian music. However, he said these influences became less important during the 1970s as Indigenous Australian music grew in significance. He explained that he became interested in Indigenous cultures during his teenage years, mainly because of his father, who shared stories about past wrongs in Tasmania. He believed his father was remarkable for that time, as was his mother. It was not until the 1970s, when recordings and books about Indigenous cultures became available, that Sculthorpe began using Indigenous themes in his music.

Sculthorpe stated that his work often included political messages, focusing on protecting the environment and addressing climate change. His 16th String Quartet was inspired by letters written by asylum seekers in Australian detention centers.

Sculthorpe admired Russell "Tass" Drysdale as a role model, appreciating how he used familiar ideas in new ways. He noted that Drysdale was sometimes criticized for repeating similar images in his art. Drysdale responded by comparing himself to Renaissance artists who repeatedly tried to create the perfect image of the Madonna and Child. Sculthorpe said this made him understand that reusing and reworking his own material was acceptable. Like Drysdale, he now sees all his work as part of one ongoing creative effort.

Personal life

In the early 1970s, Sculthorpe was engaged to Anne Boyd, an Australian composer and music teacher. He is related by family to Fanny Cochrane Smith, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman. Her wax cylinder recordings of songs are the only audio recordings of Tasmania's Indigenous languages. Gladys, Fanny Cochrane Smith's daughter, married Sculthorpe's great-grandfather's nephew.

Recognition and honours

• 1999: was chosen as one of Australia's 45 Icons

The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is given to a person who has made important contributions to music in Australia.

The Don Banks Music Award was created in 1984 to honor a well-known artist with great achievements who has made significant and long-term contributions to music in Australia. It was started by the Australia Council in memory of Don Banks, an Australian composer, performer, and the first leader of its music board.

Sculthorpe was chosen as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) in 1991.

Death and legacy

Sculthorpe died in Sydney on August 8, 2014, at the age of 85. His home on Holdsworth Street in Woollahra was sold in May 2015 to Peter Weiss, a person known for work in fashion and for helping others.

In 2014, the Government of New South Wales and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music created a new award worth A$30,000 to honor Sculthorpe’s life. The Peter Sculthorpe Fellowship would be given every two years to support the career of a young composer or musician in New South Wales who creates and performs new Australian music.

• 2015: Peggy Polias, a composer from southwest Sydney, to record her 2009 piece, Picnic at Hanging Rock Suite; create a new work; and expand her professional opportunities
• 2017: Rhyan Clapham (known professionally as DOBBY), an Aboriginal Australian and Filipino hip hop artist from Brewarrina, who was 23 years old at the time

Works

• The Fifth Continent for speaker and orchestra (1963)
• Sun Music I (1965)
• Sun Music II (1969)
• Sun Music III (1967)
• Sun Music IV (1967)
• Love 200 (worked with Tully) (1970)
• Music for Japan (1970)
• Love 200 (worked with Fraternity) (1972)
• Small Town for solo oboe, two trumpets, timpani, and strings (1976) (see Thirroul, New South Wales)
• Port Essington for string trio and string orchestra (1977) (see Port Essington)
• Mangrove (1979)
• Earth Cry (1986)
• Kakadu (1988)
• Memento Mori (1993)
• Cello Dreaming (1998)
• From Oceania (2003)
• Beethoven Variations (2006)
• Songs of Sea and Sky, also arranged for different instruments such as flute and clarinet
• Mangrove, for orchestra
• My Country Childhood
• Shining Island (2011), for strings (remembering Henryk Górecki)

• Piano Concerto (1983)
• Earth Cry, for didgeridoo and orchestra (1986)
• Nourlangie, for solo guitar, strings, and percussion (1989)
• Sydney Singing, for clarinet, harp, percussion, and strings (2003)
• Elegy, for solo viola and strings (2006)

• Morning Song for the Christ Child (1966)
• The Birthday of thy King (1988)
• Requiem (2004)

• Rites of Passage (music theatre; 1972–73)
• Quiros (1982)

• Sonata for Viola and Percussion (1960)
• Requiem for cello alone (1979; commissioned and premiered by Nathan Waks)
• Four Little Pieces for Piano Duet (1979)
• Djilile for percussion ensemble (1986)
• Djilile for viol consort (1995)
• From Kakadu for solo guitar (1993)
• Into the Dreaming for solo guitar (1994)
• Earth Cry arr. for string quartet (1994)
• From the River for piano and strings (2000)
• Soliloquy and Cadenza for solo cello (2001)
• Oh T.I. for guitar and strings (2012; commissioned and premiered by Canberra International Music Festival)
• 18 string quartets (including 4 quartets with optional didgeridoo – No. 12 "From Ubirr," No. 14 "Quamby," No. 16, No. 18)

• Between Five Bells
• Callabonna (1963)
• Djilile (1989)
• Koto Music I (1973)
• Koto Music II (1976)
• A Little Book of Hours
• Little Passacaglia (2004, written for the Indonesian pianist Ananda Sukarlan)
• Mountains (1981, premiered by Gabriella Pusner)
• Night Pieces: Snow; Moon; Flowers; Night; Stars (1971)
• Nocturnal (1989)
• Piano Sonatina (1954)
• Riverina
• Rose Bay Quadrilles (William Stanley, 1856, edited by Sculthorpe)
• Song for a Penny (2000)
• Simori
• Thoughts from Home (intended to form part of the Gallipoli Symphony for Anzac Day 2015)
• Two Easy Pieces: Left Bank Waltz (1958); Sea Chant (1971)

• Age of Consent (1969)
• Manganinnie (1980) – Winner AFI Award, Best Original Music Score
• Burke & Wills (1985)

Sculthorpe Complete String Quartets with didgeridoo (Del Sol String Quartet with Stephen Kent, didgeridoo) (released by Sono Luminus on 30 September 2014)

Tamara Anna Cislowska released the album Peter Sculthorpe – Complete Works for Solo Piano in September 2014.