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Sutherland, Margaret (1897-1984)

Also known as
Sutherland, M. (Margaret) (1897-1984)
Sutherland, Margaret (1897-1984.)
Sutherland, Margaret Ada (1897-1984)
Occupation
composer; pianist; music teacher; musician; 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
Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-462891

Biographies

Music Australia

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.

View the full record at Music Australia

Australian Women's Register

Margaret Sutherland’s life’s work as a composer saw her produce over 90 compositions and attain renown as a pioneer of ‘new music’ and of women’s involvement in music. Her only opera - the Young Kabbarli (1964), based on Daisy Bates - was the first Australian opera recorded in Australia. Sutherland’s work promoting music and the arts included her years (1943-1956) as an initiator, organiser and secretary for the Combined Arts Centre Movement, a group which worked to promote the formation of a cultural centre in Melbourne after World War II, and her membership of many other councils and organising bodies such as the council of the National Gallery Association of Victoria (1950s-1960s). Recognition of Sutherland’s prolific life as a composer and champion of the Arts in Australia has included an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Melbourne (1969), the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal (1977), and her appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 13 June 1970 and an Officer of the Order of Australia on 8 June 1981.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Related people and organisations

Australian Women's Register

Resources

Selected resources (17)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Composer, wife and mother : Margaret Sutherland as conflicted subject
    Graham, Jillian
    [2001]
    Published: University of Melbourne
  2. The music of Margaret Sutherland
    Symons, David
    [1997]
    Published: Currency Press, Sydney
  3. Composer too long neglected
    [1997]
  4. A lifetime of music
    [1981]
  5. Margaret Sutherland
  6. The Complete Book of Great Australian Women: Thirty-six women who changed the course of Australia
    De Vries, Susanna
    [2003]
    Published: HarperCollins, Sydney
  7. Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
    Australian National University
    [2006]
  8. Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989
    Australian Women's Archives Project
    [2003]
    Published: Australian Women's Archives Project
  9. Records of the Australian Musical Association
    Published: National Library of Australia
  10. Women & music : a history
    Pendle, Karin
    [1991]
    Published: Indiana University Press, Bloomington
  11. Australian women composers [videorecording]
    Sztar, Adele
    [1983]
    Published: Adele Sztar, Australia
  12. Double Time: Women in Victoria - 150 Years
    Lake, Marilyn and Kelly, Farley
    [1985]
    Published: Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood (Vic.)
  13. Who's who of Australian women
    Lofthouse, Andrea
    [1982]
    Published: Methuen Australia, North Ryde (NSW)
  14. 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology
    Radi, Heather
    [1988]
    Published: Women's Redress Press, Sydney
  15. Papers of Margaret Sutherland
    [1897 - 1984]
    Papers of Margaret Sutherland, composer, including news clippings, catalogues and miscellaneous items referring to Dr Sutherland and the Sutherland family of artists.
    0.02 m
    State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection
  16. Music manuscripts [Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984]
    1. Sonata for oboe and piano. 2. Trio for oboe and violins
    2 items
    National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection
    MS 2091
  17. Records [Australian Musical Association]
    [1952 - 1980]
    Minutes, agendas, reports, correspondence, administrative files, photographs, music scores, programmes, newcuttings and other material relating to the activities of the Australian Musical Association, especially concerts organised by the Association in London. Original scores in this collection include manuscripts by Margaret Sutherland, Don Banks, Miriam Hyde, Larry Sitsky, Linda Phillips, Colin Brumby and Arthur Benjamin.
    2.24 m
    National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection
    MS 7996

Resources By Margaret Sutherland (254)

  1. Sonata for clarinet or viola and piano Margaret Sutherland ; edited by Peter Jenkin, clarinet ; with Patricia Pollett, viola and David Bollard, piano
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1900-1998]
  2. [Music archive of Margaret Sutherland]
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1910-1960]
  3. Dithyramb Margaret Sutherland
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1939-1946]
    Available online
  4. Margaret Sutherland
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sound : 1989]
  5. Sonata : for violin and piano M. Sutherland
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1900-1999]
  6. Extension M. Sutherland, 1967
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1967]
  7. Chiairoscuro [sic] II M. Sutherland, 1967
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1967]
  8. Voices No. 2 M. Sutherland
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1968]
  9. [Interview with Dr. Margaret Sutherland, composer] [Interview : Mel Pratt]
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sound : 1972]
    Available online
  10. Extension 1967 / M. Sutherland
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1967]

More...

Resources About Margaret Sutherland (57)

  1. Sonata for clarinet or viola and piano Margaret Sutherland ; edited by Peter Jenkin, clarinet ; with Patricia Pollett, viola and David Bollard, piano
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1900-1998]
  2. The music of Margaret Sutherland / by David Symons
    Symons, David
    [Book : 1997]
  3. [Music archive of Margaret Sutherland]
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1910-1960]
  4. Margaret Sutherland
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sound : 1989]
  5. Dithyramb Margaret Sutherland
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1939-1946]
    Available online
  6. Extension M. Sutherland, 1967
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1967]
  7. Chiairoscuro [sic] II M. Sutherland, 1967
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1967]
  8. Sonata : for violin and piano M. Sutherland
    Sutherland, Margaret, 1897-1984
    [Sheet music : 1900-1999]
  9. [Biographical cuttings on Margaret Sutherland, composer]
    [Published : 1900-1990]
  10. [Biographical cuttings on Margaret Sutherland, composer and musician]
    [Published : 1900-1990]

More...

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Australian Newspapers (1803-1954)

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  1. Website: Australian Women's Archives Project
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  2. Website: Australian Women in War
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  3. Website: 200 Australian Women
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    • ... [Margaret Ada Sutherland]Margaret Sutherland 1897 - 1984 composer Margaret Ada Sutherland (1897-1984...
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  1. Bates, Daisy. 1859-1951
    autobiographer/memoirist; Indigenous culture recorder; Indigenous rights activist/supporter
    ... Sutherland, Margaret Ada (1897 - 1984) ...
  2. Wright, Judith. 1915-2000
    ... Sutherland, Margaret Ada (1897 - 1984) ...