Margaret Sutherland

Margaret Sutherland (20 November 1897 – 12 August 1984) was an Australian composer, among the best-known female composers her country has produced.

A student of Edward Goll in Australia and of Sir Arnold Bax in London during the 1920s, she wrote pieces in almost all forms, but particularly concentrated on the genre of chamber music. Her major works include a symphony,^[1] The Four Temperaments (orchestrated by Robert W. Hughes in 1964), concertos for various instruments (including violin), a symphonic poem entitled Haunted Hills (1953), and the chamber opera The Young Kabbarli (1964; libretto by Maie Casey).

One of Sutherland's most recognised pieces is "In the Dim Counties" (1936) for voice and piano accompaniment from Five Songs. Sutherland sets her music to the poetry of Shaw Neilson, considered a ‘"pastoral" lyric poet’ from Australia whose verse has ‘simplicity of form and restraint of utterance’. Sutherland captures this through simplistic rhythms, light instrumentation and ‘even musical balance’. Five Songs has been recorded by numerous Australian female artists such as Helen Noonan.

External links

• Biography of Margaret Sutherland
• Australian Music Centre link about Sutherland
• Margaret Sutherland's Australian theatre credits at Ausstage

References

• Triplow, Leighton H. "An analysis of 'In the Dim Counties’ from Five Songs (1936) by Margaret Sutherland", 2011.
• David Symons (1997). "The music of Margaret Sutherland". Currency Press, Sydney.
• Cliff Hanna quoted in David Symons, The Music of Margaret Sutherland (Sydney: Currency Press, 1997), 47; David Symons The Music of Margaret Sutherland (Sydney: Currency Press, 1997), 47. Symons does not state when Hanna made this comment.
• Thérèse Radic, ‘Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984)’, linear notes to Helen Noonan, Woman’s Song: Songs by Australian Woman Composers, Newmarket Music, NEW 1042.2, c. 1994.