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Abstract
The Melbourne chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) gave regular concerts from 1965 to 1973. At a time when most of Australia was ignorant of twentieth-century New Music, ISCM concerts introduced audiences to a comprehensive range of contemporary music from both international and Australian composers. The history of the Melbourne ISCM can be divided into three distinct eras dominated by the influence of personalities including George Dreyfus, James Murdoch and Keith Humble. The conflicts between these individuals produced both a dynamic culture in the Society, and the in-fighting that eventually led to the demise of the ISCM in controversial circumstances.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Dr. Joel Crotty and Dr. Kay Dreyfus for their support and advice in relation to this article.
Notes
1 ‘Minutes of Annual General Meeting of the International Society for Contemporary Music (Melbourne), 28 June 1973’, Gregory Young private papers.
2 George Dreyfus, personal interview, Camberwell, 7 August 2009.
3 Chris Mann, personal interview, New York, 22 September 2009.
4 James Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers (Melbourne: Sun Books, 1975).
5 Roger Covell, Australia's Music: Themes of a New Society (Melbourne: Sun Books, 1967).
6 Greg Dobbs, ‘Professor Donald Peart and the Sydney ISCM’, Sounds Australian 55 (2000), 12–13.
7 Helen Gifford, ‘Subliminal Co-ordinates … Drawing Threads’, New Music Articles 7 (1989), 5–8.
8 Joel Crotty, ‘The Entrepreneurial Spirit of George Dreyfus’, Sounds Australian 55 (2000), 18–19.
9 Anton Haefeli and Reinhard Oehlschlägel, ‘International Society for Contemporary Music’, in Grove Music Online ed. L Macy (accessed 15 August 2009), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/13859
10 I am grateful to the following individuals who agreed to be interviewed for this article: George Dreyfus, Helen Gifford, Chris Mann, Ron Nagorcka, Dan Robinson and Gregory Young.
11 ISCM theatre programme file, State Library of Victoria (SLV).
12 International Society for Contemporary Music, University of Melbourne Archives (UMA), accession numbers 72/27, 75/61, 73/27 and 73/44.
13 Access has been unavailable to two collections of personal papers from key ISCM personalities: George Dreyfus (SLV; the collection has yet to be accessioned) and James Murdoch (National Library of Australia; the collection is under restricted access).
14 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers; and Frank Callaway and David Tunley, eds, Australian Composition in the Twentieth Century (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1978).
15 George Dreyfus, The Last Frivolous Book (Sydney: Hale & Ironmonger, 1984); Being George … and Liking It! Reflections on the Life and Work of George Dreyfus on his 70th Birthday (Richmond: Allans Publishing, 1998); and Don't Ever Let Them Get You! (North Fitzroy: Black Pepper Publishing, 2009).
16 Clive O'Connell, ‘Musical Composition in Australia: 1960–1970’ (MA thesis, University of Melbourne, 2001).
17 John Whiteoak, Playing Ad Lib: Improvisatory Music in Australia 1836–1970 (Sydney: Currency Press, 1999); ‘Keith Humble, the Music-maker with a Message’, Context 10 (Summer 1995/96): 5–9; and ‘Interview with Keith Humble’, New Music Articles 7 (1989), 21–6.
18 ‘New Music', The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev., ed. Michael Kennedy, Oxford Music Online (accessed 11 August 2009), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e7229
19 Michael Nyman, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 1–30.
20 Robert Adlington, Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the Sixties (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 4–6.
21 O'Connell, ‘Musical Composition in Australia’, 77.
22 Gifford, ‘Subliminal Co-ordinates’, 6–7.
23 David Symons, The Music of Margaret Sutherland (Sydney: Currency Press, 1997), 22.
24 Crotty, ‘The Entrepreneurial Spirit of George Dreyfus’, 18; and Whiteoak, Playing Ad Lib, 268.
25 Personal interview with Helen Gifford, Hawthorn, 14 August 2009.
26 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers, 82.
27 Dreyfus and Gifford interviews.
28 Dreyfus and Gifford interviews; O'Connell, ‘Musical Composition in Australia’, 71–3; and Crotty, ‘The Entrepreneurial Spirit of George Dreyfus’, 18–19.
29 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers, 82; and Gifford interview.
30 O'Connell, ‘Musical Composition in Australia’, 73.
31 For a history of the IGNM/ISCM, see Anton Haefeli, Die Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) (Zurich: Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, 1982).
32 Haefeli and Oehlschlägel, ‘International Society for Contemporary Music’.
33 ‘International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)’, in The Oxford Companion to Australian Music ed. Warren Bebbington (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997), 298.
34 Dobbs, ‘Peart and the Sydney ISCM’, 12.
35 Ibid., 12–13.
36 Donald Peart, ‘Some Recent Developments in Australian Composition’, Composer XIX (Spring 1966), 73.
37 Gifford interview.
38 Gifford and Dreyfus interviews.
39 Dreyfus interview.
40 Dobbs, ‘Peart and the Sydney ISCM’, 12–13; and Peart, ‘Some Recent Developments’, 75.
41 Dreyfus interview.
42 Ibid.
43 Gifford interview; and Meredith Oakes, ‘Transpositions’, Music Now 1/1 (February 1969), 37.
44 Whiteoak, ‘Keith Humble’, 6–7.
45 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers, 124.
46 Dreyfus and Gifford interviews.
51 ‘International Society for Contemporary Music—Melbourne: What it Does, How to Join. 1966’, ISCM theatre programme file, SLV.
47 O'Connell, ‘Musical Composition in Australia’, 84.
48 Dreyfus interview.
49 Gifford interview.
50 Dreyfus interview.
52 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers, 83.
53 Gifford interview.
54 ‘International Society for Contemporary Music Melbourne: First Concert. March 1965’, ISCM theatre programme file, SLV.
55 Dreyfus interview.
56 Details of ISCM events in Appendix 1 have largely been assembled from the ISCM papers held by the University of Melbourne and the SLV. While these sources are extensive, they are not exhaustive.
57 ‘International Society for Contemporary Music Melbourne: Second Concert’, programme (May 1965).
58 Whiteoak, Playing Ad Lib, 282–90; Adrian Rawlins, ‘As Modern as Debussy, Darling!’, Lot's Wife (27 July 1965), 17; and letter from Robert Rooney to the author, 5 August 2009.
59 Dreyfus interview.
60 Gifford interview.
61 ‘Concert of French Music’, programme (2 July 1967), ISCM theatre programme file, SLV.
62 Dreyfus, The Last Frivolous Book, 70–8.
63 Letter from Bruce Clarke to M. Herriman (9 January 1969), ISCM file, MUA; and James Murdoch, ‘Euphoric Days’, Sounds Australian 55 (2000), 16.
64 Dreyfus interview.
65 Kenneth Hince, ‘A Word from a Gilded Cage’, Australian (4 May 1968).
66 Graeme Edwards, ‘Outsider Sounds Off’, Herald (4 May 1968).
67 ‘Censor Soft Pedals a Score’, Herald (29 April 1968); and Lawrie Francis, ‘Solo on a Vac’, Sun (30 April 1968), 8.
68 ‘First Melbourne Festival of Contemporary Music’, programme (25 September–14 October 1967). There is no evidence to indicate there were any subsequent festivals beyond this inaugural event.
69 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers, 127; and Whiteoak, ‘Interview with Keith Humble’, 21.
70 Whiteoak, Playing Ad Lib, 298–300 and 313–14. The reasons for the demise of the SPPNM are unclear.
71 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers, 128–9.
72 Helen Gifford, ‘Melbourne Report’, Music Now 1/2 (1969), 47; and letter from Meryl Axtens to members of the ISCM (10 February 1969), ISCM file, UMA.There is no evidence of any ISCM events following the festival until 4 March 1968.
73 The identity of this office bearer is unclear.
74 Letter from Bruce Clarke to M. Herriman, 9 January 1969; and undated letter from Kevin McBeath to John Hopkins (c.March 1969), ISCM file, UMA.
75 Brusey initially retired due to work commitments, but returned to the presidency again later in 1968 after Clarke resigned. See ISCM Bulletin 1 (30 January 1968), ISCM file, UMA; and ISCM Bulletin (April 1969), ISCM theatre programme file, SLV.
76 Letter from Bruce Clarke to M. Herriman, 9 January 1969; and undated letter from Kevin McBeath to John Hopkins (c.March 1969), ISCM file, UMA.
77 Gifford interview.
78 Whiteoak, ‘Interview with Keith Humble’, 24.
79 Felix Werder, Age (1968), cited in ISCM Bulletin (April 1969), ISCM theatre programme file, SLV.
80 Felix Werder, ‘Humble: the Complete Musician’, Age (22 October 1968); and ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’, Age (11 November 1969).
81 John Sinclair, ‘Flight from Infantasy’, Herald (14 August 1969).
82 Kenneth Hince, ‘Good for a Giggle’, Australian (3 October 1970), 20.
83 Gifford, ‘Melbourne Report’, 47.
84 Helen Gifford, ‘An Interview with Keith Humble’, Music Now 1/3 (March 1970), 11.
85 Callaway and Tunley, Australian Composition, 4–5.
86 ‘International Society for Contemporary Music—Melbourne: Season 1970/71’, ISCM theatre programme file, SLV.
87 ISCM file, UMA.
88 Dreyfus interview.
89 Dreyfus, The Last Frivolous Book, 70–7.
90 Dreyfus interview.
91 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers, 6; Larry Sitsky, ‘New Music in Australia’, Hemisphere 13 (November 1969), 12–13; and Kenneth Hince, ‘The Modern Outlook’, Australian (20 January 1968).
92 ‘Minutes of the ISCM Committee Meeting’, 13 May 1972, ISCM file, UMA.
93 Letter from Kent Brierley & Barraclough, Chartered Accountants, to the Committee, International Society for Contemporary Music (c/o George Dreyfus), 26 May 1972, ISCM file, UMA.
94 Personal interview with Gregory Young, South Yarra, 28 August 2009.
95 ‘Minutes for Annual General Meeting of ISCM Melbourne chapter, 2 June 1972’, ISCM file, UMA.
96 Ibid.
97 Letter from John Seal to George Dreyfus, 6 June 1972; letter from Ron Nagorcka to George Dreyfus, 6 June 1972 (both ISCM file, UMA); and Ron Nagorcka, email correspondence with the author, 11 August 2009.
98 Dreyfus, The Last Frivolous Book, 82–7; Kay Dreyfus (ed.), Opera and the Australian Composer: Report of [the] Symposium held at the Pram Factory, Carlton, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th February, 1973 ([Camberwell, Vic.]: K. Dreyfus, 1973),102 pp, ISBN 095989500, NLA Bibl ID 2692070.
99 Personal interview with Gregory Young, Malvern, 9 October 2009.
100 The ISCM's financial statement for year ending 30 June 1973 (held in the private papers of Gregory Young) indicates that besides the ninety new memberships received in February of the same year (discussed below), there were twenty-three financial members.
101 Mann interview.
102 Both these events are detailed in ‘Statement from Mr. F. Pam concerning new members’, attached to ‘Minutes of Annual General Meeting of the International Society for Contemporary Music (Melbourne), 28 June 1973’, Gregory Young private papers.
103 ‘Minutes of Annual General Meeting of the International Society for Contemporary Music (Melbourne), 28 June 1973’, Gregory Young private papers.
104 Held at Tamani Restaurant in South Yarra, 28 June 1973.
105 Dreyfus interview.
106 Robinson had been a bandmate of Lobby Loyde in The Wild Cherries, possibly why Loyde was present.
107 Mann interview.
108 Mann interview; Nagorcka email, 11 August 2009; and Young interview, 28 August 2009.
109 ‘Statement from Mr. F. Pam concerning new members’, attached to ‘Minutes of Annual General Meeting of the International Society for Contemporary Music (Melbourne), 28 June 1973’, Gregory Young private papers.
110 Chris Mann, email correspondence with the author, 11 August 2009; Nagorcka email, 11 August 2009; Kay Dreyfus, email correspondence with the author, 11 August 2009; and Young interview, 28 August 2009.
111 ‘Minutes of Annual General Meeting of the International Society for Contemporary Music (Melbourne), 28 June 1973’. Gregory Young private papers.
112 ‘Statement from Mr. F. Pam concerning new members’, attached to ‘Minutes of Annual General Meeting of the International Society for Contemporary Music (Melbourne), 28 June 1973’, Gregory Young private papers.
113 Mann interview.
114 It was later questioned whether Humble was a financial member at the time of the AGM. See telegram from Gregory Young to Jean Battersby, Australian Council for the Arts, 6 July 1973, Gregory Young private papers.
115 Dan Robinson, telephone interview with the author, 11 September 2009.
116 Letter from Gregory Young to Kenneth W. Tribe, Acting Chairman, Music Board, Australian Council for the Arts, 3 November 1973, Gregory Young private papers.
118 Letter from Kenneth Tribe, Acting Chairman, Music Board, Australian Council for the Arts to F. Pam and G. Young, 25 October 1973, Gregory Young private papers.
117 Gregory Young private papers.
119 Letter from Gregory Young to Kenneth Tribe, Acting Chairman, Music Board, Australian Council for the Arts, 3 November 1973; and letter from Frank Pam to Kenneth Tribe, Acting Chairman, Music Board, Australian Council for the Arts, 20 November 1973, Gregory Young private papers.
120 Letter from Gregory Young to Senator L.K. Murphy, Attorney-General, 15 April 1974, Gregory Young private papers.
121 Letter from Don Banks to Gregory Young, 23 July 1974, Gregory Young private papers.
122 Mann interview.
123 Fox, ‘Experimental Music in Melbourne’, 29–30.
124 Letter from Allan Gamble, Director, Music Board, Australian Council for the Arts, to Bob Maxwell, Chairman, New Music Centre, 26 February 1975, Gregory Young private papers.
125 For a full account of the CHCMC's activities, see Ernie Althoff, ‘The Clifton Hill Community Music Centre 1976–1983’, New Music Articles 7 (1989), 39–43.
126 Dreyfus interview; Sitsky, ‘New music in Australia’, 12–13; Laughton Harris, Andre Jurres and David Symons, ‘The ISCM in Australia’, in David Tunley and David Symons (eds), The Contemporary Composer and Society: Report of Seminar held in the Department of Music, University of Western Australia, February 24–28 1971 during the Nineteenth Festival of Perth’ (Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia, 1971); and Covell, Australia's Music, 140.
127 Larry Sitsky, ‘Emergence of the New Music in Australia’, Perspectives of New Music 4/1 (autumn–winter 1965), 176.
128 Dreyfus interview.
129 Ibid.
130 The author made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Murdoch.
131 Murdoch, Australia's Contemporary Composers, 124.
132 Werder, ‘Humble: The Complete Musician’.