Australian classical music
Some works leading up to the first part of the 20th century were heavily influenced by folk music (Percy Grainger's "English Country Gardens" of 1908 being a good example of this).
[7] From the time of Australia's federation in 1901, a growing sense of national identity[8] began to emerge in the arts, although a patriotic attachment with the "mother country"[9] or "Home",[5] that is Britain, and the Empire, continued to dominate musical taste.
John Antill in his ballet Corroboree, Peter Sculthorpe and others began to incorporate elements of Aboriginal music, Richard Meale drew influence from south-east Asia (notably using the harmonic properties of the Balinese gamelan), while Nigel Butterley combined his penchant for International modernism with an own individual voice.
In recent times composers including Julian Cochran, Barry Conyngham, Brett Dean, Ross Edwards, Gordon Hamilton, Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats-Chernin, Graeme Koehne, Constantine Koukias, Stephen Leek, Georges Lentz, Liza Lim, Richard Mills, Carl Vine, Martin Wesley-Smith, Nigel Westlake, and David Worrall have embodied the pinnacle of established Australian composers.
James Murdoch played a large part in promoting Australian music both at home and internationally, and in bringing Peggy Glanville-Hicks and Richard Meale back from self-imposed artistic exile overseas.
[citation needed] State-based symphony orchestras, originally managed under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) but now operating as separate independent bodies, have played a major role in performing mainstream orchestral repertoire for the general public as well as commissioning new works from Australian composers and ensuring that works by contemporary international composers are introduced to their audiences.
[26] Chamber ensembles involved in historically informed performance include Marais Project,[27] Accademia Arcadia,[28] La Compania,[29] Ironwood,[30] and probably Australia's oldest group of this kind, The Renaissance Players.
In the next generation, Brett Dean, himself a violist of note and a composer who has received world-wide recognition, has written several works for various ensembles including a string quartet called "Eclipse" which was commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie[37] for the Auryn Quartet,[38] a string quintet entitled "Epitaphs" premiered in 2010 at the Cheltenham Music Festival,[39] the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival,[40] La Jolla SummerFest[41] and the Cologne Philharmonie, and a sonata for violin and piano commissioned by Midori[42] for performance in 2010 in Stockholm and the Wigmore Hall,[43] London.
Professor Alfred Ernest Floyd's program "Music Lover's Hour" was heard for over 25 years, beginning first on the local Melbourne ABC station in 1944 before being broadcast nationally.
The most popular was "Singers of Renown", which began on the local Melbourne ABC station in 1966 and was transferred by public demand to Radio National at the end of only 10 weeks and remained on air for 42 years.
Its audience is now estimated as being about one million people,[51] not taking into account a growing number of international users who access its programs via its online service.
[52] At about the same time, community not-for-profit FM stations were set up to enable volunteers to produce and present classical music and jazz programs.
