Name Richard Meale Role Composer | Albums Cantilena Pacifica Librettists David Malouf | |
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Died November 23, 2009, Sydney, Australia Education Sydney Conservatorium of Music Similar People Ross Edwards, Peter Sculthorpe, Felix Werder, Larry Sitsky, Ottorino Respighi | ||
Richard meale clouds now and then 1969
Richard Graham Meale, AM, MBE (24 August 1932 – 23 November 2009) was an Australian composer of instrumental works and operas.
Contents
- Richard meale clouds now and then 1969
- Richard meale cantilena pacifica
- Biography
- Music
- Awards and nominations
- APRA Awards
- References
Richard meale cantilena pacifica
Biography
Meale was born in Sydney and studied piano with Winifred Burston at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, as well as clarinet, harp, music history and theory, before studying at the University of California, Los Angeles and other American institutions on a Ford Foundation grant.
From 1969 to 1988 he was part of the music faculty of the University of Adelaide, South Australia
Meale was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1971. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1985.
In 2000, Meale was conferred Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the University of New England in New South Wales
He died in Sydney on 23 November 2009.
Music
Initially firmly part of the avant garde amongst Australian composers, Meale experienced a stylistic rethink in the 1970s, abandoning an exclusively atonal approach in his orchestral work Viridian (1979) and his Second String Quartet (1980) for a polytonal approach, and in later works embracing a frank tonality, with fin-de-siècle overtones, whilst retaining an individual voice.
He is best known for the 1986 opera Voss, with libretto by David Malouf based on the novel of the same title by Patrick White. Malouf also collaborated with Meale on his second operatic project, Mer de glace (1986–91), a tableaux-like juxtaposition of some ideas of the novel Frankenstein alongside the real dealings of Mary Shelley with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.
Other works include Very High Kings (1968) and Incredible Floridas (1971).
Awards and nominations
In 2011, Voss was added to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Sounds of Australia registry.
APRA Awards
The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).