- Richard Meale
Richard Meale (born 24 August 1932) is one of
Australia 's leadingcomposer s.Meale was born in
Sydney and studied piano withWinifred Burston at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, as well as clarinet, harp, history and theory, before studying at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles and other American institutions.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 2nd String Quartet (1980) for a polytonal approach, and in later works embracing a frank tonality, withfin-de-siecle 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 byPatrick 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 ofMary Shelley with Shelley andByron .From 1969 to 1988 he was part of the music faculty of the
University of Adelaide ,South Australia In 2000, Meale was conferred Doctor of Letters "honoris causa" by the
University of New England .Bibliography
* "Richard Meale - Abandoning Tonality" [radio transcript] . 2008. In "Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz - 170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show" ed. Anni Heino, 263-268. Sydney: ABC Books. ISBN 9780733320088.
External links
* [http://www.anu.edu.au/cabs/hdc/meale.pdf Canberra School of Music Citation for an Honorary Degree]
* [http://www.amcoz.com.au/composers/composer.asp?id=449 Richard Meale biography at the Australian Music Centre]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
