Ivan Bootham
Encyclopedia
Ivan Bootham is a New Zealand
novelist, short story
writer
, poet
and composer
.
, Lancashire, in 1939, and migrated to New Zealand as a teenager, working in a variety of jobs in provincial centres. His early novels and short stories attracted favourable reviews, and in 1973 he was awarded a New Zealand Literary Fund Writing Bursary.
His 1999 short story collection Ivan Bootham Stories, from Fracas Publications, includes the story "A Change Is As Good As A Rest", which was short-listed for the 1989 Mobil/Dominion Sunday Times short story contest judged by Malcolm Bradbury
. His radio plays include Mutuwhenua, an imaginatively dramatised treatment of the 1886 Mt Tarawera eruption. His other pieces for radio include Bus Ominibus and But For, performed by Alan Jervis and Pat Evison
and broadcast on the YC Station of the NZBC.
Bootham's most recent works include three novellas published as Quince.Noon - the Trilogy (2001); a short story collection The Book of Cheerful Despair (2002); and a novel The Doctor Jesus Sanatorium (2003). A theme
in much of his fiction
is that of the artist
struggling to come to terms with the gap between his creative aspirations and his achievements. Bootham has been praised as a highly original comic writer. His tone ranges from the ironic to the acerbic, his constantly self-questioning characters often relishing wordplay and verbal invention. He has also had art criticism
and cartoons published, including a book of musical cartoons, sff.
Bootham lives in Wellington
and is married with twin daughters. He is the son of the painter Joe Bootham
.
and former keen trumpet
player, Ivan Bootham began composing in his early teens. His music teachers included Maxwell Fernie
and Loretto Cunninghame.
His best-known work to date is the opera
The Death of Venus, based on his radio play of that name, which premiered in Wellington in 2002. The story is based on an historical incident in 1806, in which the brig
Venus was seized at Port Dalrymple (Tasmania
) by its first mate Kelly, aided by convicts, and sailed to the Bay of Islands
in New Zealand. Two of the female convicts on board are believed to have been the first white women to live in New Zealand.
In 2002, Bootham completed his second opera Pictures, based on the short story of that name by New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield
.
His most recent major compositions are the mass Missa Creator Spiritus (2006) and the monodrama Bessie Blue (2009).
Among his compositions are: Three Musics (1965) for French horn, strings
and harp
; Sonata Movement (1969) for piano
; Winter Garden (1988) for wind quintet
; A String of Clichés (1996) for French horn and piano; Zuweilen (2000), six short pieces for piano; Three Lejjoon Poems (2000), a short song cycle
to poems by Niel Wright
; Little Blue Peep (2002) for harmonica
and piano; A Wild Garden of Doggerel (2003), settings of nonsense poems by the composer for unaccompanied choir
; Play On A Debussy Motif (2004) for piano; Spinning Jenny (2005) for piano duet, and a song cycle For One Who Went Away (2004), a setting of seven poems by Peter Jacobson
.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
novelist, short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
Life and literary works
Ivan Bootham was born in FarnworthFarnworth
Farnworth is within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is located southeast of Bolton, 6 miles south-west of Bury , and northwest of Manchester....
, Lancashire, in 1939, and migrated to New Zealand as a teenager, working in a variety of jobs in provincial centres. His early novels and short stories attracted favourable reviews, and in 1973 he was awarded a New Zealand Literary Fund Writing Bursary.
His 1999 short story collection Ivan Bootham Stories, from Fracas Publications, includes the story "A Change Is As Good As A Rest", which was short-listed for the 1989 Mobil/Dominion Sunday Times short story contest judged by Malcolm Bradbury
Malcolm Bradbury
Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic.-Life:Bradbury was the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
. His radio plays include Mutuwhenua, an imaginatively dramatised treatment of the 1886 Mt Tarawera eruption. His other pieces for radio include Bus Ominibus and But For, performed by Alan Jervis and Pat Evison
Pat Evison
Dame Helen June Patricia Evison, DBE , known as Pat Evison, was a New Zealand actress.-Early life and education:...
and broadcast on the YC Station of the NZBC.
Bootham's most recent works include three novellas published as Quince.Noon - the Trilogy (2001); a short story collection The Book of Cheerful Despair (2002); and a novel The Doctor Jesus Sanatorium (2003). A theme
Theme (literature)
A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
in much of his fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
is that of the artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
struggling to come to terms with the gap between his creative aspirations and his achievements. Bootham has been praised as a highly original comic writer. His tone ranges from the ironic to the acerbic, his constantly self-questioning characters often relishing wordplay and verbal invention. He has also had art criticism
Art criticism
Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art.Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty...
and cartoons published, including a book of musical cartoons, sff.
Bootham lives in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
and is married with twin daughters. He is the son of the painter Joe Bootham
Joe Bootham
Joe Bootham was a New Zealand painter who was noted for his landscape drawings and paintings and for portraiture.- Life and works :...
.
Musical composition
An accomplished pianistPianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and former keen trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
player, Ivan Bootham began composing in his early teens. His music teachers included Maxwell Fernie
Maxwell Fernie
Maxwell Fernie was a New Zealand organist, teacher and conductor. He was an authority on Gregorian chant, sixteenth century polyphony, organ construction and tonal design.-Life:...
and Loretto Cunninghame.
His best-known work to date is the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
The Death of Venus, based on his radio play of that name, which premiered in Wellington in 2002. The story is based on an historical incident in 1806, in which the brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
Venus was seized at Port Dalrymple (Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
) by its first mate Kelly, aided by convicts, and sailed to the Bay of Islands
Bay of Islands
The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located 60 km north-west of Whangarei, it is close to the northern tip of the country....
in New Zealand. Two of the female convicts on board are believed to have been the first white women to live in New Zealand.
In 2002, Bootham completed his second opera Pictures, based on the short story of that name by New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
.
His most recent major compositions are the mass Missa Creator Spiritus (2006) and the monodrama Bessie Blue (2009).
Among his compositions are: Three Musics (1965) for French horn, strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
and harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
; Sonata Movement (1969) for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
; Winter Garden (1988) for wind quintet
Wind quintet
A wind quintet, also sometimes known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players . The term also applies to a composition for such a group....
; A String of Clichés (1996) for French horn and piano; Zuweilen (2000), six short pieces for piano; Three Lejjoon Poems (2000), a short song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
to poems by Niel Wright
Niel Wright
Niel Wright is a New Zealand poet, literary critic, bibliographer, publisher, and cultural and political commentator. He is best known for his epic poem The Alexandrians, published in 120 books between 1961 and 2007 and totalling some 36,000 lines...
; Little Blue Peep (2002) for harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
and piano; A Wild Garden of Doggerel (2003), settings of nonsense poems by the composer for unaccompanied choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
; Play On A Debussy Motif (2004) for piano; Spinning Jenny (2005) for piano duet, and a song cycle For One Who Went Away (2004), a setting of seven poems by Peter Jacobson
Peter Jacobson (poet)
- Life and works :Peter Jacobson began writing poetry at around the age of 15. While he was a student at the University of Canterbury, he contributed verse to three issues of Canterbury Lambs, published by the Canterbury University Literary Club between 1946 and 1949.Jacobson is known for two...
.
External links
- Ivan Bootham's recent fiction and poetry is published in New Zealand by RiverStone Books
- For a listing of Ivan Bootham's published works, see the online catalogue in the National Library of New Zealand
- For his radio plays, see Radio New Zealand Sound Archives
- See Ivan Bootham perform Play on a Debussy Motif.
- For information on his music, including discussion of his two operas, see Ivan Bootham: An Introduction to His Music
- For recent literary criticism by Ivan Bootham, see "Fused Musing on Two Poets Two Books", PANZA Newsletter "Poetry Notes" Vol. 1, Issue 2