Peggy Glanville-Hicks
Encyclopedia
Peggy Glanville-Hicks was an Australian composer
.
in 1912. At age 15 she began studying composition with Fritz Hart in Melbourne. She spent the years from 1931 to 1936 as a student at the Royal College of Music
in London, where she studied piano with Arthur Benjamin
, conducting with Constant Lambert
and Malcolm Sargent
, and composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams
. (She later asserted that the idea which opens Vaughan Williams' 4th Symphony
was taken from her, and it reappears in her 1950s opera The Transposed Heads.) Her teachers also included Egon Wellesz
.
From 1949 to 1958 she served as a critic for the New York Herald Tribune
and took out U.S. citizenship. After leaving America, she lived in Greece from 1957 to 1976. In the United States she asked George Antheil
to revise his Ballet Mécanique
for a modern percussion ensemble for a concert she helped to organize before returning to Australia in the late 1970s. She lost her sight in the last years of living in the U.S. as a result of a brain tumour. She had this tumour successfully removed to regain her sight in a marathon operation. Another result of this operation was her loss of a sense of smell.
She died in Sydney
in 1990. Her will established the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers' House in her home in Paddington, Sydney, as a residency for middle-aged Australian composers. (This was because she found her middle years the most difficult ones being a composer.)
in 1953 as well as several operas. Her best known operas are The Transposed Heads and Nausicaa. The Transposed Heads is in six scenes with a libretto after Thomas Mann
and premiered in Louisville, Kentucky
on 27 March 1954.
Nausicaa was composed in 1959-60 and premiered in Athens in 1961. The libretto was prepared together with Robert Graves
in Majorca in 1956, based on his novel Homer's Daughter.
Her last opera, Sappho, was composed in 1963 for the San Francisco Opera
, with hopes that Maria Callas
would sing the title role. However, the company rejected the work and it has never been produced.
, who was gay
, from 1938 to 1949, when they divorced. She married journalist Rafael da Costa in 1952; the couple divorced the following year. She was also involved with Mario Monteforte Toledo
and Theodore Thomson Flynn
. Like Bate, many of the men with whom Glanville-Hicks was close were gay; she had few intimate female friends, and often dressed in male attire. She was an intimate friend of the expatriate U.S. writer and composer Paul Bowles
, and they remained very close all their lives.
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...
.
Biography
Peggy Glanville-Hicks was born MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in 1912. At age 15 she began studying composition with Fritz Hart in Melbourne. She spent the years from 1931 to 1936 as a student at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
in London, where she studied piano with Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Leslie Benjamin was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rhumba, composed in 1938.-Biography:...
, conducting with Constant Lambert
Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
and Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
, and composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
. (She later asserted that the idea which opens Vaughan Williams' 4th Symphony
Symphony No. 4 (Vaughan Williams)
The Symphony No. 4 in F minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams was dedicated by the composer to Arnold Bax.Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as pure music, without any incidental or external inspiration.In contrast...
was taken from her, and it reappears in her 1950s opera The Transposed Heads.) Her teachers also included Egon Wellesz
Egon Wellesz
Egon Joseph Wellesz was an Austrian-born British composer, teacher and musicologist, notable particularly in the field of Byzantine music.- Life :...
.
From 1949 to 1958 she served as a critic for the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
and took out U.S. citizenship. After leaving America, she lived in Greece from 1957 to 1976. In the United States she asked George Antheil
George Antheil
George Antheil was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor. A self-described "Bad Boy of Music", his modernist compositions amazed and appalled listeners in Europe and the US during the 1920s with their cacophonous celebration of mechanical devices.Returning permanently to...
to revise his Ballet Mécanique
Ballet mécanique
Ballet Mécanique was a project by the American composer George Antheil and the filmmaker/artists Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy. Although the film was intended to use Antheil's score as a soundtrack, the two parts were not brought together until the 1990s. As a composition, Ballet Mécanique is...
for a modern percussion ensemble for a concert she helped to organize before returning to Australia in the late 1970s. She lost her sight in the last years of living in the U.S. as a result of a brain tumour. She had this tumour successfully removed to regain her sight in a marathon operation. Another result of this operation was her loss of a sense of smell.
She died in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1990. Her will established the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers' House in her home in Paddington, Sydney, as a residency for middle-aged Australian composers. (This was because she found her middle years the most difficult ones being a composer.)
Music
Major works in her output include the Sinfonia da Pacifica, Etruscan Concerto, Concerto romantico, and her Harp sonata which was premiered by Nicanor ZabaletaNicanor Zabaleta
Nicanor Zabaleta was a Spanish virtuoso and populariser of the harp.Zabaleta was born in San Sebastián, Spain, on January 7, 1907. In 1914 his father, an amateur musician, bought him a harp in an antique shop. He soon began taking lessons from Vincenta Tormo de Calvo and Luisa Menarguez...
in 1953 as well as several operas. Her best known operas are The Transposed Heads and Nausicaa. The Transposed Heads is in six scenes with a libretto after Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
and premiered in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
on 27 March 1954.
Nausicaa was composed in 1959-60 and premiered in Athens in 1961. The libretto was prepared together with Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
in Majorca in 1956, based on his novel Homer's Daughter.
Her last opera, Sappho, was composed in 1963 for the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, with hopes that Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
would sing the title role. However, the company rejected the work and it has never been produced.
Private life
She was married to British composer Stanley BateStanley Bate
-Life:Bate received early training in music and had composed two operas by age twenty. He studied under Ralph Vaughan Williams, R.O. Morris, Gordon Jacob, and Arthur Benjamin, and then in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and in Berlin with Paul Hindemith. He wrote incidental music for performances at...
, who was gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, from 1938 to 1949, when they divorced. She married journalist Rafael da Costa in 1952; the couple divorced the following year. She was also involved with Mario Monteforte Toledo
Mario Monteforte Toledo
Mario Monteforte Toledo was a Guatemalan writer, dramatist, and politician. Born in Guatemala City, he played important roles in the governments of both Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz, including periods as Ambassador to the United Nations between 1946 and 1947, as a deputy in the National...
and Theodore Thomson Flynn
Theodore Thomson Flynn
Theodore Thomson Flynn was an Australian biologist and a professor in both Tasmania and Ireland.He was born in Coraki, New South Wales, Australia and died in Liss, Hampshire, England...
. Like Bate, many of the men with whom Glanville-Hicks was close were gay; she had few intimate female friends, and often dressed in male attire. She was an intimate friend of the expatriate U.S. writer and composer Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
, and they remained very close all their lives.
Works
- Three Gymnopedies
- Sinfonia da Pacifica (1952–53)
- Concertino da camera (1946)
- Letters from Morocco (for tenor and small orchestra)
- Etruscan Concerto (for piano and chamber orchestra) (1956)
- Concerto Romantico for viola and chamber orchestra (1956)
- Caedmon, opera, 1933
- The Transposed Heads. A Legend of India, opera after the novel Die vertauschten Köpfe by Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
, 1953 - The Masque of the Wild Man, ballet
- The Glittering Gate, opera, 1957
- Nausicaa, opera, 1961
- Saul and the Witch of Endor, television ballet, 1964
- Sappho, opera, 1963, unproduced
- Tragic Celebration (Jephtha's Daughter), ballet, 1966
Books
- Beckett, Wendy (1992). Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Pymble, NSW: Angus & Robertson. ISBN 0-207-17057-6.
- Hayes, Deborah (1990). Peggy Glanville-Hicks : A Bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-26422-8.
- Murdoch, James (2002). Peggy Glanville-Hicks: A Transposed Life. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press. ISBN 1-57647-077-6.
External links and Resources
- Australian Music Centre Has a search page/bibliography about Glanville-Hicks and a biography.
- Culture and Recreation page Glanville-Hicks biography
- Interview with James Murdoch
- Worklist
- Talk about Glanville-Hicks given by James Murdoch
- "Peggy" movie in pre-production about Glanville-Hicks
- University of Melbourne biographical