ABSTRACT
John Henry Antill's professionalism allowed him to fulfil the commissions in a timely and polished manner, but the results may well, in many cases, justify Roger Covell's classification of these as 'the diligent makeweights of an extremely competent musician'. Corroboree alone has guaranteed Antill an honourable place in any Australian arts 'hall of fame'; but, as has been seen, its composer has inevitably suffered from this very fame in relation to both the nature of, and critical reaction to, his other works. The generally negatively-toned criticisms of Antill's later work from this perspective need to be assessed from two standpoints: that of 'style' or 'character' and that of musical 'language' or idiom. As to the first, the adjectives 'mild', 'docile' or 'gentle' point to a basic issue that may be accepted – namely that Antill never wrote another work as 'barbaric' or 'abrasive' in style as Corroboree.
