ABSTRACT
During the 1980s several key Australian modernist composers began writing symphonies. This development occurred alongside the widespread reappearance of modal and extended tonality in melody, harmony and counterpoint and more traditional orchestration. The decade also featured the 1988 Bicentenary of European settlement in Australia which led to many important commissions for large works. The chapter begins with accounts of two modernist symphonies by Nigel Butterley (1980) and Roger Smalley (1981). Colin Brumby renounced modernism altogether in his two symphonies in late Romantic style. Malcolm Williamson’s epic Symphony No.6 (1982–1983) linked 11 sections composed specifically for each of Australia’s seven professional ABC orchestras into one seamless recorded event for radio and television. While Peter Tahourdin added two new non-tonal symphonies in 1988 and 1995 to his output, both Nigel Butterley and Richard Meale composed symphonies that incorporated tonal elements during the early 1990s. In Meale’s case, his one movement symphony represented one of the most extraordinary stylistic turnarounds from his iconic modernist works of the 1960s. In 1994, Keith Humble, the doyen of experimental, improvisational music in Australia, composed his A Symphony (of Sorrows) – a poignant mix of Bergian non-tonality and clear triads and tonal centres, the latter emerging in the slow movements of the work.
