Colin Brumby
Colin James Brumby was an Australian composer and conductor.
Biography
Brumby was born in Melbourne and educated at the Glen Iris State School, Spring Road Central School, and Melbourne Boys' High School. He studied at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, from which he graduated in 1957 with a diploma in education. In 1953 he was a finalist in the Australian Youth Aria competition, eventually winning the Lieder Award. He was organist at St. Oswald's Glen Iris from 1950 to 1953. Before travelling to Europe in 1962 he taught in Queensland schools and was for a time the head of music at Kelvin Grove Teacher's College. He went to Spain to study advanced composition with Philipp Jarnach, and to London to study with Alexander Goehr. On his return to Australia, he joined the staff of the Music Department at the University of Queensland, and was based in Brisbane ever since. He became Associate Professor with the University of Queensland, from which he retired in 1998. He, along with Philip Bračanin, are two Brisbane-based composers who have attained an international reputation, beginning in the 1970s, and joined more recently by composers such as Gerard Brophy, Stephen Cronin, Robert Davidson, Kent Farbach, Stephen Leek, Peter Rankine and Nigel Sabin who have attained similar renown.Brumby was Musical Director of the Queensland Opera Company from 1968 to 1971. While there, he conducted the Australian premieres of works such as Joseph Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa and Georges Bizet's Le docteur Miracle. He also wrote a series of children's operettas, including The Wise Shoemaker ''Rita and Dita and the Pirate, Rita and Dita in Toyland and The Prince Who Couldn't Laugh. These operettas toured throughout Queensland by the Queensland Opera Company, and were performed in 400 schools, reaching an audience of 75,000.
In 1965 his work, Fibonacci Variations was selected for possible inclusion in the programmes of contemporary music, to be produced the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival. In 1971, he received his Doctorate of Music from the University of Melbourne. In 1972 he returned overseas to study composition with Franco Evangelisti in Rome. After his return to Australia, Musica Viva Australia commissioned Brumby to compose a work for the 1974 tour of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. This was The Phoenix and the Turtle for string orchestra and harpsichord.
He won a number of awards. In 1969 he won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award, composing the work A Ballade for St. Cecilia : Cantata for Chorus, Orchestra and Soloists''. In 1981 Brumby was awarded an Advance Australia Award for services to music. He has also won the Don Banks Fellowship and the APRA award for most performed Australasian serious work.
Brumby's music includes operas; concerti for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, piano, violin, viola, and guitar; two symphonies; orchestral suites and overtures; chamber works; sonatas for flute, clarinet and bassoon; incidental music for dramatic presentations; film and ballet scores; and songs.
His wife Jenny Dawson has contributed libretti for some of his operettas.
His personal papers and oral history are held at the State Library of Queensland.
Brumby died in Brisbane on 3 January 2018.
Stage works
The Wise Shoemaker, children's operetta Rita and Dita and the Pirate, children's operetta Rita and Dita in Toyland, children's operetta, 1 Act The Two Suitors, children's operetta, 1 Act The Seven Deadly Sins – a New Concept of Music Theatre, 2-act opera The Marriage Machine, 1-act opera ; 1985 arranged for orchestraLa Donna, 1-act opera Summer Carol, 1-act opera The Heretic The Bunyip, operettaThe Haunted House of Highgate Hill, operettaThe Spirit of Eureka, operettaBallets
- ''Alice''
Orchestral works
The Phoenix and the Turtle Litanies of the SunFibonacci Variations Paean South Bank Overture Borromeo Suite- Scena for cor anglais and orchestraMediterranean Suite, string orchestra
- Concertino, viola and string orchestra
- Viola Concerto Tre aspetti di Roma, viola and orchestra
Choral works
Victimae Paschali Three Baroque Angels- Cantata Charlie Bubbles' Book of Hours This is the Vine
- Cantata The Ballad of Sydney Hospital Aquinas: Two Eucharistic Texts for solo or unison choir and organFrom All That Dwell for two-part choir with keyboardThe Fruitless Fig for SATB choir and organGive Judgment for Me, O Lord for SATB choir and organHow Lovely Are Thy Dwellings Fair! for SATB choir and organIn Praise of the Virgin for SATB choir a cappellaIustorum animæ SATB a cappella
- Nine Tenebræ Responsories, 3 vols., for 2-part choir and organ
- "Missa Sanctae Ceciliae" for SATB choir and organ O My People for 2-part choir and organPrisquam gallus cantet SATB a cappellaStabat mater dolorosa for SATB choir and organ Stabat mater speciosa Ten New Carols for Advent and ChristmasTeach Me, O Lord for SATB choir and organThree Sacred Rounds Two Easter Anthems for SATB choir and organUnto Us A Boy Is Born for SATB choir and keyboardCarol Book for 2 part choir and keyboard Brumby Mass SATB and organ
- 100 chorales, hymns, responses, psalms, alleluias, rounds, and motets online at Cloud HymnalGloria in C for SATB and organ Southern Cross Mass for SATB and organ Mass for All Seasons for SATB and organ Australian Mass for SATB and organ
- * All Glory, Laud and Honour, choral prelude
Chamber works
The Seven Ages of Man, wind quintet- String quartet
- Piano quartet
- Bassoon quintet Haydn Down Under
- Bassoon Concerto
- 4 Exotic Pieces, flute and harp
- Suite for contrabass quartet
- 4 Aphorisms, clarinet and piano
- 4 Miniatures, flute and piano
- 4 simple duos, descant recordersAbendlied, viola and piano Berceuse, Chaconne, Nocturne, viola and pianoEtude, solo violaMediterranean Suite, viola quartet and double bass Passacaglia, viola ensemble and piano
- Sonatina, viola and piano
Piano
- ''Harlequinade''
Organ
- 5 Chorale Preludes
- 7 Chorale PreludesCaptain Logan's Fancy
- "Theme and Variations on Moreton Bay"
- Toccata