David Lumsdaine


David Newton Lumsdaine was an Australian composer.

Biography

David Newton Lumsdaine was born on 31 October 1931. He studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. He moved to England in 1953 and for a while shared a flat with fellow expatriate, the poet Peter Porter, with whom he collaborated on several projects including the cantata Annotations of Auschwitz. In London he first studied composition with Mátyás Seiber and then at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley. In 1970 he took a lecturing position at Durham University. In 1981 he took a post as senior lecturer at King's College London. He is published by The [University of York Music Press] and Universal Edition.
In 1979 he married the composer Nicola LeFanu. David Lumsdaine died on 12 January 2024 at the age of 92.

Works

Lumsdaine disowned all works he composed before Annotations of Auschwitz. His first acknowledged works were composed using a variety of pitch and rhythm techniques associated with serialism – techniques such as pitch rotation or permutation, and isorhythmic structures linking pitch and duration together. Central to all of Lumsdaine's work is the notion of 'ground', a term borrowed from Baroque musical terminology.
The orchestral works 'Salvation Creek with Eagle' and 'Hagoromo' continue and develop Lumsdaine's personal take on Australian nature.
Lumsdaine's output also included piano works – notably the Bach-inspired 'Ruhe Sanfte, Sanfte Ruh' – and a considerable number of pieces involving electronics, such as the tape montage/re-composition of events from the Durham Miners Gala 'Big Meeting'. The chamber works include a series of works entitled 'Mandala', a cello concerto, several song cycles and an orchestral fifth 'Mandala', a homage to Australian landscapes and soundscapes. Shortly after composing his dense and energetic 'Kali Dances' for ensemble in 1996, Lumsdaine retired from composition.
The following is a list of Lumsdaine's acknowledged works:

Ballet

1973: Meridian

Chamber

1968: Mandala I
1969: Mandala II
1971: Kangaroo Hunt
1978: Mandala III
1983: Mandala IV
1985: Bagatelles
1986: Empty Sky – Mootwingee
1988: A Dance and a Hymn for Alexander Maconochie
1989: Round Dance
1990: Sine nomine
1993: Rain Drums
1994: Kali Dances

Choral

1975: Dum medium silentium
1985: Where the lilies grow

Incidental music

1991: The Crane

Orchestral

1968-9 Episodes
1974: Salvation Creek with Eagle
1975: Sunflower
1975: A Little Dance of Hagoromo
1977: Hagoromo
1982: Shoalhaven
1988: Mandala V
1990: The Arc of Stars
1992: A Garden of Earthly Delights

Other

1990: 2 Just So Stories

Piano

1966: Kelly Ground
1967: Flights
1974: Ruhe sanfte, sanfte Ruh'
1980: Cambewarra, 1980
1994: 6 Postcard Pieces

Solo cello

1992: Blue upon Blue

Solo shakuhachi

1993: Curlew in the Mist

Sopranino recorder

1994: Metamorphosis at Mullet Creek

Vocal

1964: Annotations of Auschwitz
1966, rev. 71: Easter Fresco
1974: My Sister's Song
1982: What shall I sing?
1990: A Tree Telling of Orpheus
1992: A Norfolk Song Book
1993: A Child's Grace