Richard Meale
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Sir Dr. Richard Meale (born 24 August 1932, Sydney) is one of Australian's leading composers.
Meale studied piano, clarinet, harp, history and theory at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, before studying at the University of California, Los Angeles and other American institutions.
Initially firmly part of the avant garde amongst Australian composers, Meale experienced a stylistic rethink in the 1970s, abandoning an exclusively atonal approach in his 'Viridian' (1979) and his 2nd String Quartet, for a polytonal approach, and in later works embracing a frank tonality, with fin-de-siecle overtones, whilst retaining an individual voice.
He is best known for the 1986 opera Voss, with libretto by David Malouf based on the novel by Patrick White. Malouf also collaborated with Meale on his second operatic project, Mer de Glace, a tableaux-like juxtaposition of some ideas of the novel Frankenstein alongside the real dealings of Mary Shelley with Shelley and Byron.
From 1969 to 1988 he was part of the music faculty of the University of Adelaide, South Australia
In 2000, Meale was conferred Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the University of New England.
[edit] Bibliography
- "Richard Meale - Abandoning Tonality" [radio transcript]. 2008. In Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz - 170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show ed. Anni Heino, 263-268. Sydney: ABC Books. ISBN 9780733320088.
[edit] External links
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