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Sculthorpe's Artistic World

Sculthorpe’s life and work are inextricably linked to the surrounding world of artists, writers, composers and performers. He comments, ‘I couldn’t exist as a composer, as an individual, if it weren’t for the communal.’ He always prefers to write with a particular performer in mind and pours his knowledge and care of the person into the work. The correspondence in his papers shows the mutual encouragement and discussion that take place between Sculthorpe and his fellow artists, the exchange of ideas and triggering of inspiration across art forms.

Russell Drysdale

Sculthorpe first met Russell (Tass) Drysdale in 1962. He had recently lost his father, and Drysdale his son. A deep friendship developed between the two. They shared a love of the Australian landscape and each was an inspiration to the other. In 1963, the two took a working holiday together. During that time, Sculthorpe composed some of the music for The Fifth Continent (1963). Part of this work later became Small Town (1976), which Sculthorpe dedicated to Drysdale. In his autobiography, Sculthorpe writes,

‘I wanted the music to sing of all small Australian towns. In my attempt to capture their spirit, I thought of those Drysdale paintings where they seem to dwell forever. I also underpinned the work with the harmonic progression of the once popular song Heart and Soul, a favourite of Tass’s.’

Drysdale’s affection for Sculthorpe is evident in his series of five drawings, The Five Ages of Peter Sculthorpe (1966). Sculthorpe’s Port Essington (1977) also inspired a set of drawings and a painting, which was given as a gift to the composer on his 50th birthday and later used on the cover of the published work.

Patrick White

In 1964, Sculthorpe received a commission from the Elizabethan Theatre Trust to write an opera with Patrick White as librettist. The opera was to be based on the historical account of Eliza Fraser, who was the sole survivor of a shipwreck off the Queensland coast in 1836. As a result of her traumatic experience among the Aborigines, she was unable to function normally in white colonial society on her return and so exhibited herself as a freak.

Unfortunately, composer and librettist were unable to reach an understanding and so the collaboration was abandoned. It appears that, where White was treating the subject on a psychological level along the lines of Schoenberg’s Erwartung (1909), Sculthorpe viewed the story as symbolic of the underlying duality of human existence. He describes it as ‘the story of a woman in two worlds, one inhabited by Aborigines, the other by white colonists.’ It also seems that White’s somewhat dark outlook clashed with Sculthorpe’s fundamental optimism.

Although the collaboration was unsuccessful, White’s letters in the collection are of great value. Here he expounds the essence of the Eliza Fraser story and grapples with the issues of setting text to music. Also, in the course of their discussions, White had given Sculthorpe some unpublished poems about Eliza Fraser. These later inspired Sculthorpe’s music-theatre piece Eliza Fraser Sings (1978), with text by Barbara Blackman, and his orchestral works Mangrove (1979) and Great Sandy Island (1998). In writing these works, Sculthorpe was also influenced by Sidney Nolan’s rainforest paintings on the same subject.

The artistic community

The Sculthorpe Papers have a wide reference, encompassing painters, writers, dancers, performers, conductors, critics and many arts-related organisations. The correspondence includes poems by Jane de Couvreur in response to hearing Sculthorpe’s Sun Music series in 1996, a postcard in which Roger Woodward discusses his recording of Sculthorpe’s Sonatina for Piano (1954), notes from Manning Clark revealing a strong sense of kinship and letters from Anne Boyd, such as the one dated 12 May 1971, in which she writes, ‘I have a tremendous debt of gratitude to you … Peter, all that I learned from you is at last assimilated and developed into my own musical language.’

Other correspondents include such notables as Margaret Sutherland, Don Banks, Miriam Hyde and Ross Edwards, Frank Callaway and Roger Covell, John Williams, Peggy van Praagh and Randolph Stow.

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