Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Williamson wrote music that absorbed serial technique, Messiaen, jazz and popular song, then settled into a fundamentally tonal and lyrical language. His catalogue runs from piano sonatas and concertos to hymns, cassations and large choral scores.
The First Piano Sonata sits almost neo-classically among later Australian piano works: clear-lined, measured, and without excess. Elsewhere he wrote for voices at every scale, from congregational hymn tunes that entered Australian worship books to substantial choral and orchestral scores. Operas, ballets, film music and short participatory cassations for children sit beside seven symphonies and a run of concertos for piano, violin, organ, harp and saxophone. The thread is directness of line and a willingness to let melody carry the argument.
Compositions by Malcolm Williamson appear on
A Patchwork of Shadows
In 1994 Ian Munro was one of only two or three major pianists based in Australia. Passionate about the music of his composer peers, he shaped one of the most carefully chosen programmes then available on disc.