Digg
Del.icio.us
Newsvine 
Facebook
Stumbleupon
Meale passed away last night in Sydney, the same city in which he was born 77 years ago in 1932. Together with Nigel Butterley and Peter Sculthorpe, Meale was one-third of a Sydney-based triumvirate that heralded a new modernist period in Australian music in the mid-1960s. His death marks the passing of one of the greatest contemporary classical composers Australia has ever known.
Meale was largely self-taught in composition, after having left school as teenager because he hated exams. However, he took lessons in harmony, clarinet, harp and piano, the last under the tutelage of the knowledgeable Winifred Burston, at the NSW State Conservatorium.
He studied and performed music from Java, Persia, India and Bali when he studied at the University of California in 1960, and is credited with introducing the sound of Indonesian gamelan to a wider Australian audience.
He is cited as having helped define contemporary Australian classical music largely through his work as a lecturer and broadcaster on the ABC. Ever since the 1960s, his music has embraced elements from both Asian classical and Western avant-garde music, raising public awareness of European music of the time.
One of his most well-known works was the opera Voss, commissioned by the Australian Opera in 1986 and based on the Patrick White novel.
The Australian Dollar traded below 0.8600 on Friday night
The S&P/Case Shiller index of US home prices in 20 cities fell by 0.2pct in original terms in November to stand 5.3pct lower than a year ago.
Joe Jonas steps out with cool pair of reading glasses at the Grammy Awards and w...
© 2010 The Ibtimes Company. All Rights Reserved.
Partners 
EMAIL
PRINT
RSS
SHARE
