Guide to the Papers of Peggy Glanville-Hicks, 1934-1981

Summary

Collection number:

MS 9083

Creator:

Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Extent:

0.43 metres and (3 boxes, 1 folio box)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Peggy Glanville-Hicks, National Library of Australia, MS 9083, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

Correspondence, essays, diaries (1936-81) clippings, articles, programs, photographs, and personal artifacts relating to Peggy Glanville-Hicks' musical career.

Biographical Note:

Peggy Glanville-Hicks, one of Australia's most significant composers was born in Melbourne on 29 December 1912. Her creative talents were evident from early childhood and by the age of 15 she had begun formal studies in composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

In 1931, she won an open scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where she studied with such eminent composers as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arthur Benjamin, Constant Lambert and later conducting with Sir Malcolm Sargent. In 1936 she was awarded the Octsavia Travelling Scholarship which enabled her to complete further studies in Vienna and Paris.

In November 1938 she married the British composer Stanley Bate, although the marriage was dissolved in 1949.

In 1938 Sir Adrian Boult conducted her Choral Suite at the International Society for Contemporary Music (I.S.C.M.) festival in London. This event marked the first time an Australian had been represented in this festival.

During her life Glanville-Hicks, also know as P G-H, produced an enormous output of musical composition. Her most active period as a composer (1942-59) occurred while she was living in the US, and she took out American citizenship in 1948. She wrote music criticism for the New York Herald Tribune (1948-58) and music journals, as well as promoted new American music.

Increasingly influenced by eastern music, she moved to Greece in 1959 where she made a comparative study of the Demotic music of Greece and the musical system of India. The outcome of those years was the opera Nausicaa, which was presented by the Greek government in 1961. The premiere was a triumph and achieved international recognition and coverage.

Her many works include the opera The Transposed Heads (1958), the orchestral work Letters from Morocco (1952) in addition to film and ballet scores.

She retired to Australia in poor health and died in Sydney on 25 June 1990. Her estate now supports a scholarship for young Australian composers.

Provenance:

The papers were purchased by the National Library of Australia in 1993 from Glanville-Hicks' biographer, Ms Wendy Beckett.

Indexed terms

Names:

Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1489756).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Peggy Glanville-Hicks, National Library of Australia, MS 9083, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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