Adelaide Art Circle (1892)
- The sound of Experiment
- Oct 22, 2024
- 10 min read
Updated: Oct 23, 2024
Torrence Lake and Harry Pelling Gill Landscape (1855-1916)
Introduction
The Adelaide Art Circle was an association of artists in Adelaide, South Australia, founded by H. P. Gill (‘Adelaide Art Circle’).
Historic Overview
The association was founded in the early 1890s, with Gill as president and G. A. Reynolds as honorary secretary. Under the rules set by Gill, membership was limited to professional artists, by invitation, and limited to 12 members. They met monthly in one or another of the members' homes, and each had to submit a new project to be criticized by the other members. They would organise annual exhibitions. The first members were Gill and Reynolds, watercolorist William P. H. Haynes, A(lfred) Scott Broad, Edward Davis, M. F. Kavanaugh, H. E. Powell, William K. Gold, E. J. Woods, and W.J. Maxwell. W. J. Wadham and his brother Alf Sinclair were elected to the circle in 1892 (‘Adelaide Art Circle’).
Adelaide Easel Club
The Adelaide Easel Club was a company for South Australian painters that split from the Art Society of South Australia in 1892 and which re-merged with the parent organisation in 1901. The association was founded in November 1892 when a group of Adelaide artists broke away from the Society of Arts,[1][2][a] formulating a set of rules, one of which was that members must submit a sketch at each meeting based on a topic proposed at the previous meeting and which would be shown to the other members. [b] The first theme was "Loneliness." Foundation members included "Jimmy" Ashton, Alfred Scott Broughde, Edward Davis, K. Harry Gooden, Andrew McCormack, K. K. Pressgrave, J. S. Bush, and the Foundation. [6] Half of those named were also members of H. P. Gill's Adelaide Art Circle, which folded at the time, after less than two years of existence. Later members included Paris Nesbitt, Jimmy Sandler, Oskar Fristrom, Hans Heysen, Haley Lever, Herbert Schmirk and Marie Tuck. The associations' meetings were initially held in the studios of Wadham & Sinclair, the Colonial Reciprocal Building, King William Street, but occasionally at James Ashton's art school and studio in Norwood, later on their own premises, 62 Rundle Street (Fritz & Bernard Palace of Art or Fruhling's studio, later the site of the York Theatre).[5] The first president was W. J. Wadham, [8] followed in 1896 by James Ashton. The secretary was C. C. Presgrave until his death in 1897,[3] followed by J. H. Gooden. [2] The Adelaide Easel Club merged with the Society of Arts in 1901. [9] The Chief Justice, Sir Samuel Way was closely involved with both organisations. The association held its first exhibition in the Old Stock Exchange Building on Pirie Street in May 1893. The artists exhibited included Wadham, Sinclair, Ashton, McCormack,[10] Pressgrave, Mrs. (Elizabeth Mount Viserd-) Wilohhan, Miss E. Crane, Miss Bloxham, and Frank H. Bartels. [11] The last exhibition, (held in 1900 in the old building of the Institute, North Terrace) exhibitors included Ashton, White, Davis, Colley, Miss Jean L. Wilson, Chris Seimer, H. S. Power, Miss B. Davidson, Miss Olyphant, John Gow, Miss F. Pike, Mrs. Wilhan, Miss May James, Miss Tuck, Mrs. Gay, L. Beaglehole, Miss Ada Egan, Miss Benham, Miss Winnie Kelly (‘Adelaide Easel Club’).
Politics
European-Australian musical engagement with Australia's Asia-Pacific region spans a history of over one hundred and fifty years and includes a kaleidoscope of exotic representations. creative adaptations, transformations and hybridisations; mediated presentations and direct musical encounters in multiple media and art forms. Direct encounters began even before white colonization, when Yolgnu of northeastern Arnhem Land witnessed the ceremonies of Makassan trepang fishermen visited annually from (present-day) Sulawesi, Indonesia, leaving traces of this cross-cultural contact in song, dance, and language. Visiting or guest artists from the Asia-Pacific region entered the European-Australian cultural sphere as early as the mid-nineteenth century, although mostly sporadic and limited until relatively recently. For most of post-settlement history, however, musical and dance forms that included "fictional" representations of Asia or the Pacific and were driven by the appeal of oriental exotica had, arguably, a more profound cultural impact than any direct contact with musical or musical cultures from these geographic regions. In the post-World War II period, the growing consciousness and sense of belonging in the Asia-Pacific region, combined with mass immigration, the end of White Australia policy, and the adoption of multiculturalism, has intensified and diversified musical engagement, manifested in such things as a massive increase in opportunities for European Australians to experience musical traditions from the region. and facilitating and producing diverse creative work by composers and musicians displaying influences from Asia or the Pacific. The commitment has also extended to community-based Asian or Pacific migrant musical cultures that interact with their Australian urban contexts and, to varying degrees, the wider Australian community. In colonial Australia in the nineteenth century and early to mid-twentieth century, Asia was "the East." A musical "Asia" was brought to Australians through representations of an exoticized and largely fictional East that was presented virtually to the popular scene through different musical-theatrical genres such as melodrama, pantomime, opera and operetta, as well as silent and (subsequently) sound film, and popular, light and serious classical music. Australia's consumption of a manufactured East Asia was part of a much larger-scale orientalist phenomenon transplanted into Australia from Europe and America. Productions of British or American musical comedies with oriental themes have regularly toured Australia since the turn of the century, feeding Australian charm with eastern-style exotica. These included Geisha (staged here in 1898), A Voyage to Chinatown (1899), Like a Game (1901–2), A Chinese Honeymoon (1902), Love of the Gods (1904), Kismet (1912–3) and, after World War I, Zhou Chin Chow (1920–1), Cairo (1922), and Song of the Desert (1928). It opened Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado in Australia at the Royal Theatre in Sydney in 1885 – just eight months after its first performance in London – and sparked local enthusiasm for things Japanese, taking on a similar craze in Europe.8 The most important oriental works of European opera were also presented here, for example, Aida (1877, 1883, 1901) and Madama Butterfly (1910). (Scott-Maxwell).
Arts
Two exhibitions were held, and were generally well received, but clearly dominated by Gill's stunning production. The club folded in 1892 without fanfare, but seemed to coincide with the rebirth of the moribund Art Society of South Australia and the election to its board of directors of Gill president, Gold (secretary), Powell (treasurer) and a new committee consisting of Broad, Cavanagh, James Keane, Reynolds and Wadham,[3] Keane alone not a member of the Circle. In December of that year brothers Wadham, Reynolds and Broad left the Society of Arts to help found the Adelaide Easel Club. The Easel Club merged with the Society of Arts in 1901, largely through the diplomatic efforts of the society's president, Chief Justice Way, and Professor W. H. Bragg (‘Adelaide Art Circle’).
Music
In terms of music, Adelaide music includes music related to the city of Adelaide in South Australia. It includes all genres of both live and recorded music by artists born or living in the city, live music events happening in the city, and other aspects of the music industry related to Adelaide. Adelaide is a UNESCO City of Music. It enjoys many annual music festivals and awards and probably has more live music venues per capita than any other capital city in the southern hemisphere. Organizations such as Music SA and the Office of Music Development, with support from the state government, help nurture the live music industry and the careers of emerging artists. Artists of some fame such as Sia, Paul Kelly, Redgum, The Cold Chisel, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, The Hoods of Hiltop, The Landless Conductor and Guy Sebastian hail from the city. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1937, conducted by William Cade. [24] ASO regularly performs for the South Australian State Opera, Adelaide Youth Orchestra and Adelaide Chamber Singers (‘Music of Adelaide’). Australian musical life was founded and maintained for over 150 years by a certain class of displaced British and European professional musicians, mostly men, who brought with them what is now known as Western art music. At the time of Australia's founding, several British musicians (many of them composers at the rudimentary level expected of musicians of the time), unable to find work where Italians and Germans were preferred, chose to emigrate to the colonies in the hope of getting out of a difficult situation. Some took a ship to evade the law (the indebted composer Isaac Nathan for example), some came as farmers or joined the golden rushes, only to fail and have to turn again to their musical skills to earn a living (the William Vincent Wallace, composer of one of the most popular operas of the nineteenth century, Maritana, it comes to mind) (Radic)
Notable Compositions
String Quartet No. 3 – Hill (1912)
Alfred Francis Hill CMG OBE (16 December 1869 – 30 October 1960) was an Australian-New Zealand composer, conductor and teacher (‘Alfred Hill (Composer)’). Alfred Hill composed the String Quartet No. 3 in A minor "The Carnival" while a member of the Australian String Quartet. The score of the manuscript is preserved in the National Library of Australia. In 1955, Hill transformed the quartet into Symphony No.5. The quartet consists of four movements with an average duration of 20 minutes. The title "Carnival or Pupil in Italy for String Quartet" appears on the first page of the manuscript. The quartet is in four movements (‘String Quartet No. 3 (Hill)’).
Symphony No. 1 - Douglas Lilburn (1951)
Douglas Gordon Lilburn (2 November 1915 – 6 June 2001) was a New Zealand composer ('Douglas Lilburn'). The First Symphony is in three completed moves. A typical performance lasts about 30 minutes. The symphony opens with a trumpet slogan, strongly stated and shaded by drums. This is eventually woven into a theme for strings, over which woodwinds begin an ascent. The movement's second theme is more austere, but still exuberant. The second movement has a more lyrical character and is structured around two main themes. Of these, the first is initially indicated by strings, while the second by woodwinds. The third and final move is based on four themes, derived from what Lilburn once called "the naïve, generous country that gave someone its joyful power." The movements are marked as follows: Allegro non-way, Andante condoto, Allegro (‘Symphony No. 1 (Lilburn)’).
Maritana - William Vincent Wallace (1845)
William Vincent Wallace (11 March 1812 – 12 October 1865) was an Irish composer and pianist. In his time, he was famous on three continents as a double virtuoso on violin and piano. Today, he is mainly remembered as an opera composer, with important works such as Maritana (1845) and Lurline (1847/60), but he also wrote a large amount of piano music (including some virtuoso pieces) that was very much in vogue in the 19th century (‘William Vincent Wallace’). Maritana is a three-act opera that includes both oral dialogues and partial recitations, composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball (1792–1873). The opera is based on the 1844 French play Don César de Bazan by Adolf d'Henery and Philippe François Pinel (Dumanoir), which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's comic opera Don César de Bazan (the character of Don César de Bazan first appeared in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas). The opera premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 15 November 1845. The first of Wallace's six operas, the work is often cited as inspiration for a plot device in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Yemen of the Guard, in which a man marries a woman while awaiting execution in prison, escapes and, while in disguise, the couple falls in love (‘Maritana’).
Lurline (opera) - William Vincent Wallace (1845)
William Vincent Wallace (11 March 1812 – 12 October 1865) was an Irish composer and pianist. In his time, he was famous on three continents as a double virtuoso on violin and piano. Today, he is mainly remembered as an opera composer, with important works such as Maritana (1845) and Lurline (1847/60), but he also wrote a large amount of piano music (including some virtuoso pieces) that was very much in vogue in the 19th century (‘William Vincent Wallace’). Lurline is a major romantic opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace to an English libretto by Edward Fitzball. It was first performed on 23 February 1860 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden by the English Opera Pyne and Harrison with Louisa Pine in the title role. The libretto is based on the Lorelei legend (‘Lurline (Opera)’).
The Maid of the Mountains - Harold Fraser-Simson
Harold Fraser-Simson (15 August 1872 – 19 January 1944) was an English composer of light music, including songs and scores for musical comedies. His most famous musical was the success of World War I. The Maid of the Mountains, originally called a musical work, is an operetta or "Edwardian" musical comedy in three acts. The music was by Harold Fraser-Simpson, with additional music by James Tate, lyrics by Harry Graham, and additional lyrics by Frank Clifford Harris and Valentine, and the book was written by Frederick Lonsdale, best known for his later comedies such as On Approval. After a first test at the Prince's Theatre in Manchester on 23 December 1916, the play was rewritten and opened at Daly's Theatre in London on 10 February 1917 (‘The Maid of the Mountains’).
The Bunyip (musical) - Herbert De Pinna
Herbert De Pina (1883–1936) was a composer and physician. He was a medical graduate from Cambridge University who trained at middlesex hospital. He opened a hospital in Queensland but claimed to make more money from music. Herbert De Pina is best remembered for his Broadway-style numbers written for successful pantomimes The Bunyip and Robinson Crusoe,[8] which toured major Australian cities. A song from "Bunyip" was adopted by schools and enjoyed amazing sales. De Pinna won a successful Supreme Court case for defamatory comments made to his medical clients. During World War II, his son Arthur was shot down and killed by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force over Kupang, Indonesia ('Herbert of Pinna'). Bunyip, also known by the longer title The Charm of Fairy Princess Wattle Blossom, was written by Ella Palzier Campbell (aka Ella Airlie). Pantomime was a hugely successful musical comedy that toured Australia for a decade on the Fuller Brothers theatre circuit. The show was produced by Sydney businessman Nat Phillips. The show's premiere lasted at least 97 performances and was revived several times over the next decade (‘The Bunyip (Musical)’).
Prelude in C major - George Marshall-Hall
George William Louis Marshall-Hall (28 March 1862 – 18 July 1915) was an English musician, composer, conductor, poet and controversial who lived and worked in Australia from 1891 until his death in 1915. According to his birth certificate, his surname was "Hall" and "Marshall" was his fourth name,[1] which honored the memory of his physiological grandfather, Marshall Hall (1790–1857). George's father, a lawyer – who, however, never practiced this profession[2] – seems to have been the first to spell the name[3] and his sons followed suit (‘George Marshall-Hall’).
Bibliography
‘Adelaide Art Circle’. Wikipedia, 4 Nov 2020. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adelaide_Art_Circle&oldid=987014951.
‘ADELAIDE ART CIRCLE’. Advertiser, 1891. Trove, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article24802194.
‘Adelaide Easel Club’. Wikipedia, 6 Mar. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adelaide_Easel_Club&oldid=1143165232.
‘Alfred Hill (Composer)’. Wikipedia, 22 Mar. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_Hill_(composer)&oldid=1145980254.
‘Douglas Lilburn’. Wikipedia, 20 Mar. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_Lilburn&oldid=1145652431.
‘George Marshall-Hall’. Wikipedia, 19 Aug. 2021. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Marshall-Hall&oldid=1039566246.
'Herbert de Pinna'. Wikipedia, 27 Dec. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Herbert_De_Pinna&oldid=1129910739.
‘John Carmichael (Composer)’. Wikipedia, 22 Mar. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Carmichael_(composer)&oldid=1145991991.
‘Music of Adelaide’. Wikipedia, 16 Jan. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Music_of_Adelaide&oldid=1133985034.
Radic, Thérèse. ‘Major Choral Organizations in Late Nineteenth-Century Melbourne’. Nineteenth-Century Music Review, vol. 2, no. 2, Nov. 2005, pp. 3–28. Cambridge University Press, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479409800002184.
Scott-Maxwell, Aline. ‘Australia and Asia: Tracing Musical Representations, Encounters and Connections’. Context, vol. 35–36, 2011 2010, pp. 77–91.
‘String Quartet No. 3 (Hill)’. Wikipedia, 2 Jan. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=String_Quartet_No._3_(Hill)&oldid=1131098005.
‘Symphony No. 1 (Lilburn)’. Wikipedia, 29 Oct. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Symphony_No._1_(Lilburn)&oldid=1118952471.
'The Bunyip (Musical)'. Wikipedia, 13 Mar. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bunyip_(musical)&oldid=1144315795.
‘The Maid of the Mountains’. Wikipedia, 24 Aug. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Maid_of_the_Mountains&oldid=1106439470.
Comments