'Did Margaret Sutherland achieve more for Australian music than any other composer?
'Margaret Sutherland was one of the most innovative and influential Australian composers. In the first half of the twentieth century, her desire to be both serious composer and mother was atypical, and she faced significant challenges - public and private - in blending these roles. Against the backdrop of an unhappy and unsupportive marriage and a society not yet ready to accept her creative ambitions and strong views on Australia's musical development, she remained admirably steadfast in pursuing her goals. Sutherland created over two hundred compositions, ceaselessly campaigned on behalf of Australian music and musicians, and led the initial push to construct what is now Arts Centre Melbourne. In her attempts to redefine beauty in music she used idiosyncratic musical language, being at the mercy of 'sound pictures' and 'floating ideas'. This book tells her remarkable story, laying bare something of Sutherland's inspiring 'inner song'.' (Publication summary)
'Jillian Graham begins her biography of Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984) with a story that vividly captures two themes that recur throughout the book: Sutherland’s activism, and her sometime exclusion from Australia’s institutional musical life as it developed through her lifetime.' (Introduction)
'Margaret Sutherland, one of Australia’s most important female composers, was forced to live a double life thanks to a jealous and controlling husband, according to a new biography by Jillian Graham'
'Margaret Sutherland, one of Australia’s most important female composers, was forced to live a double life thanks to a jealous and controlling husband, according to a new biography by Jillian Graham'
'Jillian Graham begins her biography of Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984) with a story that vividly captures two themes that recur throughout the book: Sutherland’s activism, and her sometime exclusion from Australia’s institutional musical life as it developed through her lifetime.' (Introduction)
