Jonathan David Little FCLM, FISM,

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

(born 1965 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

) is an Australian

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

classical composer, arts educator and author on cultural history based in the UK and Australia. In 2008, his first CD was voted one of the top recordings of the year by US ''

Fanfare magazine ''Fanfare'' is an American bimonthly magazine devoted to reviewing recorded music in all playback formats. It mainly covers classical music, but since inception, has also featured a jazz column in every issue. History and profile ''Fanfare'' wa ...

'' ("The Want List 2008"). He was subsequently featured in a news article in ''

Musical Opinion ''Musical Opinion'', often abbreviated to ''MO'', is a European classical music magazine edited and produced in the UK. It is currently among the oldest such periodicals to be still publishing in the UK, having been continuously in publication ...

'' in early 2009. As a composer, he first came to prominence in America in 2006 when The

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

(ASCAP) ran an article on him having five of his works accepted for recording (2004–07) by the US-headquartered French contemporary music label ERM (Editions de la Rue Margot), aimed at showcasing international contemporary composers. He was awarded the Collard Fellowship of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2011, and in 2012 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was appointed inaugural Professor of Composition and Music History at the University of Chichester in 2017, and Emeritus Professor from 2019.

Music and background

He studied composition, Performance and Musicology with Peter Dennison at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, where he won the Lady Turner Exhibition for overall excellence, and a St. Mary's College Academic Prize (where he was a resident student from 1984 to 1987). He holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in music for his research at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

into the development of "exotic" 19th- and 20th-century orchestration, and has written and broadcast extensively on this, and related topics such as songwriting and composition. In 2008, the first compilation album of his music was released, entitled ''Terpsichore and Other Works'' US critic Lynn René Bayley ranked the album second among her Top 5 worldwide releases for the year (in ''Fanfares "Want List 2008"). ''Terpsichore'' is one of a series of epic orchestral tone pictures on the theme of the legendary "Nine Muses" – and the complete series remains a work-in-progress. Jonathan Little works in a variety of genres, including large-scale choral, string and symphonic works. Recordings have been supported by the Foundation for New Music (US), the Kenneth Leighton Trust (UK) and ASCAP (US). In 2009, Little received a grant from the

Musicians' Benevolent Fund Help Musicians (formerly Musicians Benevolent Fund), is a United Kingdom charity offering help for musicians throughout their careers. History It was created by Victor Beigel in 1921 as the Gervase Elwes Memorial Fund, following the death of En ...

to work on a second CD of his compositions, entitled ''Polyhymnia'' (The Muse of Sacred Poetry). This second disc (released in early 2012) appeared on the Navona label of

PARMA Recordings PARMA Recordings is a record label founded by CEO Bob Lord in 2008 and based in North Hampton, New Hampshire. It is one of the leading recording companies specializing in contemporary classical music and has been recognized by the bestowing o ...

(US), supported by ASCAP and the Musicians Benevolent Fund. Soon after its release, ''Polyhymnia'' was nominated in Spain as "Best Album of the Year". In December 2011, Little was elected The John Clementi Collard Fellow in Music of the

Worshipful Company of Musicians The Worshipful Company of Musicians is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Its history dates back to at least 1350. Originally a specialist guild for musicians, its role became an anachronism in the 18th century, when the centre of ...

(a City of London Livery Company established in 1500). Little joins the relatively few composers to have received this award - alongside such former Collard Fellows as

Herbert Howells Herbert Norman Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music. Life Background and early education Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucest ...

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founding music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Dame Ninette de Valois and Sir Frederick Ashton) he was a major figu ...

William Alwyn William Alwyn (born William Alwyn Smith; 7 November 1905 – 11 September 1985), was a prolific English composer, Conducting, conductor, and music teacher who composed over 200 cinematic scores, of which some 70 were for full-length features, ...

Edmund Rubbra Edmund Rubbra (; 23 May 190114 February 1986) was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak o ...

Gordon Jacob Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about ...

and

Alan Rawsthorne Alan Rawsthorne (2 May 1905 – 24 July 1971) was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex. Early years Alan Rawsthorne was born in Deardengate House, Haslingden, Lancashire, to ...

. Little was also awarded a

PRS For Music PRS for Music Limited (formerly The MCPS-PRS Alliance Limited) is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertake ...

Foundation / Bliss Trust Composer Bursary in 2012, to support the composition of the next work in his "Nine Muses" series - ''Erato''. In 2015, Little was granted an Australian Government / Australia Council "Individual International Arts Project Award", to help fund the creation of an album of multi-part, ''a cappella'' polychoral music (or contemporary ''cori spezzati''). He was also one of only seven living composers whose work was selected for the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

and

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

3's "Encore Choral" Programme – for performance and broadcast during 2016–17. In October 2016, he was selected to participate in a BBC Singers' Choral Music Workshop, led by

Judith Weir Dame Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954) is a British composer. She served as Master of the King's Music from 2014 to 2024. Appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir was the first woman to hold this office. Early life Weir was born in Cambridge, Englan ...

, Master of the Queen's Music, and in January 2017, became recipient of a Special Distinction in the ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize competition (USA). In 2017, with funding from the

Australia Council Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...

, a CD of sacred and secular choral works entitled ''Woefully Arrayed'', was released on the US Navona label - featuring "polychoral" techniques: multi-part, multi-divisi, solo, echo and spatial effects. For his work in polychoral music, he was nominated for the 2018 Australia Prize for Distinctive Work.

Career and writings

Jonathan Little has also pursued an academic and writing career. He was appointed Senior Lecturer at

Buckinghamshire New University Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) is a public university in Buckinghamshire, England, with campuses in High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Uxbridge and Great Missenden. The institution dates from 1891, when it was founded as the School of Science and A ...

in 1999 on their Music Industry Management course (the first such degree course in Europe) – where he specialised in the workings of the British and international recording industry, and taught songwriting analysis. In 2001, he became Principal of the

Academy of Contemporary Music The Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) is a music academy in with campuses in Guildford, Surrey, Birmingham, and London, England providing contemporary music-based courses. The school of music has a focus on rock, pop music, electronic da ...

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

, England – Europe's largest specialist academy for students of contemporary music, and the first music education establishment to win the

Queen's Award for Enterprise Queens is a borough of New York City. Queens or Queen's may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Queens (group), a Polish musical group * "Queens" (song), a 2018 song by Saara Aalto * ''Queens'' (novel), by Stephen Pickles, 1984 * "Queens", ...

(Innovation category). Little is listed in the

Music Publishers Association (UK) The Music Publishers Association (MPA) is a non-profit organisation representing music publisher (popular music), music publishers in the United Kingdom since 1881. It "exists to safeguard and promote the interests of music publishers and the w ...

''Register of Expert Musicologists''. In 2005, he was appointed Consultant Editor to

A&C Black A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The company is noted for publishing ''Who's Who'' since 1849 and the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' between 1827 and 1903. It offers a wide variety of boo ...

's flagship volume of musical reference, the ''Musicians' and Songwriters' Yearbook'', and he has contributed articles on the future of music to the

Hudson Institute Hudson Institute is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation. Kahn ...

's '' American Outlook'' magazine, and the British Academy's ''Heart & Soul: Revealing the Craft of Songwriting'' (published by Sanctuary to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the

Ivor Novello Awards The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

). His writings on the future of the music industry initially stemmed from a report surveying the first European digital distribution conference in 2000, and subsequently with Scottish music industry analyst JoJo Gould, he co-founded and edited ''Music Business Journal'' (). Having acted as a Curriculum Consultant to th
British and Irish Modern Music Institute
and Visiting Lecturer in Media Music Composition at the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...

, Little became Reader (2012), and then Professor (2017), in Music Composition and Music History at the

University of Chichester The University of Chichester is a public university located in West Sussex, England, which became a university in 2005. Campuses are based in the city of Chichester and the nearby coastal resort of Bognor Regis and an associate campus for comm ...

. Little has written two academic studies on musical orientalism and exotic orchestration for EMP, New York: ''The Influence of European Literary and Artistic Representations of the 'Orient' on Western Orchestral Compositions, ca. 1840-1920: From Oriental Inspiration to 'Exotic' Orchestration'', together with its companion volume, ''Literary Sources of Nineteenth-Century Musical Orientalism: The Hypnotic Spell of the Exotic on Music of the Romantic Period''. (This 950-page, two-volume study won an Authors' Foundation/

Royal Literary Fund The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) is a benevolent fund that gives assistance to published British writers in financial difficulties. Founded in 1790, and granted a royal charter in 1818, the Fund has helped an extensive roll of authors through its lon ...

Award for 2011.) Many of Little's compositions are issued by Wirripang. The

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

holds copies of Little's selected verse, and all his published musical works. Selected recordings of his music are on deposit at the Australian National Film and Sound Archive, with many scores and recordings also held by the

Australian Music Centre The Australian Music Centre (AMC), founded as Australia Music Centre in 1974 and known as Sounds Australian in the 1990s, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia. It operates mainly as a service organisation, a ...

Published work

Printed music

Symphonic and orchestral

*Terpsichore: "The Whirler" or Muse of Dance, Op. 7 (from ''The Nine Muses'', No. 7) (Dance Poem for Large Orchestra), c. 15' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2006) ISMN M720072234. *Polyhymnia: "She of Many Hymns" or Muse of Sacred Poetry, Op. 10 (from ''The Nine Muses'', No. 6) (Lamentation for String Orchestra), c. 21' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2010) ISMN 9790720101989.

Chamber and instrumental

*''Sacred Prelude'', Op. 1 (string quintet), c. 11' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2006) ISMN M720060255. *''Themes on a Variation'', Op. 3 (brass & percussion), c. 14' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2007) ISMN M720060101. *''Fanfare'', Op. 3a (brass & percussion), c. 1’30 (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2006) ISMN M720041711. *''Duo Sonata on Elizabethan Themes'', in 4 movements, Op. 4 (2 percussion soloists), ca. 21' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2006) ISMN M720072166. *''The Feast of Kings and Martyrs'', Op. 8 (dual for 2 percussionists), ca. 5' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2007) ISMN M720060705.

Choral and vocal

*''Basque Lullaby'', Op. 1a (voice and piano), c. 2' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2005) ISMN M720060187. *''That Time of Year'', Op. 2 (a cappella SATBarB soloists), c. 5' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2006) ISMN M720041728. *''Kyrie'', Op. 5 from ''Missa Temporis Perditi'' (a cappella SATB double choir and soloists), c. 5' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2005) ISMN M720007908. *''Wasted and Worn'', Op. 6 (part song for a cappella SSAATTBB soloists or choir), c. 6' (publication pending) *''Recordare Domine (On Ixion's Wheel)'', Op. 9 (a cappella SSSSAAAATTTTBBBB choir), c. 21' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2010) ISMN 9790720101972. *''Gloria'', Op. 18 from Missa Temporis Perditi (a cappella SATB double choir and soloists), c. 10'; (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2019) *''Missa Brevis'', Op. 23 (a cappella SATB double choir and soloists), c. 15' (Wollongong, Australia: Wirripang, 2019)

Recordings

*''Terpsichore and Other Works'': Tallis Chamber Choir / Philip Simms; String soloists of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Vocal soloists of the Sofia National Opera; Cardiff Percussion Duo; Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra (and principal soloists) / Robert Ian Winstin. Dilute Recordings, UK (Jan. 2008). Cat. No. DIL 07-002. *''Polyhymnia'': Strings of the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra (and principal soloists) / Petr Vronsky; Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra (and principal soloists); String soloists of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Robert Ian Winstin; Tallis Chamber Choir / Philip Simms; Navona (28 February 2012). Cat. No. NV5867. *''Woefully Arrayed: Sacred and Secular Choral and Polychoral Works of Jonathan David Little.'' Vox Futura / Andrew Shenton; Stanbery Singers / Paul John Stanbery; Thomas Tallis Society Choir / Philip Simms. Navona (14 July 2017). Cat. No. NV6113.

Writings

* ''Sources of Nineteenth-Century Musical Orientalism'' (doctoral dissertation). Monash University, 1995. * (as co-editor) ''The Musicians' and Songwriters' Yearbook 2007''. London: Adam & Charles Black, 2006. . * (as co-editor) ''The Musicians' and Songwriters' Yearbook 2008''. London: Adam & Charles Black, 2007. . * ''The Influence of European Literary and Artistic Representations of the 'Orient' on Western Orchestral Compositions, ca. 1840-1920: From Oriental Inspiration to 'Exotic' Orchestration''. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010. . * ''Literary Sources of Nineteenth-Century Musical Orientalism: The Hypnotic Spell of the Exotic on Music of the Romantic Period''. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2011. .

Main awards and honours

* 2019 – Fellowship of the London College of Music (for Music Composition) * 2018 – "Australia Prize for Distinctive Work" nomination (Council for the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences) * 2018 – "Best Classical Music Recording" Nomination, Inaugural RoundGlass Music Awards (USA-INDIA) * 2017 – Special Distinction, ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize (USA) (for large-scale orchestral music) * 2016-18 – Royal Philharmonic Society / BBC Radio 3 "ENCORE Choral" Award (UK) * 2012 – "Album des Mes en RNA (Febrero 2012)" (Album of the Month in ''Reviews New Age'', Feb. 2012); Nomination for "Mejor Álbum RNA de Año" (Best Album of the Year) (Spain) * 2011 – The John Clementi Collard Fellowship in Music of The City of London's Worshipful Company of Musicians (UK)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Jonathan 1965 births Living people Australian composers Australian classical composers Australian male composers Academics of the University of Chichester Monash University alumni University of Melbourne alumni