Raymond Hanson (composer)

Raymond (Charles) Hanson AM (23 November 19136 December 1976) was an Australian composer and lecturer in composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music now known as the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. A highly regarded teacher and mentor to many prominent Australian musicians, such as Don Burrows, Larry Sitsky and Roger Woodward, Hanson himself was largely self-taught.

As a composer, Hanson was not a follower of prevailing trends, and consequently his music was unfashionable and ignored by many other composers. Late in life however, his distinctive personal style began to receive greater recognition, and since his death his work has been held in high esteem by some critics.

Early years

Hanson was born in the Sydney suburb of Burwood on 23 November 1913, the youngest of five children to Australian-born railroad engineer William Hanson, and his English-born wife Lilian, née Bennett. The marriage broke up when Hanson was quite young. Hanson was sickly as a child, suffering from bronchial complaints and a recurring ear infection that left him almost deaf in his left ear. He began experimenting in musical composition from the age of eight, inspired by his older sister's piano practice. Hanson's mother brought him up as a Baptist, and though he later left the faith he retained a lifelong interest in spirituality.

Hanson attended Burwood Public and Fort Street High Schools, but left before completing his third year. He continued however to pursue piano lessons, aided by teacher Anne Spillane who kindly provided him with free lessons as his family was too poor to pay for them. He was thereby eventually able, in 1930 at the age of seventeen, to gain the Licentiate (piano) of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. From 1930 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he made a living by teaching piano and by working in a variety of menial jobs.

Hanson was able to give a number of recitals of his own compositions in the late 1930s, and had the opportunity to gain some formal training in composition after being awarded the Gordon Vickers Scholarship at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. Unfortunately, his Conservatorium studies would last only two months before the war interrupted them.

He joined the Army in 1941, eventually rising to the rank of Sergeant in the Army Education Service. During the war he was exposed to, and developed a lasting interest in, jazz music, an interest that would come to have some influence on his own work. He left the Army in 1946.Australian Dictionary of Biography Online.

Teaching career

As the recipient of a Fellowship in Composition, Hanson after the war was able to resume his studies at the Conservatorium. Following a year of study which he undertook with Alex Burnard, the Conservatorium offered Hanson a place on the staff, and this he accepted. He became a teacher of Aural Training, in which he was considered something of an innovator, and later a lecturer in Harmony and Composition, Counterpoint and Aesthetics of Music. He was also active in curriculum development and assisted in the introduction of the Bachelor of Music Education degree.

As a teacher, Hanson was noted for a kind, thoughtful and unpretentious manner, which was appreciated by students, while his abilities and dedication were greatly respected. He became a teacher and mentor to many future Australian composers and musicians, such as Nigel Butterley, Richard Meale and Barry Conyngham, as well as to noted performers such as jazz clarinettist Don Burrows and piano virtuoso Roger Woodward. In addition to his work at the Conservatorium, he also gave private lessons, which not infrequently ended in long discussions about philosophy or politics.

Political activity

Hanson himself became active in political matters when, in the early 1950s, he joined the Australian Cultural Defence Movement which sought to protect Australian culture from being swamped by foreign influences, particularly the United States and Americanization. In the prevailing mood of the times however, the movement was painted as leftist and pro-communist, and quickly crumbled. Hanson believed that his association with this movement, along with his membership in the Australian-Soviet Friendship Society, was one of the factors that held back his professional career.

Music

While his teaching abilities were widely acknowledged, Hanson struggled to gain recognition for his talents as a composer for much of his career, as his music was often unpopular with the audience at that time and also unfashionable. He was fifty-four years old before receiving his first commission for a piece of music,Australian Music Centre. and many of his works lay unperformed for many decades. Part of the problem lay with his independence of mind. Hanson ignored prevailing trends in the pursuit of his own muse. In the 1940s and 1950s, his work was regarded by his Australian contemporaries as too avant-garde, but by the 1960s it was being dismissed as not avant-garde enough. Hanson's rejection of serialism, responsible for the latter dismissal, was ultimately vindicated by history, but this vindication came late in his career.

In 1971 he won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award.

Style

Hanson's unique qualities as a composer were noticed early by English critic Neville Cardus, who perceived, after attending a concert featuring Hanson's works in 1941, "an originality that avoided Anglocentrism