Raymond Hanson (composer)

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.[1]

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.

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,[2] 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.

On 15 September 1956, Hanson at the age of 43 married a 23-year-old Conservatorium student, Moira Winifred Young, at St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Manly. The marriage was a very happy union despite the unconventionality of the age difference. The couple moved house several times over the next few years as prior to Hanson being placed on salary all teaching staff at the Con were contract players. Hanson's health deteriorated and in 1967 he suffered a heart attack. Young died in 1975, and after being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in January 1976,[8] Hanson himself died of myocardial infarction later that year, on 6 December. The couple were survived by three daughters.[1]

During his life, Hanson sometimes commented on his pride in being born within 24 hours of the birth of his musical hero Benjamin Britten.[9] His death, also, came only two days after Britten's.

Hanson left behind over 100 major works, including a symphony, four concertos, a ballet, an opera, an oratorio, cantatas, chamber works and piano music. He also wrote film, television and radio scores, as well as jazz music and arrangements.

More notable works include his 1948 Trumpet Concerto, released worldwide on the RCA label, the technically demanding Piano Sonata (composed between 1938 and 1941, and reflecting his feelings about the Fall of France), the piano Preludes, and his Violin Concerto. Hanson also set many of Tagore's poems to music, his most ambitious work in this regard being the 1976 oratorio The Immortal Touch. Many of Hanson's works, such as the Violin Concerto, went unperformed for many years, and his 1941 Piano Sonata was only finally published in 1976, on the day of his death.

• The Poet Sings, (Lisa Harper-Brown – soprano, David Wickham – piano), Stone Records 2012

Notes

Sources

• Raymond Hanson, Australian Music Centre website
• Hanson, Raymond Charles, Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
• New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians Online Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, (subscription required)
• Sitsky, Larry; Martin, Ruth Lee (2005): Australian Piano Music of the Twentieth Century, Greenwood Publishing Group, pp. 35–42, ISBN 0-313-32286-4. Extract.