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413502

Title
John Antill music manuscript for his ballet suite 'Corroboree', [1940s], together with list of performances, 1950-1970
Creator
John Antill, 1904-1986
Call number
MLMSS 7072 (Safe 1/249)
Level of description
fonds
Date

1940-1970
Type of material
Textual Records
Reference code
413502
Physical Description
0.04 metres of textual material (1 box) - typescript, with manuscript annotations
ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

John Henry Antill (1904-1986), composer and conductor, was born in Sydney on 8 April 1904. In 1925 he enrolled at the New South Wales Conservatorium, where he studied composition with Alfred Hill and violin with Gerald Walenn. Antill joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission in Sydney in 1934, where he was assistant music editor (1934-1947), New South Wales supervisor of music (1947-1949) and federal music editor (1949-1971). Antill died in Sydney on 29 December 1986.

Antill is best known for his work Corroboree, the first of his compositions to be performed, which brought him recognition both in Australia and overseas. Corroboree represented one of the first attempts by an Australian composer to combine the influence of Aboriginal music with Western musical resources. The work, premiered as an orchestral suite in Sydney in 1946 by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens, was later performed abroad and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. It was first produced as a complete ballet in 1950 with the National Theatre Ballet and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Antill was appointed OBE for services to music (1971) and CMG (1981). He received The Australasian Performing Rights Association award for the most performed Australian classical composition (1982) and special gold plaque (1985), and received an Honorary Doctorate in Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong (1985).
Scope and Content
[1940s]: 'Corroboree'. Draft legend and choreography outline, pages 1-4. Typescript with ms. annotations. Includes original ink and watercolour illustrations by the composer.
[1940s]: 'Corroboree'. Music manuscript. Page 1 only. [In the composer's hand].
[1940s]-1970: 'Corroboree: A ballet suite for orchestra'. Full score. [In the composer's hand]. Manuscript with pencil annotations, with original ink and watercolour illustrations by the composer. Includes typescript legend and choreography outline (typescript) and list of performances, 1950-1970,(manuscript), bound in.
Related Material
'Corroboree', ballet suite by John Antill, conducted by Eugene Goossens, performed by the ABC Sydney Symphony Orchestra, December 1950 (9640770)
General note

Selected pages from this item have been digitised as part of the Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection, 2006.
Other papers of John Antill are held by the National Library of Australia, at NLA MS 437.
Digital order no:Album ID : 823633
Subject
Aboriginal Australians--Rites and ceremonies.
Ballets--Scores.
Composers, Australian--20th century.
Orchestral music.
Exhibited in

Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection - State Library of New South Wales (April -December 2006)
ONE hundred : celebrating the Mitchell Library centenary - State Library of New South Wales (March 2010 - June 2010). Applies to: pp.101-103
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