Martin Wesley-Smith

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From left: Martin Wesley-Smith, East Timor’s President Taur Matan Ruak , Robert Wesley-Smith and Peter Wesley-Smith (2014)

Martin Wesley-Smith (born June 10, 1945 in Adelaide , Australia - † September 26, 2019 in Kangaroo Valley , New South Wales , Australia) was an Australian composer.

Career and work

Wesley-Smith studied at the University of Adelaide and the University of York , England , before starting to teach composition and electronic music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. By studying he escaped military service in the Vietnam War . He founded and directed the Electronic Music Studio there. The Australian Music Center describes him as a "pioneer of audiovisual composition".

His works include different styles of music, from classical to electronic music. A large part of his audio-visual and musical pieces address topics that move modern society. Wesley-Smith also created children's songs (for example I'm Walking in the City ), as well as songs for choirs and pieces of music on environmental issues. His two main subjects were the life on the one hand, the work and the ideas of Lewis Carroll (for example Snark Hunting , Boojum! , Snark Hunting ), on the other hand the conflict in East Timor during the Indonesian occupation of 1975 to 1999 (for example, Kdadalak , in German  "For the children of Timor" A Luta Continua , Welcome to the Hotel Turismo ). In the 1979 choir piece “Who kills Cock Robin?” Wesley-Smith asks whether a sparrow was killed by a bow and arrow or not by pesticides . "Weapons of Mass Distortion" from 2003 criticizes propaganda, ambiguity and lies, especially the false accusations that led to the 2003 Iraq war . Sound and images in "Papua Merdeka" ( German  independence of Papua ) from 2005 portrayed the suffering of the people in West Papua . Pieces of music in which Wesley-Smith did not devote any topics, as in "For Marimba & Tape" (1982), are rarer. There are several versions of this.

From 1976 to 1998 the Watt collective was founded by Wesley-Smith and regularly performed in Sydney with electronic music and audiovisual presentations . Wesley-Smith was also the musical director of the group TREE . Wesley-Smith often collaborated with Ros Dunlop ( clarinet ) and Julia Ryder ( cello ) in performances of his audiovisual pieces . For many songs and choral works, the lyrics come from Wesley-Smith's twin brother Peter . In the "documentary music drama" Quito , the two brothers summarized the topics of schizophrenia and East Timor. The Song Company performed the piece in Amsterdam , 's-Hertogenbosch , Copenhagen , Gent , Groningen , Hong Kong , Kuala Lumpur , Cascais , Sydney and Kangaroo Valley.

In July 2000, Wesley-Smith left the Conservatory and moved to Kangaroo Valley in New South Wales. He wanted to supplement his low income from the compositions with the cultivation of vegetables and duck breeding, which failed due to a lack of talent.

Wesley-Smith conducted and sang in the seven-piece a cappella group Thirsty Night Singers from Kangaroo Valley. In 2010, his musical theater piece Boojum! was produced by Chicago Opera Vanguard.

Wesley-Smith died peacefully at his home in Kangaroo Valley.

family

With Peter, Martin had a twin brother who, like his older brother Robert , campaigned for East Timor. Jeremy was the fourth brother. The father Harry was an academic archivist at the University of Adelaide and the mother Sheila presented the ABC radio program "Kindergarten of the Air".

Martin married television worker Ann North, co-creator of the children's program "Here's Humphrey!" Together they had three children Jed, Olivia and Alice.

Awards

In 1987 Wesley-Smith received the Australia Council's Don Banks Music Award as a composer . In 1997 the work Quito by the brothers Martin and Peter Wesley-Smith received the Paul Lowin Composition Award . In 1998 Martin was named a member of the Order of Australia for his "services to music as a composer, screenwriter, children's songwriter, lecturer, presenter of multimedia concerts and member of various Australian councils and committees". In the same year he won the Classical Music Awards - Long-Term Contribution to the Advancement of Australian Music .

In 2014 Wesley-Smith received the Insígnia des Ordem de Timor-Leste from East Timor’s President Taur Matan Ruak . His brothers, the elder Robert and Martin's twin brother Peter, who were also committed to East Timor, were honored.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Australian Music Center: Martin Wesley-Smith (1945-2019): Represented Artist , accessed on November 13, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c Personal homepage of Martin Wesley-Smith , accessed on November 13, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c Limelight Magazine: Martin Wesley-Smith has died , September 27, 2019 , accessed November 17, 2019.
  4. ↑ Jornal da República: Decreto do Presidente da República n ° 25/2014 , August 27, 2014 , accessed on November 13, 2019.
  5. ↑ NT News: Brave trio honored , October 1, 2014 , accessed November 16, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Wesley-Smith, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Adelaide , Australia
DATE OF DEATH 26th September 2019
Place of death Kangaroo Valley , New South Wales , Australia