Appendix C The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb

195 Pages·2011·1.04 MB·English

by  Gabriella Smart

1

University of Adelaide

Elder Conservatorium of Music

Tristram Cary: scenes from a composer’s life

by

Gabriella Joy Smart

Dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

Master of Music

November 2009
2

In Memoriam

Tristram Ogilvie Cary

14 May 1925 – 24 April 2008
3

Tristram Cary: scenes from a composer’s life

Contents

Abstract 4

Declaration 5

Acknowledgements 6

List of music examples 7

Introduction 8

Chapter 1 Formative Years: (1925–1946) 14

Chapter 2 Early Career (1947–1954) 28

Chapter 3 Film (1954–74) 44

Chapter 4 Electronics and EMS (1967–74) 68

Chapter 5 The Rhyme of The Flying Bomb 84

Chapter 6 Australia and Academic Life (1974–2008) 103

Chapter 7 Migration and Dislocation 112

List of Sources 136

Appendix A: List of Works and Discography 146
Appendix B: The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (sound recording) 192
Appendix C: The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (full score) 193
4
Abstract

Tristram Cary (1925-2008) had a varied and successful life as a composer,
spanning sixty years and two continents. He was a highly respected and prolific composer
of film, radio, concert and electronic music in England before he took up a position at the
Elder Conservatorium of Music, Adelaide, in 1974 at the age of 49.
Cary produced a significant body of work that enjoys public attention through
performances, recordings and intelligent criticism, but it remains outside the music
canon. He is half remembered in England, and not fully valued in Australia; as it were,
each country sees only half the picture. The dislocation of his career path resulted in the
underestimation of many of his achievements, in particular his groundbreaking work in
electronic music independent of concurrent European developments during the post-war
years. Apart from his own fastidious cataloguing and documentation of his work, an
external critique of his long and prodigious career has not previously been undertaken.
The dissertation gives a survey of Cary’s life and career, and aims to evaluate the
importance of his achievements. The effects of his move from England to Australia on
his career are assessed, and reference is made to the reception of some of his key
compositions, including The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb.
5

Declaration

The candidate confirms that this work contains no material which has been accepted for
the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution to
Gabriella Smart and, to the best of the candidate’s knowledge and belief, contains no
material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference
has been made in the text.
The candidate gives consent to this copy of the thesis (with the exception of
Appendices B and C), when deposited in the University library, being made available for
loan and photocopying, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.
The candidate also gives permission for the digital version of the thesis (excluding
Appendices B and C) to be made available on the web, via the University’s digital
research repository, the Library catalogue, the Australasian Digital Theses Program
(ADTP) and also through web search engines, unless permission has been granted by the
University to restrict access for a period of time.
The candidate does not give permission for the photocopying, digital copying, or
web distribution of either Appendix B (the sound recording) or Appendix C (the musical
score).

----------------------------------------------
Signed: Gabriella J. Smart

Date:
6

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the generosity of Tristram Cary in the many hours spent
with the composer recording interviews. His enduring talent was a continual source of
inspiration. Tristram provided crucial biographical information and copies of published
and unpublished materials, including scores, sound recordings, and reviews. My thanks
go to my supervisor Professor Charles Bodman Rae for his unfailing professional
support. I would also like to thank the composer’s widow Mrs Jane Cary, my family
Mark, Stuart and Justina Patterson, for their patience, Eleonora Sivan, Dr. Maggie
Tonkin, Claire Harris, Matthew Bate, Dr. David Swale and Dr. Helen Rusak.
7
List of music examples

All the following facsimile examples are drawn from the composer’s autograph score of
The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, and relate to the discussion of that work in Chapter 5.

The complete, full score of this work can be found in Appendix C.

Page

Ex.1: The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, bb. 307-312 91

Ex.2: The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, bb. 94-99 95

Ex.3: The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, bb. 108-116 96

Ex.4: The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, bb. 222-226 97

Ex.5: The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, bb. 299-308 98
8
Introduction

Tristram Cary (1925-2008) had a varied and successful life as a composer,
spanning sixty years and two continents. He was a highly respected and prolific composer
of film, radio, concert and electronic music in England before he took up a position at the
Elder Conservatorium of Music, Adelaide, in 1974 at the age of 49.
Cary produced a significant body of work enjoying public attention through
performances, recordings and intelligent criticism, but it remains outside the music
canon. He is half remembered in England, and not fully valued in Australia; as it were,
each country sees only half the picture. The dislocation of his career path has resulted in
the underestimation of many of his achievements, in particular his groundbreaking work
in electronic music independent of concurrent European developments during the post-
war years. Apart from his own fastidious cataloguing and documentation of his work, an
external critique of his long and prodigious career has never been undertaken.
The dissertation gives a survey of Cary’s life and career, and aims to evaluate the
importance of his achievements. The effect on his career of his move from England to
Australia is assessed, as is the reception of his compositions.
Tristram Ogilvie Cary was born on 14 May 1925, in Oxford, and died in
Adelaide, Australia, on 24 April 2008. He was the son of celebrated author Joyce Cary
and Trudy Cary (née Ogilvie). His childhood home was a meeting place for Oxford
intellectuals of the time; these inspiring influences are reflected in his unique facility to
meld words and music. Cary’s talent lies in his independent and modern perspective,
which enabled him to bring a wide spectrum of knowledge and experience to his work.
As a result his compositional output retains a diversity and candidness that is distinctive
and contemporary.
A pioneer of electronic music, for many years Cary composed both instrumental
and electronic music for films, theatre, radio and television as well as music for the
concert stage. It was during his service in the Royal Navy during World War Two that he
developed the idea of using the newly invented tape recorder as a creative medium, thus
opening up endless compositional possibilities independent of concurrent developments
in continental Europe.
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Cary’s success as a composer for film was established early with his score for the
Ealing Studio’s film The Lady Killers in 1955. He attracted international acclaim with
several of his radio plays and films, including the play The Ballad of Peckham Rye
(1960) by Muriel Spark and the animated film The Little Island, directed by Richard
Williams (1957).
Cary’s pioneering invention led him to make many of his own machines. He was
possibly the first composer to utilize electronic effects for a BBC radio play, with the
Japanese Fishermen in 1955. Cary subsequently established the earliest electronic music
studios in England (privately in 1952, and at the Royal College of Music in 1967).
Another major achievement of Cary’s in the 1960s was his innovative work with EMS
(Electronic Music Studios (London Ltd)). With his colleagues Peter Zinovieff and David
Cochereal, he designed and manufactured synthesizers, the most groundbreaking of
which was the VCS3. The VCS3 was the first portable synthesizer; it was affordable and
easy to utilize, which meant that it could easily be mass-produced. To this day it is
regarded as the ‘classic’ of its kind.
In 1974 Cary was invited to Adelaide to teach composition at the Elder
Conservatorium and to develop the electronic music studio. He became Reader at the
Elder Conservatorium in 1978 and served as Dean of Music from 1982. Cary’s first
major Australian commission was Contours and Densities at First Hill, premiered by the
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 1976, with the composer conducting. Works composed
between 1996 and 2008 include: Suite – The Ladykillers (1996), based on his score for
the Ealing comedy; Voix dans la Foule for orchestra (1997); Through Glass for piano
and playbacks (1998), commissioned by the present author; Scenes from a Life for
Orchestra (2000); Two Film Music Suites for orchestra (2000); and Three Songs for the
Adelaide Baroque (2004).
Cary became one of Australia’s foremost music critics in the period from 1987 to
2002, writing for The Australian. In 1991 he was awarded the OAM (The Medal of the
Order of Australia) for his services to music. Cary was awarded the title of Honorary
Visiting Research Fellow at the Elder Conservatorium in 1986, and in 2001 he was
awarded the D.Mus degree by the University of Adelaide.
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Cary’s productivity as a composer is clearly demonstrated by the list of his
works in appendix A. Some of Cary’s key works for concert, film and radio such as The
Ballad of Peckham Rye (1965), Where are You I am Here (1980), Strange Places – an
exploration for piano (1992), Steam Music (1978), and music composed for the films
Time Without Pity (1956) and The Little Island (1958), would be of interest to study in
detail, but such studies are beyond the scope of this investigation.
Cary’s unpublished autobiography has remained an invaluable source of
information for the writing of the dissertation, as has his extensive library and archive of
his life’s work. Surprisingly few books on electronic music include Cary in their historic
overview, an issue which is addressed in Chapter Seven of the thesis.
This dissertation has drawn on interviews with the composer as primary source
materials, conducted and recorded between June 2003 and December 2008. Three
compact discs of recorded interviews between the composer and the present author have
been deposited in the Elder Music Library for the benefit of future generations of
researchers. These primary source materials form the basis of my overview of Cary’s life
and work, and provide evidence substantiating my hypothesis that dislocation had a
crucial impact on his career.
The need to write concert art music was a thread running through Cary’s life.
Much of the present study explores and is bound by the implications of this need. For
instance, an observer’s assessment of Cary’s career is likely to be rather different to how
Cary viewed himself. Despite his significant achievements in England during the 1960s
and 1970s, Cary changed his career path, in all probability propelled by his need to write
music for the concert platform. This desire to write concert music explains why Cary
made two fateful life decisions, resulting in the dislocation of his career.
The first decision was his move with his family to Fressingfield, Suffolk, at a time
when he was enjoying success as a composer of music for film and radio in London. The
second decision was Cary’s move to Australia, in order to take up a lecturership at the
Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide. Both choices were primarily motivated by his desire
to create a more conducive environment in which to compose concert music.
This pervasive motif has influenced the sub-division of chapters. Chapter One
provides an overview of Cary’s early years, up until his discharge from the navy after