Inner Song

A Biography of Margaret Sutherland

Jillian Graham
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Inner Song

A Biography of Margaret Sutherland

Jillian Graham
Did Margaret Sutherland achieve more for Australian music than any other composer?
Margaret Sutherland was one of the most innovative and influential Australian composers. In the first half of the twentieth century, her desire to be both serious composer and mother was atypical, and she faced significant challenges - public and private - in blending these roles. Against the backdrop of an unhappy and unsupportive marriage and a society not yet ready to accept her creative ambitions and strong views on Australia's musical development, she remained admirably steadfast in pursuing her goals. Sutherland created over two hundred compositions, ceaselessly campaigned on behalf of Australian music and musicians, and led the initial push to construct what is now Arts Centre Melbourne. In her attempts to redefine beauty in music she used idiosyncratic musical language, being at the mercy of 'sound pictures' and 'floating ideas'. This book tells her remarkable story, laying bare something of Sutherland's inspiring 'inner song'.
Margaret Sutherland was one of the most innovative and influential Australian composers. In the first half of the twentieth century, her desire to be both serious composer and mother was atypical, and she faced significant challenges - public and private - in blending these roles. Against the backdrop of an unhappy and unsupportive marriage and a society not yet ready to accept her creative ambitions and strong views on Australia's musical development, she remained admirably steadfast in pursuing her goals. Sutherland created over two hundred compositions, ceaselessly campaigned on behalf of Australian music and musicians, and led the initial push to construct what is now Arts Centre Melbourne. In her attempts to redefine beauty in music she used idiosyncratic musical language, being at the mercy of 'sound pictures' and 'floating ideas'. This book tells her remarkable story, laying bare something of Sutherland's inspiring 'inner song'.

A balanced and tender study of a complex life.”
Australian Book Review

Graham has produced a carefully researched and insightful account that will help redress some of the neglect Sutherland suffered in life … perhaps due recognition has arrived.”
The Sydney Morning Herald

Page after page reveals new secrets and struggles of this very important composer and brings to light her achievements and unwavering spirit of creativity. It’s so vivid I thought I was there and I learnt so much about Margaret Sutherland thanks to Jillian Graham’s extensive research and knowledge. Graham writes this story beautifully, engrossingly and with the deepest compassion and admiration for this hero to us all. A wonderful, life-changing read!”
Elena Kats-Chernin

Margaret Sutherland is a major historical figure in the compositional landscape, who has not received the scholarly attention she deserves. It is excellent to see this beautifully written, acutely incisive work by Jillian Graham filling that gap.”
Linda Kouvaras

How did Margaret Sutherland, born in Melbourne in 1897, become the path-breaking composer and influential arts advocate she was by the time she died in 1984? Jillian Graham, a musician herself, traces with great understanding the countervailing forces that encouraged and inhibited this determined and talented girl to nurture her “inner song”—her extraordinary extended family of artists and musicians, plagued by ill-health and loss of fortunes, her supportive teachers and friends, her unhappy marriage, her struggle against prejudice as a woman in a “man’s world”, the brilliance of her work. A truly heroic story told with quiet assurance.”
Desley Deacon FASSA

Jillian Graham

Jillian Graham

Jillian Graham is a freelance writer, editor and researcher, focusing on the experiences of Australian women composers. Graham was awarded the 2018 Redmond Barry Fellowship and was shortlisted twice for the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship. A trained musician, she sings in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

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