Biography:

David Newton Lumsdaine (31 October 1931 – 12 January 2024)^[1] was an Australian composer. He studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (as it was then known). He moved to England in 1952 and for a while shared a flat with fellow expatriate, the poet Peter Porter, with whom he collaborated on several projects including the cantata Annotations of Auschwitz (1964). In London he studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley. In 1970 he took a lecturing position at Durham University. In 1981 he took a post as senior lecturer at King’s College London. He is published by The University of York Music Press and Universal Edition.

In 1979 he married the composer Nicola LeFanu.^[2]

Works

Lumsdaine disowned all works he composed before Annotations of Auschwitz (1964). His first acknowledged works were composed using a variety of pitch and rhythm techniques associated with serialism – techniques such as pitch rotation or permutation, and isorhythmic structures linking pitch and duration together. Central to all of Lumsdaine’s work is the notion of ‘ground’, a term borrowed from Baroque musical terminology (specifically Purcell).

The orchestral works ‘Salvation Creek with Eagle’ and ‘Hagoromo’ (1974 and 1977 respectively) continue and develop Lumsdaine’s personal take on Australian nature.

Lumsdaine’s output also includes two other fine substantial piano works – notably the Bach-inspired ‘Ruhe Sanfte, Sanfte Ruh’ (1974) – and a considerable number of works involving electronics. His extraordinary tape montage/re-composition of events from the Durham Miners Gala ‘Big Meeting’ is perhaps the finest of these. There are many substantial chamber works, including the series of works entitled ‘Mandala’, a cello concerto, several song cycles and an orchestral fifth ‘Mandala’ (1989), another colourful homage to his favourite Australian landscapes and soundscapes. Shortly after composing his dense and energetic ‘Kali Dances’ for ensemble in 1996, Lumsdaine retired from composition, so that an overview of his oeuvre is already possible, unusually for a living composer.

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