James Murdoch
James Murdoch, arts administrator, author, pianist, and advocate
for Australian music, was born in Sydney on 25 January 1930. An
only child, the family moved often and he attended 13 different
schools, leaving Canterbury Boys High School, aged 14, to become
an electrical fitter. After a year, he left to work at the
Sun newspaper, but music emerged as the dominant force
in his life and he eventually studied piano, composition and
conducting at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music.
Work at the ABC as a script and record librarian and then in the
arts archives at the State Library of Victoria provided informal
training in documentation and archiving that became a major theme
in his life.
His first major music appointment was in 1958 when he went to
Madrid as Music Director and company pianist of Luisillo and his
Spanish Dance Theatre, for whom he also created the music for two
ballets. He returned to Australia in 1962 as Assistant Musical
Director and company pianist of the new Australian Ballet
company. In the following year he founded the Universal Record
Club and in 1964 was appointed Special Assistant to the
Editor-in-Chief of the World Record Club Australia. In
that capacity, from 1964-68 he produced a monthly magazine and
wrote over 200 record cover notes each year as well as articles
on contemporary music and artists. He established the Foundation
for the Recording of Australian Music and produced the
'Australian Music Today' recordings in 1965.
Murdoch was an active member of the International Society for
Contemporary Music throughout the 1950s and '60s and variously
served as Secretary of its Melbourne, Sydney and Australian
branches. In 1965 he initiated the formation of the Melbourne
branch and directed the First Festival of Contemporary Music in
Melbourne with 69 events.
In 1968 Murdoch accepted an invitation to London to manage Peter
Maxwell Davies and his newly formed Pierrot Players, later the
Fires of London. Establishing his artist agency in London, James
Murdoch Management Pty Ltd., he rapidly expanded his business to
represent leading artists, whose work meshed around the British
and European contemporary music and festival circles. His artists
included composers Hans Werner Henze, Harrison Birtwistle and Leo
Brouer, pianists Roger Woodward and Paul Crossley, singers Cathy
Berberian and Mary Thomas, the Budapest Chamber Orchestra and the
London Contemporary Dance Theatre.
He directed many experimental music theatres pieces and he
assisted in organising the music for Ken Russell's films The
Devils and The Boyfriend. As the European
representative for the Museum of Modern Art (Australia), he also
negotiated on behalf of John Reed in Melbourne with artists and
arts organisations to tour artworks to Australia.
By invitation, he returned to Australia in 1972 to become Music
Consultant to the first Music Board of the Australian Council of
the Arts (1973), chaired by Don Banks. In the same year his book
Australia's contemporary composers was published in
which he critically discussed the work of 33 composers. As Board
consultant, he organised with Don Banks the third National
Conference of Australian Composers at the Australian National
University in Canberra in September 1973 as well as the National
Anthem competition.
However, his key initiative at the Council was the formation of
the Australian Music Centre to document, coordinate, promote and
archive Australian music ,and, on its establishment in 1975, he
was appointed its founding Director. During its frenetic first
three years, with a growing staff, he established a library,
produced a series of publications, directories and promotional
films and organised over 250 concerts and exhibitions. In 1979 he
instituted the AMC's Australian composition facsimile publishing
and copying service and, with Richard Meale, conceived the first
summer school for young Australian composers held in 1980 with
the support of the ABC. Focusing on Australia in its geographic
region, he also rapidly built collections and forged
relationships to document Asian, Pacific and Indigenous music,
and brought Peggy Glanville-Hicks back to Australia in 1975 to
lead the Asian Music Studies Program supported by the Myer
Foundation. His goal was also to document and stimulate the full
gamut of Australian music across rock, folk, country and jazz, as
well as classical composition.
During this period Murdoch sought to benchmark the Centre
internationally, and accordingly participated in the
International Association of Music Libraries, Sound Archives and
Documentation Centres (IAML) and the International Music Council
(IMC), including the first National Minorities Performing Arts
Festival as a guest of the Chinese Musicians Association. He
remained active in ISCM and in 1980 was elected World President
of the Music Information Centres Professional Branch (later
IAMIC).
From 1973-79, he also assisted his life-long friends Barbara
Blackman and Charles Blackman on the Council of their Chiron
College, a small two-year matriculation school located in
Birchgrove in Sydney.
In 1981, with Australia Council funding to the Centre drastically
reduced, he reluctantly left the Centre, again to be consultant
to the Music Board where he undertook a number of projects,
including a review of the publishing program, the planning of a
National Music Council, and the preparation of an international
course for choreographers and composers in New Zealand. In 1983
he published A Handbook of Australian Music and was
consultant to the Paris Autumn Festival featuring Australian
composers.
Departing the Council, in 1984 he formed the company James
Murdoch & Associates which undertook research projects and
provided consultancy services for the Australia Council, Sydney
Opera House Trust and other arts bodies. He also managed the
Australian tours of visiting musicians and dancers, including
Indian and Indigenous artists, and was Artistic Director for the
inaugural presentation of 'The First Australians' at the Sydney
Opera House. In 1988 he was also Artistic Director of New
Directions, a festival in Sydney sponsored by the Australian
Bicentennial Authority and Musica Viva, that included 101
performances of Australian and international contemporary and
experimental music. Murdoch was appointed in 1989 as the Director
of Reading 1990, established by the National Book Council, in
conjunction with the Literature Board of the Australia Council
and the National Library, to promote reading in Australia during
the International Literacy Year.
From 1984 Murdoch was actively engaged by the Australia Council
in its Archival Film Project to record interviews with leading
writers, composers and artists. He completed 60 films for this
project, now held at the National Film and Sound Archive, and in
1988 he produced a directory of The Arts on Film. He
also co-created 10 more films for the ABC and Juniper, including
Notes on a Landscape - a documentary film on 10
Australian composers, with film-maker Bill Fitzwater, in 1980. In
1990-92, he was associate producer for Juniper's P G-H - A
Modern Odyssey. After she died in 1990, he devoted himself
to sustaining the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers Trust and House
as well as several years researching and writing her story,
published by Pendragon Press as P G-H: A Transposed Life
(2002). From the 1980s onwards, he also began documenting the
lives of artists for the National Library of Australia that
resulted in extensive oral history interviews with more than 50
artists.
In 1990 Murdoch moved his home to Bali, where he continued his
consultancy and management services, as well as his writing and
broadcasting on Australian composition. He undertook significant
reviews of arts policies and organisations for the Australian
government, some confidential that found their way into Prime
Minister Keating's Creative Nation policy. However he also turned
his focus towards the wider region, writing on Asian music and
creating, archiving and managing arts events within South-East
Asia. He produced a Guide to the Arts of Bali, and founded the
Bali Film Archive and Bali Film Festival. He was artistic advisor
to the Sutra Dance Theatre in Malaysia, and undertook
consultancies for the Malaysian government on the development of
their Arts Programs and on archiving Malaysian arts. He advised
the Byrd Hoffman Foundation on the Watermill Center Summer
programs in the USA. His Oral history interviews for the National
Library of Australia culminated in the Donald Friend Oral History
project and in 2008 he curated the Donald Friend Celebration for
the Ubud Writers Festival.
In his last months, though very frail, he spent several weeks in Canberra documenting his Peggy Glanville-Hicks collection as well as his personal papers. He died, peacefully, in Bali on October 25, 2010. He leaves a vast legacy in his own manuscript collection that documents the rich, varied and colourful history of his contribution to Australian cultural life over six decades.
Biography by Robyn Holmes, Curator of Music, National
Library of Australia, 5 November 2010
Articles by and about James Murdoch
11 Aug 2008 William Colleran by James Murdoch
William Colleran who died recently in London, was the model for a now-vanished breed of music publishers, and became a well-loved and respected figure on the London and European music scene.
26 Oct 2010 James Murdoch (1930-2010) by Australian Music Centre
James Murdoch (1930-2010) passed away on his beloved island of Bali on 25 October 2010. Murdoch had a distinguished international career in the arts. He contributed to Australian music life in multiple roles, including as music consultant, manager, administrator and writer...
5 Nov 2010 James Murdoch remembered by Australian Music Centre
Elisabeth Silsbury, Jenny Vogel, Prue Neidorf, Gordon Kerry, Mary Vallentine, Shane Simpson, Ross Edwards, Peter Sculthorpe, Robyn Holmes, Justin MacDonnell and Patrick Thomas remember James Murdoch (1930-2010). We invite you to add your own recollections in the comments section after the article. [Updated 25 November]
8 Nov 2019 Australian Music, the 1960s and early 1970s - history, nationalism, and celebration by Michael Hooper
Michael Hooper writes about some key themes discussed in his newly released book Australian Music and Modernism, 1960-1975 (Bloomsbury - available as eBook and hardback). Read also an extract, just published on Resonate.
Works by James Murdoch
James Murdoch is not an Australian Music Centre represented artist, however the following works can be found in our collection:
Deep throat by George Dreyfus
CDs, Books and Kits featuring James Murdoch
Article: Nigel Butterley / by James Murdoch.
Article: Don Banks / by James Murdoch.
Article: Ross Edwards / by James Murdoch.
Book: Australia's contemporary composers / James Murdoch.
Book: A handbook of Australian music / James Murdoch.
Book: Peggy Glanville-Hicks : a transposed life / James Murdoch.
Book: Peggy Glanville-Hicks, 1912-1990 : lists of works / [compiled by] James Murdoch.
Photo: National Library of Australia