Edited by Louise Maral
In memoriam: music for and by a loved 'Prof'
By Louise Maral
A
WEALTH of creative talent
from composers and
performers associated
with the University of Sydney's
Department of Music will be
showcased at the University next
month in two concerts dedicated
to the memory of the Depart-
ment's well-loved emeritus
professor, Peter Platt, who died
last year.
Compositions by Professor
Platt will be performed alongside
premieres of works written
especially for him by his composer
friends and associates, all former
students or colleagues.
The aptly titled "For a Gentle
Soul" by internationally renowned
composer Eric Gross will open the
first memorial concert, played by
the Sydney Mandolins.
"It's a descriptive piece, creating
a mood which represents my
memory of Peter's personality",
said Dr Gross who taught in the
Music Department for 30 years
and is now a research fellow.
"He was an excellent colleague:
very helpful, very interested in
other people's works and com-
pletely devoid of any jealousy - a
very fine person and a fine scholar.
Peter encouraged students to be
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education and an interest in all
things related to music - which
simply means society as a whole."
"He was always a supportive
mentor", said young composer
Jane Stanley, a Music Department
graduate and PhD student who
recently won a Symphony Aus-
tralia commission to have a work
performed by the Tasmanian
Symphony Orchestra.
"He was very kind, very clever,
very knowledgeable and always
willing to go beyond the call of duty.
When he came to a concert he
would ask for the score and write
feedback and take you aside and tell
you everything he thought about it.
That's more than you'd expect ."
Her "Fas", the second of a three-
movement work called "Fas/Nefas"
(Latin for Law/Lawlessness), will be
premiered in the second concert.
"It's a slow piano work," she
said, "using techniques like those
I learnt in Prof Platt's Stravinsky
on numerical patterns, on laws."
Other composers on the pro-
gram include Anne Boyd, Ross
Edwards, Anton Elton, Jim Frank-
lin, Ian Fredericks, Mat thew
Hindson, John Peterson, Claudio
Pompili, Nicholas Routley, Ian
Shanahan and Nick Wales.
"The man was like a second
father to me", said multi-award
winning composer Ian Shanahan,
who was a student and colleague
of Professor Platt's and is currently
lecturing and completing a PhD in
the Department.
"He created a lot of oppor-
tunities for me and many people
- a fantastic educator, fantastic
"He loved
Indian music" -
Peter Platt with
sitar in the
19705.
musician, very much building
bridges between intellectual disci-
plines. He was a major force for
culture in this country."
A virtuoso recorder player, Mr
Shanahan will play tenor recorder
in his "Harmonia (in PP )".
"PPis pianissimo but also Peter
Professor-Platt's liBrary, will go to--tl1.e
word which means 'a fitting to-
gether' which is exactly what his
whole outlook on life was about.
"I've got a reputation for
writing quite fearsomely complex
music. This piece will be dis-
armingly and deceptively simple-
a bit like Prof Platt himself. It's
basically a sad but serene chorale
about harmony.
"Peter Platt taught harmony
and in his own music the sense of
harmony is fantastic," said Mr
Shanahan who is the curator of
Professor Platt's compositions.
"The way Prof composed was
to write something for specific
people then rehearse with them
and change things that weren't
working," said Associate Professor
Winsome Evans, whose group the
Renaissance Players, for whom
Professor Platt was patron, per-
formed the first two memorial
concerts in November 2000 and
June this year. "He was very
humble and had a close working
relationship with performers."
To her his "greatest pieces" are
songs based on poems by Lorca,
which he originally wrote for three
BMus singers whose combination
of high voices had impressed him.
These will be performed by Alison
Morgan, Jenny Duck-Chong and
Nadia Piave.
Other works by ProfessorPlatt
on the program include a solo
violin piece performed by the
original player, concert violinist
Ronald Woodcock; a duo trumpet
fanfare played by James Blunt,
principal trumpet player of the
Australian Opera and Ballet
orchestra, for whom it was written
when he was a student; arrange-
men ts of Cole Porter songs sung by
the Chamber Choir; and a viola
solo, "Meditation for Jack Speirs",
written for a NZ colleague who died
a month before Professor Platt.
Proceeds from the concerts and
the sale of books and CDs from
Peter Platt Memorial Lectureship
Fund established earlier this year at
the instigation of Professor Evans in
an attempt to boost the Depart-
ment's dwindled human resources.
The concerts will be held at
Spm on S August in the Great Hall
and 6.30pm on 15 August in the
Old Darlington School. At the
latter, dedication to Peter Platt will
be made of the main hall of the
Old Darlington School, to be
named the Peter Platt Auditorium.
Admission: $25 I $15 students/
$12 children and pensioners.
Tickets will be available at the door.
Enquiries: Concert Co -ordinator
Adrienne Sach, tel. 9351 4790.