John Gilfedder : Represented Artist
John Francis Gilfedder was born in Melbourne on the 27th January, 1925. After studying medicine, he started to compose in 1948, and in 1951-52 studied composition with Benjamin Frankel and Raymond Jones in England. Returning to Australia, Gilfedder studied part-time at the University of Melbourne and graduated with his Bachelor of Music degree in 1958. This was followed by a Dip.Ed. in 1959, and a Bachelor of Education with Honours in 1962, also from the University of Melbourne. Gilfedder was employed by the Victorian Education Department between 1953 and 1969, before taking up a position at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1970.
Gilfedder aims to composer music that is simultaneously ‘Journey’ and ‘Now-time’ - that is, with both linear growth and circular sound-states. His harmonic style is neither atonal nor traditionally tonal, instead using a more ambiguous and faintly modal approach. His music intends to evoke spiritual atmospheres which celebrate objective realities, such as the Creator, Australia, Symbolism and Colour, as opposed to a subjective compositional method.
Works characteristic of Gilfedder’s style include The Timeless Land Symphony, which received its premiere by Queensland Youth Symphony in August 2002. The work, which was begun in Central Australia in 1987 and completed in June 2001, aims to represent in music the awesome geological history of Australia, with God shaping the landscape through his agents in nature. Other works by Gilfedder display a concern for concepts such as time, in Three Songs of Time and the Timelessness for voice with mixed ensemble; and colour, in the orchestral work Prisms.
Gilfedder was president of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Queensland between 1972 and 1977. He has received numerous commissions from, among others, Queensland Conservatorium Percussion, the Queensland Youth Orchestra, the 1991 International Clarinet Conference, and the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra.
Biography provided by the composer