BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Dulcie Holland’s Concertino for Piano and Strings — “pure pleasure for players and listeners”, as the composer described it — was written back in 1983.
So why has it taken until 2022 to hear it performed?
Ronan Apcar is a pianist (and total Dulcie Holland fanatic) who teamed up with conductor Leonard Weiss and the Canberra Sinfonia. Together, they’ve worked on a definitive edition of the concertino’s score and parts — and they’ll present its world premiere right here in Australia.
Finally.
Born in Sydney, Holland (1913-2000) was a renowned music educator and composer. If you’ve learnt music in the past century-or-so, you’ve probably come across one of the many theory or piano books she wrote. But Holland also worked as a composer, picking up multiple ABC/APRA awards throughout the 20th Century.
Ronan — who has also released Holland’s previously unheard music through his album Dulcie Holland Crescent — talks us through this concertino and its premiere. (It’ll take place in Canberra alongside the world concert premiere of a Christopher Gordon work, too.)
Ronan, I’d like to chat with you about Dulcie Holland. Canberra Sinfonia describes you as “one of Australia’s foremost experts in Holland’s music and style”. What drew you so deeply into Holland’s music?
The first piece I ever learnt by Dulcie Holland was The Lake, one of her most popular solo piano pieces. At 14 years old, I don’t think I had played a piece like that before — such interesting yet appealing harmonies and melodies, and an incredible sense of atmosphere and character.
Learning that piece was a formative experience in my musical journey, one that made me dive into the world of Australian music.
When I’ve come across pieces by Holland, it’s always the same thing that draws me in — this clever combination of adventurous harmony with well-crafted melody that lets her push the envelope a little bit, albeit conservatively.
Even though I’ve since learnt lots of pieces by Holland, I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself an expert because there’s so many more pieces by her I’m yet to learn. I reserve the ‘expert’ title for people like Dr Jeanell Carrigan and Dr Rita Crews, who published the first biography and catalogue of Holland!
You’ve dedicated much of your career so far to the works of Holland; last year, you released a dedicated solo album Dulcie Holland Crescent, and you’re now playing the world premiere of her Piano Concertino. What’s it like to really focus on a single composer, and become increasingly invested in — and knowledgeable about — their work?
The best thing about spending so much time with the works of one composer is this sense of familiarity you get. It’s not too far off becoming really close friends with someone; the more time you spend with one person, the better you learn their little quirks, how they think, and what their whole life is like — and how that explains all the little things about them.
With all the time I’ve spent looking at Holland’s music and life, I feel like I’ve become really well acquainted with her language and style. Although each piece that I learn by her gets easier to interpret and understand, every piece throws a new challenge and that further expands my understanding of her music.
The coolest thing is finding connections between her pieces, even though they’re almost always incidental. For instance, in the album Dulcie Holland Crescent, I actually found Conversation for Piano the most difficult to interpret, but having her Sonata already under my belt meant I wasn’t going in blind.
On the other hand, the odd gesture, phrase, chord — anything really! — in Conversation made me realise something in the sonata I hadn’t thought of before. To put it simply, it’s all mutually beneficial.
I was surprised to learn you’d prepared this premiere and, with Canberra Sinfonia, created a new edition of the Piano Concertino score and parts. How does this new edition respond to and respect the original — and why was it necessary to create it?
The concertino is an unpublished work, so the only copy exists in her original handwritten manuscript. Not only are there discrepancies between Holland’s original score and parts, but some notes and symbols are vague, and there’s the odd mistake here and there. In order to iron these out, we had to go through the manuscript slowly, and typeset it so that we could be on the same page about what the notes and rhythms actually are.
We always tried to be faithful to what Holland had written. The only times we had to make a decision about or work out what she actually meant was when we had one of those discrepancies or issues.
It’s also a practical thing — it’s a lot quicker for musicians to learn from a neat typeset rather than a manuscript in an unfamiliar and sometimes unclear handwriting. And if we want it to ever be played again, a typeset edition certainly makes it a lot more appealing to learn.
So what was the process?
Lucky for me, Leonard Weiss did the hard yards and pretty much typeset the entire manuscript. He started with the solo piano part, then I proofread it, cross-checking with the manuscript. Being familiar with Holland’s handwriting, after typesetting Conversation for Piano and Autumn Piece for the album last year, I had actually learnt the part from the manuscript! That definitely helped in answering Leonard’s questions, or correcting any errors in the typesetting.
From there, he moved onto the string orchestra, and both Helena Popovic — also a co-founder of the Canberra Sinfonia — and I proofread them, again with the manuscript.
Even though we’ve created this score and sent parts out, the process still isn’t over. There are still question marks hanging over the odd bar here and there. We won’t really know what to do until we’ve actually played it. So during the rehearsals, I have a copy of the score that I’m editing, and then from there we’ll have a final copy and a first edition.
I get to have the final say on the score because I’ve got the most experience with her style and her manuscripts. It’s daunting to think I could decide on something that isn’t what Holland intended. But you can’t approach this type of work with such a perfectionist attitude, otherwise you go mad. I mean, I definitely don’t have that approach to the score as a performer!
Speaking of your role as performer in this world premiere, I’d love it if you could tell us a little bit about what to expect from the music.
To put it simply, it’s just a really enjoyable piece.
Stylistically, it’s quite similar to her other pieces that I’ve played before: there are really exciting and crunchy harmonies, spritzy rhythms, lots of beautiful modal melodies, and a clear sense of drama and narrative throughout — even if it is a piece of absolute music.
It’s in a traditional three-movement, fast-slow-fast structure, and full of these epic moments where all the strings come together to play as one giant instrument — sometimes playing with, and sometimes playing against, the solo piano.
There are also some wonderful moments in the slow movement with a gorgeous solo cello opening, and an ending so magical and still you could hear a pin drop. And the last movement is so exciting — it hits the ground running, and barely lets up until the very end.
If I had to sum up the piece in one word: unpretentious. Even Holland herself calls it ‘a lightweight piece to give pleasure to players and listeners’, which is definitely what I’m getting out of it!
Holland was a hugely successful music educator, so it’s bizarre to think that her works have become lost. I’m reminded of other women in music, such as Louise Farrenc, who were also popular for the work they contributed to the industry back in their day — but not all of their compositions would become popular. How do you think it’s possible that it’s taken until 2022 to premiere a piece of Australian music, which was composed by a renowned artist all the way back in 1983?
I would say that, although it’s a combination of many factors, you can’t deny that her work as an educator pigeonholed her — and so critics saw her as only that, not as both a great teacher and serious composer. Not to mention she was a great pianist, too.
Being a woman in the music scene during Holland’s time also meant that there were more hurdles to gaining the same recognition as her male counterparts. Thankfully, times are changing, and we have been celebrating those in our history who were overlooked. But as Jeanell and Rita write in the biography: ‘This wonderful Australian woman composer deserved to have her life and music celebrated much earlier, not 20 years after her death.’
Regarding the concertino, there’s a practical element to it as well — it’s a big work that requires more than just a couple musicians. The fact it was unpublished also means many people wouldn’t even be aware it exists, let alone willing to read from a manuscript if they do know it exists. And strangely, even though it was dedicated to one of Holland’s longtime collaborators, American pianist Selma Epstein, we haven’t been able to find any evidence that she gave a performance of it.
As far as we know, it seems like there just hasn’t been any opportunity for it to be performed until now*!
*Editor’s note: The interviewee would like to add that this Canberra Sinfonia event is a world premiere to the best of their knowledge. They continue to search for evidence of any previous performance of Dulcie Holland’s Concertino for Piano and Strings; none appears to have taken place. The Australian Music Centre documents this performance as the world’s first.
What would you like Australian audiences to know about this Australian composer as they explore her music?
Dulcie Holland has to be one of the most important people in Australia’s music history, let alone music education history. So many music students of my generation learnt from the theory books that she wrote, and still do to this day. It only seems fair that one of the most important figures in Australian music history deserves to have her — until recently overlooked — serious music performed and appreciated by Australians.
Not to mention, the music is bloody good.
Before we go, what would you like other Australian performers to know about the value in really dedicating yourself to the works of a single composer — be it Dulcie Holland or another?
It’s quite fulfilling and satisfying to become so well acquainted with a composer’s style.
I just stumbled across Holland’s music, and it was a style that I clicked with and, for lack of better words, I feel like I just get it. So being able to perform music that feels so natural for me is a wonderful feeling. It reminds you about why you play music in the first place.
Plus, it feels really worthwhile to have put so much time and energy into Australian music. I personally have a lot of love for this country, and I love to see what’s happening in my own backyard — music is no exception. So looking back on Holland’s life and work, I do believe that she deserves to have a strong legacy in Australia, and I feel very humbled to be a part of the effort that is getting her what she deserves: recognition.
Canberra Sinfonia: Apcar’s Holland will take place at Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest, 19 June.
Images supplied.
