Miriam Beatrice Hyde (15 January 191311 January 2005) was an Australian composer, classical pianist, music educator, and poet. She composed over 150 works for piano, 50 songs, other instrumental and orchestral works and performed as a concert pianist with eminent conductors including

Sir Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...

Georg Schnéevoigt Georg Lennart Schnéevoigt (8 November 1872 – 28 November 1947) was a Finnish conductor and cellist, born in Vyborg, Grand Duchy of Finland, which is now in Russia, to Ernst Schnéevoigt and Rosa Willandt. Career Schnéevoigt began his c ...

, Sir Bernard Heinze and

Geoffrey Simon Geoffrey Philip Simon (born 3 July 1946) is an Australian conductor resident in London. Recordings Geoffrey Simon was born on 3 July 1946 in Adelaide. He was a student of Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Hans Swarowsky and Igor Markevitch, ...

. She also had books of poetry published, and wrote an autobiography.

Life

Hyde was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in 1913, a daughter of Mr and Mrs C. H. Hyde of Torrens Park, Adelaide. Music was an important part of her family life: her mother, Muriel, played and taught piano; her aunt, Clarice Gmeiner, played violin, viola and harp with the South Australian Symphony Orchestra; and her younger sister, Pauline, played violin and sang.Johnson (2004) Her early music lessons were provided by her mother, but in 1925 she won a scholarship to attend the

Elder Conservatorium of Music The Elder Conservatorium of Music, also known as "The Con", is Australia's senior academy of music and is located in the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It is named in honour of its benefactor, Sir Thomas Elder. Dating in ...

in Adelaide. After graduating with her Bachelor of Music degree in 1931, she won an

Elder Overseas Scholarship The Elder Overseas Scholarship, sometimes referred to as the Elder Travelling Scholarship, is a triennial award to a South Australian (classical) musician, selected by competition from eligible candidates, to study at the Royal College of Music, Lo ...

to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

in London, which she attended from 1932 to 1935. Her teachers were R. O. Morris and

Gordon Jacob Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about m ...

for composition, and

Howard Hadley Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also proba ...

and

Arthur Benjamin Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893, in Sydney – 10 April 1960, in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of '' Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the ''Storm Clouds Cantata'', f ...

for piano. She won several composition prizes while at the college, including the

Cobbett Prize Cobbett is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hilary Dulcie Cobbett (1885–1976), British artist * William Cobbett (1763–1835), British radical agriculturist and prolific journalist. * Walter Willson Cobbett Walter Willson ...

. However, during this time she also suffered a nervous collapse, and her mother went to England to be with her. Hyde gave her first London recital at

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that contains a street and public park of the same name. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road ...

in 1933, and in 1934 her Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat minor was performed by the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

, conducted by

Leslie Heward Leslie Hays Heward (8 December 1897 – 3 May 1943) was an English conductor and composer. Between 1930 and 1942 he was the Music Director of the City of Birmingham Orchestra. Heward was born in Liversedge, Yorkshire, the son of a railway p ...

with her as soloist. In 1935, she performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 under

Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

, and her own Piano Concerto No. 2 with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

conducted by

.Hyde (1991) She saw many of the great musicians of the time, including

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...

and

Elisabeth Schumann Elisabeth Schumann (13 June 1888 – 23 April 1952) was a German soprano who sang in opera, operetta, oratorio, and lieder. She left a substantial legacy of recordings. Career Born in Merseburg, Schumann trained for a singing career in B ...

. She returned to Adelaide in 1936 and soon after moved to Sydney, where she worked for several decades as a composer, recitalist, teacher, examiner and lecturer. It was here that she also met her husband, Marcus Edwards, whom she married in 1939 and with whom she had two children, Christine (1950) and Robert (1951). During the war years, while her husband was interned as a German prisoner of war after being captured on

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

, she taught in Adelaide, returning to Sydney at the end of hostilities. Her monumental Sonata in G minor for piano (1941–44) is very much a reflection of the war years. Major works from the post-war period included the ''Happy Occasion Overture'' (1957), the ''Kelso Overture'' (1959), Sonata for Clarinet (1949), String Quartet in E minor (1952), Sonata for Flute (1962) and her two trios for winds and piano (1948, 1952). One of her most famous works is the piano piece ''

Valley of Rocks The Valley of Rocks, sometimes called Valley of the Rocks, is a dry valley that runs parallel to the coast in north Devon, England, about to the west of the village of Lynton. It is a popular tourist destination, noted for its herd of feral ...

'' (1975). Her work for the

Australian Music Examinations Board The Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) is a federated, privately funded corporation which provides a program of examinations for music, speech and drama in Australia. The organisation had its beginnings at the Universities of Melbourne ...

(AMEB) spanned the years 1945–82, including her valuable contribution on the advisory board for New South Wales. Her activities included examining, mentoring, demonstrations and workshops, setting/reviewing/marking exam papers, advising on syllabus content. She also wrote educational materials – books of sight-reading, examples of forms, aural tests for all grades, tutor books including one for adult beginners. Her life in music was supplemented by her poetry. She wrote close to 500 poems, some of which she set to music. In 1981 she was made an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) and in 1991 was made an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AO). She was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

in 1993, and in 2004 she received an award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

and

Australian Music Centre The Australian Music Centre (AMC), formerly known briefly as Sounds Australian, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia, founded in 1974. It co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, and publishes '' ...

Classical Music Awards. She was appointed Patron of the Music Teachers' Association of South Australia (MTASA) and established the Miriam Hyde Award for the Association. After serving on the Council of the Music Teachers' Association of New South Wales from 1960 to 1991, she was made its patron.Crews and Spithill (2012) In 1991 her autobiography was published, titled ''Complete Accord''. She celebrated her 80th birthday in 1993 by giving a series of recitals throughout the country. At the age of 89, she gave her last performance of her Piano Concerto No. 2, with the Strathfield Symphony Orchestra conducted by Solomon Bard.Concert programme 16 June 2002, Strathfield Symphony Orchestra Her 90th birthday in 2003 was marked with concerts and broadcasts throughout Australia. From the mid-1990s onwards, continuing after her death in 2005, The Keys Press (Perth) and Wirripang Pty Ltd (Wollongong) published more than 100 of her manuscripts for piano, chamber music and voice. Miriam Hyde died in 2005, a few days before her 92nd birthday.

Music

Miriam Hyde's compositions include works for orchestra, piano concertos, art songs, chamber music, many piano solos, flute solos and more. She wrote in an early 20th-century pastoral style,Vale Dr Miriam Hyde achieving a highly effective combination of impressionism with post-romanticism. One of her best-known pieces is the piano solo ''

'', written in 1975. The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat minor (1933), Piano Concerto No. 2 in C-sharp minor (1935) and ''Village Fair'' (1943) for orchestra are the most broadcast of her major works. One of her lesser known pieces is the mystica
Reflected Reeds
(1956) with its rippling chords sketching the Sydney landscape on a brooding afternoon. Her husband died in 1995 and she ceased writing music at that time. Recording - Romantic Piano Trios
Trio Anima Mundi
(Divine Art dda25102) (2013) *feat. Fantasy for piano trio

Writing

The expression of words in a poetic form meant as much to Miriam Hyde as the expression of music. In an interview filmed in 1992 she revealed that it was often a matter of chance whether her impressions would be embodied in words or in music. Three selections of her poetry were published by the Economy Press, Adelaide: ''The Bliss of Solitude'' (1941), ''A Few Poems'' (1942) and ''Dawn to Dusk'' (1947?).Miriam Hyde Poems
/ref> She also wrote her autobiography, ''Complete Accord'' (1991, Currency Press) and donated the royalties to the Elder Scholarship that she won in 1931.

Notes

References

*Hyde, Miriam: ''Complete Accord'' (Currency Press, 1991)

Accessed: 2009-07-28 * Crews, Rita and Spithill, Julie (2012): ''One Hundred Years. Music Teachers' Association of NSW 1912–2012 (Wirripang, 2012)''

External links

Australian Music Centre: BiographyAustralian Music Centre: List of scores and recordingsNational Library of Australia: Papers of Miriam HydeMiriam Hyde interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection
– audio recording
The Keys Press: Published Works
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, Miriam 1913 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Australian musicians 20th-century Australian poets 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century Australian women writers Alumni of the Royal College of Music APRA Award winners Australian classical composers Australian classical pianists Australian women pianists Australian women classical composers Australian memoirists Australian music educators Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Australian women poets Musicians from Adelaide Officers of the Order of Australia Piano pedagogues University of Adelaide alumni Women classical pianists Australian women memoirists Women music educators Writers from Adelaide 20th-century women composers 20th-century memoirists 20th-century women pianists