Blog : Keith Humble - The Mentor

Keith Humble - The Mentor

##Artefacts Communique 4##

Artefacts of  Australian Experimental Music: 1930 – 1973 is a landmark  compilation CD documenting the forgotten pioneers of Australian music.  For full  details, track listing and audio samples, go to http://ShameFileMusic.com

Keith Humble – The Mentor

Keith Humble had a major influence  on the fledgling Australian experimental music scene from the late 1960s  onward.  Humble established himself  early in life as  a child prodigy on the piano and  later as a composer, before leaving  Australia for  Paris in the  1950s.  There he ran the alternative  performance space Centre de Musique.

He returned to  Melbourne in 1966 and  set about inspiring a new generation of composers and musicians to explore new  musical ideas.  Humble established the  Society for the Private Performance of New Music, which provided an outlet for  young composers such as McKimm, Rooney and Clayton.  The monthly Society concerts took part in the  Grainger  Museum (Humble  wanted to draw attention to an Australian music tradition with the connection to  Grainger) and took the form of performance workshops directed by Humble and  other composers .   He also took up a teaching post at  Melbourne  University (where his  students included Ron  Nagorcka) and taught in  San  Diego in the  early  1970s.  Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music: 1930 – 1973 features a piece Humble created during his time in  San  Diego.  "And Tomorrow" was recorded  the San  Diego University's  Electronic Music studio, and is believed to be a computer piece for an  unrealised opera.

Humble's  compositional palate ranged from avant-garde music to electronic works to his  vast Nunique  events, which involved rock bands, lectures, dramatic performances and string  quartets all taking place simultaneously according to a detailed plan.  Most significantly, Humble mentored several  young composers who would form the next generation of Australian experimental  music.  He set the scene in the late  1960s that made the later burst of activity in  Melbourne possible,  including institutions like the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre.  He pioneered the La Trobe University Music  Department, which in turn brought another musical 'lightning rod' to  Australia in  Warren  Burt.   Humble died in 1995.


Hear some of the equipment Humble  used during these times at the Brisbane and  Melbourne Artefacts launches in the coming 2 weeks, where Robin  Fox will be performing on these  analogue synthesisers, as part of the Liquid Architecture  Festival:

Friday 6  July,  Brisbane Powerhouse, from 7:30pm –  Robin  Fox and  others

Friday 13  July,  North  Melbourne  Town  Hall, from  7:30pm –  Robin  Fox on analogue  synthesisers again, and a panel discussion on the history of experimental music  with Robin, Pauline Oliveros,  Warren  Burt & Rainer  Linz.

Pre-order your copy of Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music: 1930 –  1973 compilation CD for the special price of AU$23ppd (US$17.30ppd)  from http://ShameFileMusic.com .   This special deal ends  this Friday!.

Added by shamefile on 4 July 2007