Lawrence Whiffin
Lawrence Whiffin (1930–2012) was a Melbourne-born composer, pianist and teacher. After years abroad he returned to Australia as Senior Tutor at La Trobe University, where teaching harmony and analysis also freed him to write more concert music.
In 1976 Whiffin was appointed Senior Tutor in the Music Department at La Trobe University.
Whiffinpoof, for twelve instruments and choir, was composed for the department that year, and the following year brought a commission for an organ sonata (Sonata Fantasy) for the Melbourne Autumn Festival of Organ and Harpsichord. From then on he took part in numerous performances, mainly as a pianist.
In 1981 he attended a summer seminar in computer music at Stanford University. He was awarded his Master of Music from the University of Melbourne in 1982 and appointed tenured lecturer at La Trobe in the same year.
Back in Australia he was able to pursue musicological interests alongside composing and performing. He initiated the La Trobe University Press publication Contemporary Australian Piano (1985) and co-edited it with Haydn Reeder. In 1984 the Australian Musicological Society accepted his article on set theory and a new approach to serialism, based on an analysis of Larry Sitsky’s Music in the Mirabell Garden.
Compositions by Lawrence Whiffin appear on
Astra 60
This recording captures a concert of Australian piano music celebrating Astra’s long support of Australian composers and performers. For sixty years the Astra Chamber Music Society has placed new Australian work beside international new-music currents, always with a distinctive cultural frame.
Rabid Bay
Michael Kieran Harvey is one of the foremost interpreters of contemporary piano music of his generation. This recording presents some of Australia's cutting-edge piano music – bold and experimental, but also increasingly lyrical.
Bizarre or baRock
Elizabeth Anderson explores harpsichord music across four centuries: from Conceição’s raw 17th-century battle piece and traditional Baroque repertoire to jazz, blues, Gershwin and the Beatles with drums and bass. Weird, wild, wacky and wonderful – you’ve never heard the harpsichord like this.
WindSong
Eric Klay brings his bass trombone centre-stage in a varied selection of stylish classic, contemporary, and big band pieces.
Contemporary Australian Piano
A valuable collection of Australian piano works by some of the country’s most respected and inventive composers, performed by pianist-composer Larry Sitsky.
Contributor: Liner notes