Listen & tracks

2 works · 45:48

1 String Quartet No. 1 Barry Conyngham 21:30
Second String QuartetGeorge Tibbits 4 movements24:18
1. 2 First movement 9:46
2. 3 Second movement 6:10
3. 4 Third movement 2:17
4. 5 Fourth movement 6:05

Both works were written for the Albert H. Maggs Award in musical composition. They were premiered together in 1979 at a New Audience concert at the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne, on World Music Day during that year's International Music Congress.

The Petra String Quartet recorded the programme in Melba Hall. Conyngham's single-movement String Quartet No. 1 (1979) works with interlocking sets of variations concerned with texture, space and gesture. Tibbits' Second String Quartet (1975) is a concentrated four-movement work of linked sections that ends by turning back towards its opening.

Artists

Barry Conyngham

composer

Barry Conyngham, born in Sydney, has received numerous awards and fellowships for composition, among them Churchill, Harkness, Australia Council and Senior Fulbright grants. He holds an ARIA, two Sounds Australian Critics Awards and two Maggs Awards.

Petra String Quartet

ensemble

Now defunct, the Petra String Quartet was formed in 1977 from graduates of the Tasmanian Conservatorium and focused on Australian compositions. They toured the eastern states, then Europe in 1980.

George Tibbits

composer

George Tibbits (1933–2008) was an Australian composer and architect. Self-taught in music, he wrote some forty-five works—among them five string quartets—nearly all given professional performances.