Nigel Butterley

Nigel Henry Butterley (Sydney, 13 May 1935) is one of the most prominent Australian composers of the second half of the twentieth century. A pianist as well as a composer, he combined composition for decades with work in his country's public broadcasting, a connection that shaped both his opportunities and his understanding of music.

His training was largely self-taught at the piano and was completed at the New South Wales State Conservatorium between 1951 and 1960, under teachers including Alexander Burnard, Nöel Nickson and Raymond Hanson. In 1962 he studied briefly in London with Priaulx Rainier, whose teaching, though brief, left a profound mark on him. For twenty-one years he worked for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, first as a presentation manager and then as a programme planner. In 1973 he began teaching contemporary music at the conservatorium in Newcastle (New South Wales).

His early vocal works show the influence of Vaughan Williams, Warlock, Ireland and Britten, with melodies of natural rhythm and harmonies based on perfect intervals. After his time in Europe, Laudes (1963) brought him notice at the Adelaide Festival of 1964; the work fuses plainchant with twelve-note series and an almost aleatoric notation. From then on he frequently employed serial techniques, though rarely in a strict manner. Works such as In the Head the Fire, a commission from the ABC, or Carmina show his interest in combining magnetic tape, highly diverse texts and a lyricism within the language of the avant-garde. His output from the late 1960s is more abstract, while Meditations of Thomas Traherne and Letter from Hardy's Bay adopt a more conservative language.

The 1970s include Sometimes with One I Love, setting poems by Walt Whitman, in which he turns to the whole-tone scale and angular declamation. In the 1980s his music recovers the lyricism of his beginnings, with works such as Lawrence Hargrave Flying Alone, inspired by a sculpture by Peter Taylor, and Forest I–II, linked to the work of Giacometti. In the 1990s much of his output draws on the writings of Kathleen Raine.

His legacy lies in having integrated serial language and the British tradition naturally into a personal and recognisable body of work, as well as in his work as a performer and populariser. He received distinctions including the Premio Italia, the Order of Australia and an honorary doctorate from the University of Newcastle.