In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the musician and writer Dr Jillian Graham chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while researching and crafting Inner Song. A Biography of Margaret Sutherland.
Winner: 2024 Michael Crouch Prize for a Debut Work, National Biography Award
High Commended: Magarey Medal for Biography
Inner Song
Margaret Sutherland was one of the most innovative and influential Australian composers. In the first half of the twentieth century, her desire to be both serious composer and mother was atypical, and she faced significant challenges - public and private - in blending these roles.
Margaret Sutherland
Against the backdrop of an unhappy and unsupportive marriage and a society not yet ready to accept her creative ambitions and strong views on Australia’s musical development, Margaret Sutherland remained admirably steadfast in pursuing her goals. She created over 200 compositions, ceaselessly campaigned on behalf of Australian music and musicians, and led the initial push to construct what is now Arts Centre Melbourne.
Margaret Sutherland’s life is rich with stories that are testament to her extraordinary strength of character. Her belief in the power, necessity and worthiness of Australian music is a wealth of inspiration to anyone, but in particular to women wanting to pursue a career in composition.
Her contribution to Australian music was recognised with an honorary doctorate from Melbourne University, an OBE, an Order of Australia award and the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.
Margaret Sutherland
ABC Archives
In Inner Song, Jillian Graham masterfully weaves together the intricate details of Margaret Sutherland’s personal and professional life, offering readers deep insights into the mind of one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century.
A balanced and tender study of a complex life.
Australian Book Review
In her attempts to redefine beauty in music, Margaret used idiosyncratic musical language, being at the mercy of ‘sound pictures’ and ‘floating ideas’. Inner Song shares her remarkable story, laying bare something of Sutherland’s ‘inner song’.
Margaret Sutherland with fellow artists Dorian le Gallienne and Muriel Luyk,
1954
ABC Archives
Margaret Sutherland’s legacy as a pioneering composer and her contributions to Australian music are exceptional. Inner Song sheds light on Margaret’s remarkable achievements and brings her story to a new generation of readers and music enthusiasts. Jillian Graham’s dedication to uncovering the intricate details of Margaret’s life and work has resulted in a biography that is both deeply insightful and engaging.
Praise for Inner Song
Page after page reveals new secrets and struggles of this very important composer and brings to light her achievements and unwavering spirit of creativity. Graham writes this story beautifully, engrossingly and with the deepest compassion and admiration for this hero to us all.
Page after page reveals new secrets and struggles of this very important composer and brings to light her achievements and unwavering spirit of creativity. It’s so vivid I thought I was there, and I learnt so much about Margaret Sutherland thanks to Jillian Graham’s extensive research and knowledge. Graham writes this story beautifully, engrossingly and with the deepest compassion and admiration for this hero to us all. A wonderful, life-changing read!”
Elena Kats-Chernin
Margaret Sutherland is a major historical figure in the compositional landscape, who has not received the scholarly attention she deserves. It is excellent to see this beautifully written, acutely incisive work by Jillian Graham filling that gap.
Linda Kouvaras
How did Margaret Sutherland, born in Melbourne in 1897, become the path-breaking composer and influential arts advocate she was by the time she died in 1984? Jillian Graham, a musician herself, traces with great understanding the countervailing forces that encouraged and inhibited this determined and talented girl to nurture her ‘inner song’. A truly heroic story told with quiet assurance.
Desley Deacon FASSA
Graham has produced a carefully researched and insightful account that will help redress some of the neglect Sutherland suffered in life … perhaps due recognition has arrived.
Sydney Morning Herald
[Graham] details Margaret Sutherland’s fascinating life – her battles, defeats and victories, her music – in an impeccably researched and truly comprehensive biography of this remarkable woman.
Loretta Barnard, LoudMouth
Inner Song Media Coverage and Interviews
Flinders Quartet’s Zoe Knighton and Margaret Sutherland expert Dr Jillian Graham discuss the life and work of the matriarch of 20th century composition, FQ Discover, 21 August 2021.
Inner Song (Jillian Graham), Diana Simmonds, Limelight, 19 June 2023.
‘The forgotten female champion of a genuine Australian musical voice’, Barney Zwartz, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 2023.
‘Time to Even the Score’, Kathy Evans, The Age, 25 February 2023.
‘Soul Songs’, Jillian Graham, Weekend Australian, March 4-5, 2023.
‘Composition as calling: A notable activist and musician’, Kay Dreyfus, May 2023, no.453
Inner Song: A Biography of Margaret Sutherland. Jillian Graham, Loretta Barnard, Music Trust LoudMouth Review, 3 April 2023.
Jillian Graham. Inner Song: A Biography of Margaret Sutherland, Aidan McGartland, Context 49 (2023): 71–5.
Margaret Sutherland’s Inner Voice, the Music Show, ABC Radio National, 16 April 2023.
Jillian Graham is a writer, editor and researcher in Melbourne, currently focusing on the experiences of Australian women composers. Her PhD (University of Melbourne, 2009) is titled ‘Composing Biographies of Four Australian Women: Feminism, Motherhood and Music’. Her book, Inner Song: A Biography of Margaret Sutherland, was published by Melbourne University Publishing (Miegunyah Press) in 2023.
While researching and writing this biography, she was granted the Redmond Barry Fellowship (2018) and twice shortlisted for the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship. In 2024, following publication of Inner Song, she was awarded the Michael Crouch Prize for a Debut Work in the National Biography Award, and was highly commended for the Magarey Medal for Biography. She is now researching a biography of Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin.