FORGOTTEN AUSTRALIAN COMPOSERS
Florence Ewart Town Hall on 28th March, 1908 and she performed a number of times in Melbourne later that year. When she began to suffer from neuritis she decided to focus on composition, particularly on opera. Her first essay in that genre was the 4-act ‘Ekkehard’, the prologue of which was performed at Queen’s Hall in Melbourne on 3rd November, 1923 during a concert when a number of Florence’s songs were sung and her instrumental pieces (including an octet) played. She was accorded an enthusiastic reception.
Florence Ewart A century ago it was not uncommon for a man to marry a woman considerably younger than he. The other way around was rare, but this was the case when Florence Maud Donaldson wed Alfred James Ewart in England in 1898. He was more than 7 years her junior. Both would make substantial contributions to Australia, he in botany, she in music. They arrived in Melbourne with their 2 sons on 5th March 1906 after Alfred had gained employment as the foundation chair of botany at Melbourne University and subsequently as botanist for the Victorian government. Florence, born in London on 16th November, 1864 and a concert standard violinist who had had instruction in Europe from Joseph Joachim and Alfred Brodsky, was accepted readily onto the staff of the Albert Street Conservatorium.
On the domestic front things were turning out badly. Her husband was a very busy man and after missing a number of evening meals Florence stopped cooking for him and took to eating out herself. She was also prone to making indecorous remarks in social circles. Over time, the family lived in different residences but she found fault with all. Then a bigger problem arose, the maid that had served the household from 1910 (when Florence had the first of her trips to Europe) had married and given birth to a daughter in 1916 when Florence was again overseas. The maid died the following year and according to Florence her husband admitted to being the father of the child. She was adopted by the Ewart family against the wishes of her blood relatives.
Her input to Australian music was almost immediate: engaged as a conductor during the Women’s Exhibition in 1907 her ode ‘God Guide Australia’ was premiered on 23rd October by a women’s choir of some 1,300 voices conducted by the composer. That work and 3 others performed during the event earned her five monetary prizes.
After Florence planned another excursion to Europe in 1920 to study music, her husband obliged, fearful that her wayward tongue would expose him as the father of their maid’s child and that that would be sufficiently scandalous for him to lose his position at Melbourne University. It cost him: 800 pounds Australian from his 1,000 pound salary went towards the venture and even after selling the piano and obtaining a bank loan of 200 pounds he had to live frugally.
Playing her Guarnarius violin, Florence made her Australian debut at the Adelaide
Upon her return to Victoria in November, 1921 Florence ensconced herself in the
family holiday house at Healesville with her 2 sons and adopted daughter and insisted on a deed of separation. Her husband refused, but wrote asking for a divorce by mutual consent. Florence refused, and in the following year she relocated to East Melbourne with the boys but she was placed in a convent. In April 1924 Florence composed five ‘Bush Songs’ for voice and piano which were performed later that year twice in Melbourne and once in London. Then while her husband was overseas she delivered their adopted daughter to her guardians. Despite this upsetting him, when Florence travelled to Italy in October to study with Ottorino Respighi he paid her an allowance of 6 pounds per week. After being abroad for more than 4 years she learnt that her husband had petitioned for divorce on the grounds of desertion. She returned to Melbourne where the case was heard in the Civil Court during September, 1929. Her main defence that she had done nothing wrong and should not be subjected to divorce at her age did not stop her husband being granted a decree nisi, but through his solicitors he agreed to pay her court costs and an allowance of 5 pounds per week. Her composing was not affected as in 1930 she wrote a string quartet that was performed twice in Melbourne, and completed the 3-act opera ‘The Courtship of Miles Standish’ that was given a concert performance at the Melbourne University Conservatorium in May of the following year. Living in a cottage in the Dandenong ranges, Florence completed the operas ‘Matteo Falcone’ and ‘Nala Wooing’ in 1933, and in 1934 took her four operas to England hoping for performances. Nothing came of it. Undeterred, Florence returned to Melbourne and completed the opera ‘Pepita’s Miracle’ in November, 1945. But time was running out, and when she died in her home at South Yarra on 9th November, 1945 the unfinished opera ‘A Game of Chess’ was on her desk. - Stephen Pleskun March 2017
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