Professor Michael Hannan BA(Syd), DipMusComp(Syd), PhD(Syd) Michael Hannan (b. 1949) is a composer, performer and music researcher based in Nimbin in Northern New South Wales. He studied musicology at the University of Sydney and was awarded a PhD in 1979. In 1980 he undertook postgraduate studies in composition with Peter Sculthorpe, with whom he had also worked as an assistant from 1969-1971 and sporadically throughout the 1970s. In 1982 his critical biography Peter Sculthorpe: His Music and Ideas 1929-1979 was published by University of Queensland Press. The following year he received a Fulbright Postdoctoral Award which enabled him to work for a year in the Program in Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. While at UCLA Hannan also studied composition with Elaine Barkin. Michael Hannan has written over seventy works for concert hall, stage and screen, including experimental works and works involving improvisation. He issued a CD of his experimental piano interior works, Terrains, on Tall Poppies Records (2000) and he composed the music and many of the soundscapes for the Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA)’s major music theatre production, The Flood (2004). The main inspiration for Hannan’s work are the sounds of nature, particularly birdcalls, and he has written dozens of pieces, including the monumental Resonances I-IV (1987-1997), that employ transcriptions of the calls of the pied butcherbird and other Australian songbirds. As a composer Hannan is primarily interested in the complexities of natural sounds and complex combinations of instrumental timbres. Central to his creative practice is the notion of comprovisation, where musical materials improvised by him (or others under his direction) are then used to construct musical works using digital editing software. His creative practice extends to garden design and the creation of outdoor sonic environments. The three-acre garden he developed with his partner Sue Boardman is his largest work and has been featured in Australia’s Open Garden Scheme. Michael Hannan is Professor of Contemporary Music at Southern Cross University. He was a member of the Music Fund of the Australia Council from 1999 to 2002, and Chair of the Music Council of Australia from 2003 to 2004. and Chair of the ISME Commission for the Education of the Professional Musician from 2004 to 2006, and from 2008-2010. He is the author of The Australian Guide to Careers in Music (UNSW Press, 2003).
Journal articles
Books
Educating musicians for a lifetime of learning: Proceedings of the 17th International Seminar of the Commission for the Education of the Professional Musician (CEPROM), School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (2008)
Inside, outside, downside up : conservatoire training and musicians' work (with Dawn Bennett), School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (2008)
"Critical issues concerning conservatoire training and the ever-changing world of musicians' work, exploring key themes...
The Australian guide to careers in music, School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (2003)
This is a guide to careers in music, covering over 150 classifications that contribute to...
A concert for Peter Sculthorpe's sixtieth birthday : Kakadu, an introduction (with Brett Johnson), School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (1989)
Meet the music 1989. Teaching kit 1, Concert 1 : an introduction by Michael Hannan to Colin Bright's Earth spirit (with Brett Johnson), School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (1989)
Book chapters
Editorial: Proceedings of the 17th International Seminar of the Commission for the Education of the Professional Musician (CEPROM), Educating musicians for a lifetime of learning: Proceedings of the 17th International Seminar of the Commission for the Education of the Professional Musician (CEPROM) (2008)
Educating Australian screen composers, Inside, outside, downside up : conservatoire training and musicians' work / (2008)
Sound design in Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles : it was forty years ago today (2008)
Music journalism & Commissioned articles
Conference publications
Creativity and the prosumer, Interdisciplinary and Creative Arts Education Summit, Hong Kong Institute of Education (2008)
Unruly rules: guidelines for Australian practice-based doctorates in music, Proceedings, International Society for Music Education 28th World Conference (2008)
New models for educating professional musicians in the twenty-first century proceedings of the 16th International Seminar of the Commission for the Education of the Professional Musician (CEPROM) (with Dawn Bennett), School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (2007)
Interrogating comprovisation as practice-led research, Speculation and innovation : applying practice led research in the creative industries (2006)
In this paper the author describes his practice of comprovisation, the making of new compositions...
Bazza's bawdy ballads...and other aspects of Barry McKenzie film music (with Rebecca Coyle), Credits rilling: Selected papers: 12th Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association (2005)
Creative work
Beespeak : for trumpet and digital manipulation (with M Deacon and S Tinkler), School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (2004)
Music for The Flood, The Flood (2004)
Research Background: The Flood was a collaborative promenade music theatre work staged by the Northern...
The flood : for 6 actor/singers, choir, instrumental ensemble, percussion ensemble and movers, School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (2004)
Research Statement
Research Background: The Flood was a collaborative promenade music theatre work staged by...
Burning questions (radiophonic work), School of Arts and Social Sciences Papers (2002)
Research Background:
This work bridges a number of approaches to sound art and postmodern music:...