Alfred Hill’s viola concerto: analysis, compositional style and performance aesthetic

Abstract

This thesis investigates Alfred Hill’s Concerto for Viola of 1940, showing through indepth analysis, performance and contextual understanding that this work presents a valuable contribution to both Australian music history and the wider viola concerti literature. This study has been undertaken to address some misconceptions regarding Hill and his musical output, a composer undermined posthumously because of a lack of musical and contextual understanding. This investigation has focused on Hill’s highly virtuosic viola concerto, a work evoking the great nineteenth-century concerti, a genre from which the viola was all but excluded. The thesis begins by placing this study within the relevant scholarship. Chapter two considers the effect of Hill’s Leipzig training and subsequent social contributions. Chapter three provides a brief overview of the concerto and Romantic musical ideas, followed by musical analyses in chapters four through six. Chapter seven presents some ideas regarding appropriate cadenza material and the final chapter contains a discussion and conclusions.