Dulcie Holland facts for kids

Dulcie Sybil Holland AM (January 5, 1913 – May 21, 2000) was a talented Australian composer and music teacher. She is well known for helping to shape music education in Australia. Dulcie worked closely with the Australian Music Examinations Board. Recently, more people have started to recognize her as an important composer. Many now see her as one of the most significant Australian composers of her time.

Learning Music

Dulcie Holland was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1913. She started learning to play the piano when she was six years old. She went to Shirley School for Girls, which was known for its strong academics. In 1929, she joined the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. This school is now called the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Studying at the Conservatorium

At the Conservatorium, Dulcie studied piano with Grace Middenway and Frank Hutchens. She learned cello from Gladstone Bell. She also studied how to write music, called composition, with Roy Agnew and Alfred Hill. By 1933, she had earned two important music diplomas.

Studying in London

In 1936, Dulcie traveled to London to study composition. She attended the Royal College of Music. Her teacher there was John Ireland. After her first year, she won a special award called the Blumenthal Scholarship. This award allowed her to study for three more years. The next year, she won the Cobbett Prize for chamber music. This is music for a small group of instruments. However, when World War II started in 1939, she decided to return to Australia.

Later Studies

Several years after the war, in 1951, Dulcie went back to the United Kingdom for a year. She studied a modern music style called serialism with Mátyás Seiber.

Her Career

After returning to Australia in 1939, Dulcie started her career. She performed music and wrote her own compositions. In 1940, she married Alan Bellhouse, an Australian conductor. They had two children together.

Writing and Composing

During the 1940s, while raising her children and composing, she also wrote children's books. She used her married name, Dulcie Bellhouse, for these books. She also began writing music for the North Shore Symphony Orchestra. Her husband founded and conducted this orchestra. She worked with them for 25 years.

Film Music

In the 1950s, Dulcie was asked to write music for documentary films. These films were made by the Department of the Interior. They showed Australian life to new people moving to the country. Dulcie wrote the music for forty of these films.

Music Education

In 1967, Dulcie joined the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB). She worked there as an examiner. During her many years with AMEB, she wrote lots of music studies and pieces for students. These were for students at all different skill levels. She also wrote many music theory books. Because of this, her name became well-known in thousands of Australian homes. Her educational writings made her Australia's most famous music author.

After Retirement

Dulcie retired from AMEB in 1983. She kept composing music. However, she chose to focus more on writing music textbooks. She believed that "making new converts to music" was more important. This meant helping more people discover and love music.

Awards and Honors

In 1977, Dulcie was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). This is a high honor in Australia. In 1993, she received an honorary Doctorate of Letters (D.Litt.) from Macquarie University. She shared this honor with Miriam Hyde, another famous musician.

Her Music

Over her seventy-year career, Dulcie Holland created a large amount of serious music. This was different from her educational pieces. Her works include pieces for orchestras, songs for singers and choirs, and many chamber music pieces. These chamber pieces used different combinations of instruments. She also wrote many pieces for piano and other solo instruments. She composed in both modern and classical styles.

Music Style

People have described Dulcie Holland's music as "less conservative and more appealing." This means it was more fresh and interesting than many other composers of her time. Her music is usually "melodic, optimistic and sunny." Even her sadder pieces are "reflective and lyrical." She used interesting key changes and different scales in her music. Overall, her music shows a "sense of balance, of confidence, of individuality and of formal structure."

Important Works

Dulcie Holland wrote a symphony and a string quartet. Her Piano Sonata has been called a very important work in Australian music. Her 1944 Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano is described as "one of the greatest treasures of Australian music." It's interesting that this trio was not performed in public until 1991. That was 47 years after she first wrote it! This shows how hard it was for her to get recognition as a serious composer for much of her life.

New Interest in Her Work

Recently, there has been a new wave of interest in Dulcie Holland's life and music. In June 2020, Dr Rita Crews and Dr Jeanell Carrigan published the first full book about Dulcie's life. This book included a complete list of all her musical works. At the same time, an album of Dulcie's music called In Tribute was released. Jeanell Carrigan played the piano on this album. Goetz Richter played the violin, and Dr Minah Choe played the cello.

In June 2021, Australian pianist Ronan Apcar released his first album, Dulcie Holland Crescent. He created this album after doing research at the ANU School of Music. This album included some of Dulcie's pieces that had never been released before. It also had pieces that were not available for sale commercially.

Awards

• ABC/APRA awards, 1933, 1944, 1951, 1955
• ANZAC Festival Awards, 1954, 1955, 1956
• General Motors Theatre Award, 1963
• Henry Lawson Award, 1965
• Member of the Order of Australia, 1977
• Honorary D.Litt. from Macquarie University, 1993
• AMEB Fellowship in Music, 1994