Music
While his teaching abilities were widely acknowledged, Hanson struggled to gain recognition for his talents as a composer for much of his career. He was fifty-four years old before receiving his first commission for a piece of music, and many of his works lay unperformed for decades. Part of the problem lay with his independence of mind. Hanson ignored prevailing trends in the pursuit of his own muse. In the 1940s and 1950s, his work was regarded by his Australian contemporaries as too avante-garde, but by the 1960s it was being dismissed as not avant-garde enough. Hanson's rejection of serialism, responsible for the latter dismissal, was ultimately vindicated by history, but this vindication came late in his career.
In 1971 he won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award.
Read more about this topic: Raymond Hanson (composer)
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