Michael Atherton

‘A Sydney Calendar’ highlights the life of Sydney as the months pass by, and seasons

change. During the year, we celebrate events such as Anzac Day, and ‘Vivid’ — a festival of light and sound. ‘Sonifications’ reflects the life of a career musician who travelled the world, learned diverse musical instruments, and enjoyed multicultural collaborations. There is, for

me, an intriguing overlap between the sounds of nature and the sounds of culture. Poems of a Single Breath comprises the four elements, Earth, Water, Air and Fire, with the addition of Metal and Seasons. It follows a seventeenth-century practice exemplified by Basho in adhering to three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables haiku images go a step further by joining images and text using photos captured with a camera and an iPhone. They complement each other emphasising nature and the built environment.

A Coveted Possession, the rise and fall of the piano in Australia (2018), Black Inc/Latrobe examined the piano as an autobiographical object with a hitherto unspoken role in Australian life between 1890-1945. Before electricity brought us the gramophone, the radio and eventually TV, the piano was central to family and community life in colonial Australia. The book is a multi-stranded cultural history that reveals the material, social and political worlds in which the ivories were tinkled; the values embodied by this instrument and the way it came to fulfil powerful educational, social, and spiritual purposes.

In Exile from Saint Petersburg (2017), Brandl & Schlesinger, follows the life of a man who survived pogroms, incarceration, and exile, but never faltered in his desire to publish works that would enrich culture and society.  From his son Anatol’s reading of the printer’s proofs of Trotsky’s The History of the Russian Revolution and encouraging his father to recall his memories, to Michael Atherton’s scholarship in bringing the biography to the public, In Exile from St Petersburg, engages the reader in the fascinating yet hitherto unknown journey of Abram Saulovich Kagan.

The material culture of music in Australia began with the production of music and sound instruments by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, added to since European occupation and settlement. New musical tools have entered the soundscape. Instrument making is a complex zone of activity shaped by a range of social and cultural considerations. This book is the first to offer an illustrated social history describing the range of instruments made and played in Australia

This book is in four sections on the regions of Oceania: Indigenous Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Introductory essays and high-quality photographs reveal the treasures of the Australian Museum’s collection. 

Music of the Spirit - Asian-Pacific Musical Identity 

The book consists of 18 refereed papers by prominent composers, artists, and academics. The collection was edited by Bruce Crossman and Michael Atherton of the University of Western Sydney. The subjects of individual essays range from the use of Asian-Pacific musics in composition in the primary school classroom, to reinterpreting shakuhachi traditions in a contemporary music context. There are also many analytical articles focusing on specific works by Australian composers, including Ross Edwards, Clare Maclean and Andrián Pertout, as well as texts written from a performer's perspective.