Elsie Hamilton, pioneer of JI

In Partch's Genesis of a Music there is extensive reference to a book by
Kathleen Schlesinger, an Irish ethnomusicologist whose book on ancient Greek
and other tunings The Greek Aulos describes a system which uses the 13 limit
(beyond the 11 limit of Partch) in Utonalities only (unlike Partch's mix of
Otonalities and Utonalities). In the Appendix of her book, Schlesinger talks
about the work of Elsie Hamilton, an Australian woman from Adelaide, as the
first composer to take up and use Schlesinger's version of the Greek modes
in 1916. The book mentions concerts in London in 1917 and 1918 and
tantalisingly quotes a few bars from pieces by Hamilton which demonstrate a
sense of harmonic progression that is both challenging and satisfying. And
that was all we had, just a few scraps from a composer whose conversion to
Just Intonation predates Partch's celebrated bonfire of old scores by almost
fifteen years.

Then just before Christmas, inspired by an interchange of messages with John
Chalmers, I decided to follow a lead to track down this lady's music. You
see Kathleen Schlesinger and Elsie Hamilton were both Anthroposophists, that
is they followed the teachings of one Dr Rudolf Steiner, who to put it
simply took the mystical revival of the Theosophical Movement of Mme
Blavatsky with its vision of a new age, grounded that vision with a good
admixture of the scientific theories of Goethe and set up schools and
curative institutions in Europe and later all over the world. Integral to
his worldview was the place of art and music.

Eventually I got in contact with the Woods, a couple in their eighties who
had taught at a Steiner School in Gloucestershire in the late forties and
early fifties and Mrs Wood had played lyre in an ensemble that had been led
by Elsie Hamilton. She had scores of short pieces in JI by Hamilton and a
booklet by Hamilton which summarises Schlesinger's system and describes her
own application of it to contemporary music making.

Last Thursday (Feb 20th) I went over to Gloucestershire with a colleague of
mine, fellow composer and alternative tunist James D'Angelo to meet the
Woods in their stone built cottage in the Cotswold Hills (real
picture-postcard-esque). As well as giving us photocopies of the scores and
articles, they also showed us a monochord marked in the Harmoniai
(Schlesinger's Greek modes)and Mrs Wood got us to tune her lyre for her to
play a short study by Elsie Hamilton in JI. We didn't tune it right and the
piece didn't come off too well but next time we go back we'll do it better
with the intention of making a recording. They were so pleased to hear that
there was interest in Elsie Hamilton's work after all this time.(I mentioned
the Internet and interest from people in the US and all over the world).

>From what I was told, Elsie Hamilton went back to Australia in the fifties
and presumably died there. If there are any tuning list members in Australia
who would like to help with tracking down scores, information etc could they
please get in touch so that we can co-ordinate efforts. We've also got a
lead on other scores of hers in Switzerland. If there is sufficient interest
we will try to arrange publication and maybe performances of the work of
this pioneer of JI.

Brian Lee


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