Jack Body (1944–2015), composer, ethnomusicologist, teacher, music publisher, record producer and photographer, born in Te Aroha and educated in New Zealand and Europe. Following an overland journey in 1971, Body became fascinated with Asian music. His subsequent absorption of musical styles from outside the Western classical tradition gave him the reputation of a composer who has greatly extended the resources of contemporary New Zealand music.
Body studied at Auckland University (1963-67), and subsequently attended the Ferien Kurse für Neue Musik, Cologne, and the Institute of Sonology, Utrecht, (1969/70). From 1976-77 he was a guest lecturer at the Akademi Musik Indonesia, Yogyakarta, and since 1980 he has lectured at the School of Music, Victoria University of Wellington.
His music includes works in a wide variety of genres, including solo and chamber music, orchestral music, music theatre, music for dance and film as well as electro-acoustic music. The music and cultures of Asia, particularly Indonesia, were a strong influence on his music. He was a specialist in cross-cultural composition, in his own music as well as in his teaching. At Victoria University of Wellington he established a residency for traditional musicians to work collaboratively with composition staff and students. In his own compositions he integrated other musical cultures, as in Campur Sari for Javanese musician and string quartet, and Waiata Wahine for Maori vocalist and orchestra. Body also worked in experimental photography and computer-controlled sound-image installations, and received commissions from several public galleries.
Body’s works have been played widely, by such ensembles as Lontano, the Kronos Quartet, the New Zealand String Quartet, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His opera Alley premiered to wide acclaim at the 1998 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. In 2003 he was a featured composer at the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco. In June 2004 the Altas Ensemble, Ensemble-in-Residence at the Holland Festival, premiered his commissioned work for Western and non-Western instruments with traditional Javanese musician Budi Putra as vocal soloist.
As a promoter of New Zealand music, Body organised a series of Sonic Circuses, 12-hour simultaneous multi-venue music marathons featuring New Zealand music. In 2002 he curated a five-concert festival of New Zealand music at the Ijsbreker in Amsterdam. He was also the director of Wai-te-ata Music Press, which publishes scores of New Zealand music, and compiled and edited a number of recordings of New Zealand music.
Body was Artistic Director for the Asia-Pacific Festivals and Conferences in 1984 and 1992, 10-day events that juxtaposed traditional and contemporary music of New Zealand and its neighbours. He traveled widely in Asia, particularly to Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea, Japan, and China, and was actively involved in the Asian Composers League. He was the guest of numerous music festivals in Asia and arranged visits to New Zealand by leading Asian composers such as Yuji Takahashi, Tan Dun, Qu Xiao-Song, and Chinary Ung. In 2011 Body embarked on a project to commission new works from New Zealand and Chinese composers for the traditional Chinese instruments of the Forbidden City Orchestra, in joint force with the New Zealand String Quartet. These works were premiered in Beijing in December 2013 with subsequent performances in Auckland and Wellington in March 2014.
After a long battle with cancer, Body died 10 May 2015 in Mary Potter Hospice, Wellington, the day after his meditation on mortality Cries: A Border Town received its Australian premiere at the 2015 Canberra International Music Festival.
In 1985 Body received the Composers Association of New Zealand Citation for Services to New Zealand music, and he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2001 New Year’s Honours. In 2015 he was named a New Zealand Arts Icon, the highest award given by the New Zealand Arts Foundation and the first composer to be so honoured.
Photo credit: Gareth Watkins
