Martin Lodge was theAssociate Professor and Head of Composition Studies at the University of Waikato Conservatorium of Music in Hamilton, New Zealand. Known for his eclectic and individual style, Lodge’s music is imbued with the sounds of nature, traditional Māori instrumental sounds, rock music, computers, and the Western classical mainstream.
Born in Tauranga, New Zealand, Lodge earned a MA in English Literature from the University of Waikato before moving to study at Victoria University of Wellington, where he earned a MMus in composition under Douglas Lilburn and David Farquhar. He later earned a PhD in composition from the Sydney Conservatorium at the University of Sydney.
Three main sources of inspiration and influence can be heard converging in Lodge’s music: the sounds of nature, canonic works from the Western classical music repertoire, and some twentieth century popular music. An early example of this is his Symphony Flowers of the Sea (1994), which synthesises elements of Maori haka, Romantic cantilena melody, and a dissonant Bach chorale in the alchemical crucible of a single movement symphonic structure for large orchestra. A long friendship with Richard Nunns, who is an exponent of taonga puoro (traditional Maori instruments), led to Lodge being one of the first composers (along with Gillian Whitehead) to bring the contrasting instruments and styles of taonga puoro and Western classical music together, as found in Lodge’s works Toru (2003), Hau (2005), and Oíche ghelai (2009).
Lodge typically complements rhythmic drive with carefully conjured colour. He is especially interested in links across chasms of time and place, and how music as a public or shared event can so acutely reflect the interior landscapes of many people. He has begun to explore ways of integrating real-time computer manipulations of sound in performance situations that still retain the human interest and drama of live players.
Much of Lodge’s music has been written specifically for his friends and colleagues. It has often been the personalities and playing styles of these performers that have inspired the works, such as violist Timothy Deighton with Pacific Rock (1999), organist Christopher Hainsworth with Plenum (2004), and harpsichordist Rachael Griffiths-Hughes with Voices Within (2011).
