Esther Rofe

Esther Rofe (14 March 1904^[1] – 26 February 2000^[2]) was an Australian musician and composer.

Esther Rofe in 1941

Biography

Esther Rofe was born in 1904 in Melbourne,^[3] Australia.

Rofe studied piano with Harold C. Smith and Ada Freeman^[3] and violin with Alberto Zelman, Jr.^[3] Rofe studied composition with Fritz Hart and A.E. Floyd.^[3]

At age 13, Rofe appeared with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She entered the Royal College of Music in London and studied with Gordon Jacob, Ralph Vaughan Williams and R.O. Morris.^[4]

During World War II Rofe worked at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), and the Colgate-Palmolive Radio Unit in Sydney where she began arranging and composing music. Rofe began composing for ballet in 1943.

The Esther Rofe Songbook was published in Melbourne in December 1999.^[5]

Rofe and her sister Edith moved to Southport where Rofe lived and worked for twenty years by the sea.

Rofe never married, but fostered a child, Carden James Rofe. Carden had two sons – Hamer Rofe and Malcolm Rofe.

Rofe died in 26 February 2000^[3] and Hamer Rofe & his ex-wife Cathy Rofe, Malcolm Rofe and his wife Christina Rofe scattered her ashes in the Lune River in Southport Bay.^[6]

The Esther Rofe Award was established in her honor at the University of Melbourne in Australia.^[7][8]

Honors and awards

• 1993 Composer-of-Honour in the School of Music Conservatorium at Monash University.
• 1998 Australia Day Citizen of the Year award from the City of Boroondara
• 1998 Became a represented composer at the Australian Music Centre (AMC).

Compositions (incomplete list)

Piano solo

• Choral Prelude II (1927)^[9]
• Echo de Vienne^[9]
• Fugue in Four Voices^[9]
• Für Else (1989)^[9]
• Jester (1962)^[9]
• Londonderry Air^[9]
• Miniature variations (1927)^[9]
• Miniature variations on a theme in A minor (1927)^[9]
• The Island (1938)^[9]
• Pierrette at court (1938)^[9]
• Pro-tem suite (1937) - for one hand^[9]
• Three Part Invention (1927)^[9]

Vocal music (solo with piano)

• Curtain^[9]
• Dinah's song (1987) – words by Tom Rothfield^[9]
• Five songs of Walter de la Mare (1940) – words by Walter de la Mare^[9]
• Somebody ask: a spiritual for the 1990's (1998) – words by Tom Rothfield^[9]
• Tired Man (1935) – words by Anna Wickam^[9]
• Two songs of William Blake (1936) – words by William Blake^[9]
• Winds of Change (1976)^[9]

Chamber music

• Duet for two pipes - two woodwinds^[9]
• A Lament (1924) - flute with piano^[9]
• Scherzo (1929) - flute with piano^[9]
• Simple string pieces (with Margaret Sutherland) – string quartet^[9]
• Tune for three pipes – three woodwinds^[9]

Ballet

• Sea Legend (1943) ballet choreographed by Dorothy Stevenson
• Terra Australis (1946) ballet choreographed by Edouard Borovansky
• L’Amour enchantee (1950) ballet choreographed by Laurel Martyn^[10]
• Mathinna (1954) ballet choreographed by Laurel Martyn
• The Lake (1962) rework of L’Amour enchantee for television

Opera and operetta

• Mogarzea (1926) fairy operetta