George
Marshall-Hall ranks high on any list of University of Melbourne professors
who have attracted controversy.
When he arrived in Melbourne in 1891 to take up the newly endowed Ormond
Chair of Music, Marshall-Hall had already composed several operas, published
articles in English music journals and worked as an organist and choirmaster.
The year after his arrival, he founded the Marshall-Hall Orchestra,
meeting its expenses himself until 1902 as well as paying the rent for
the Melbourne University Conservatorium until 1905.
The Marshall-Hall Orchestra was generally recognised to be as good
as many European orchestras, and in 1908 funding was taken over by the
Permanent Orchestra Trust Fund, under the patronage of Lady Northcote.
The socialist and atheist Marshall-Hall soon became friendly with the
Heidelberg artists: not perhaps what turn-of-the-century Melbourne expected
of a professor. In 1898 he was attacked by the Argus, which accused
him of immorality and anti-clericalism and suggested that women students,
in particular, were not safe with him. Petitions and demonstrations
followed, with Dr Leeper of Trinity College leading the charge against
him and Lionel and Norman Lindsay mounting a spirited defence in the
journal Outpost.
In 1900 he lost his appointment but, since he was the lessee of the
Conservatorium, he continued to teach. The University set up a rival
teaching program. The Marshall-Hall Orchestra became unfinancial, however,
and last performed in 1912. The Ormond Chair of Music again fell vacant
in 1914 and, despite controversy, Marshall-Hall was offered the position
in January 1915.
In July of the same year, however, he died suddenly of appendicitis.
His manuscripts were acquired by Percy Grainger for his Museum. His
compositions, which were nearly all performed during his lifetime, have
been revived by Richard Divall and recorded by the ABC.
His influence on his contemporaries, musically and in relation to issues
of free thought and free speech, was considerable.
