Atlantis Lost

Born May 28 1935, Derek Strahan's early childhood was spent in colonial Malaya until the age of five when he, his mother and sister were evacuated to Perth, Western Australia, just before Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942. (Strahan's memories of his "Perth years" motivated his later return to Australia). From 1946 he was based in Northern Ireland receiving education at Campbell College, Belfast and later at Cambridge University from which he graduated in 1956 (BA Cantab. Mod. Lang.) In Sydney, Australia, from 1962 he juggled commissions to write film scores with work as, variously, actor, teacher, film director, scriptwriter and singer/songwriter. He has scripted extensively for TV and film, including 5 years as contract writer for Australia’s first hit TV series “Number 96”. His film music has been heard internationally on over 30 Australian Film & TV documentaries and 3 feature films. Material from these sources is available on CD. During this period he also began writing concert music including numerous chamber works commissioned by distinguished Australian artists. These now range through chamber, solo instrumental, vocal to symphonic works, including his Clarinet Concerto, recently premiered by Alan Vivian at the Australian National University School of Music. Recordings of his works are frequently heard on national and fine music radio stations. Strahan does not subscribe to any particular school, style or set of musical dogmas. He is concerned to retain melodic lyricism, and to achieve harmonic liberation through a synthesis of melodic and metric polyphony. Musical material for various opera projects is being developed in smaller scale works, and work is in progress on libretti which Strahan is writing himself. They are being developed firstly as plays (from which libretti will be derived), along with other theater plays that are being published online through BookBaby. Strahan favours comedies and happily acknowledges the influence of 18th century Restoration drama, Moliere, GBShaw, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward and all writers who value satire and farce as vehicles for exploring the human condition. Three feature films have been produced from his scripts “Leonora” (1985), released on video, cable in US & Europe, and shown on Channel 9 in 1996; “Fantasy” (1990), released internationally on Columbia Tri-Star video, and “Inspector Shanahan Mysteries – Cult of Diana”(1992), shown on Channel 9 in 1996, also “Anatomy of Murder” in 2017. He directed “Leonora” and co-directed “Fantasy” with Geoffrey Brown for Combridge International, and also wrote music for these three features. His 1-Act play “Triple Six” was seen in a student production at Newcastle University in 1996. He has written a considerable body of music for film and concert performance much of which has been released on CD and is frequently broadcast. Theater plays are posted at BookBaby: “Eden In Atlantis” “Takeover” “Bullet-Proof Pyjamas” “Sodom and Tomorrow” “Preface to Meet The Fractals” “Meet The Fractals” “Pleroma” “Everything Else” “Poseidon In Atlantis” “Calypso In Exile” "Atlantis Lost".