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Some of Andrew Ford's books are no longer available in bookshops. Contact Andrew directly to purchase a copy of Speaking in Tongues - the Songs of Van Morrison (AUD 25 + postage).
See also: the Books page.
Illegal Harmonies back in print
October 2011. Coinciding with the republication of Andrew Ford's book Illegal Harmonies by Black Inc., in a revised third edition, ABC Classic FM is currently rebroadcasting the original radio series each Sunday lunchtime until the end of November. First heard in 1997, the radio version of Illegal Harmonies consists of ten 90-minute episodes, each covering the music of one decade in the 20th century. The series can also be streamed from ABC Classic FM.
> Listen to episodes online
> Buy Illegal harmonies from Readings (Melbourne)
Andrew Ford's history of 20th century music, Illegal Harmonies, based on his celebrated radio series of the same name, has been republished in an updated, 3rd edition by Black Inc.
> Buy Illegal harmonies from Readings (Melbourne)
New book:
The Sound of Pictures
 November 2010. Andrew Ford's new book is The Sound of Pictures: Listening to the Movies, from Hitchcock to High Fidelity. Published on 22 November 2010 by Black Inc., the book looks at the ways directors have used music and other sounds in more than 400 films. How did Alfred Hitchcock use music to plant clues in his films? Why do some 'mix-tape' soundtracks work brilliantly and others fall flat? How do classics from A Clockwork Orange to The Godfather, Cinema Paradiso to High Noon, use music and sound effects to enhance what we see on screen?
In addition to Ford's own essays, there are his interviews with five composers Ennio Morricone, Richard Rodney Bennett, Dick Hyman, Lalo Schifrin and Howard Shore) and five directors (Bruce Beresford, Sally Potter, Wim Wenders, Peter Greenaway and Peter Weir).
> Buy The Sound of Pictures online from Readings, Melbourne
Premiere of Black Dyke
Band Commission
November 2010. The world-famous Black Dyke Band will give the first performance of Andrew Ford's The Rising at Manchester's annual Festival of Brass on 28 January 2011. Commissioned by Black Dyke, The Rising is Ford's first work for brass band and was inspired by the terrifying natural phenomenon of Australian bush fires.
The composer will attend the premiere at the Royal Northern College of Music, which will be conducted by Black Dyke's Principal Conductor and Director of Music, Dr Nicholas Childs. In March 2010, Andrew Ford visited Black Dyke's headquarters in Queensbury, West Yorkshire, to see the historic band room for himself. In rehearsal, the band still uses the original wooden music stands made for it 155 years ago.
> Read a program note of The Rising.
The Scattering of Light
for the University
of Queensland
November 2010. The climax of the Centenary celebrations of the University of Queensland will be the first performance of Andrew Ford's new piano quartet, The Scattering of Light. Commissioned by the University of Queensland in honour of its first hundred years, the 15-minute quartet was written especially for the University's new ensemble in residence. The Scattering of Light will be heard for the first time on December 10 at the University's Senate Dinner. Further (public) performances will follow in 2011.
> Read a program note of The Scattering of Light.
Oom, pa-pah!
The Waltz Book on CD
September 2010. Ian Munro's studio recording of The Waltz Book is finally available on CD (Tall Poppies TP209). The 60 one-minute waltzes were commissioned by Munro in 1998 and composed over the following four years. Some of the individual waltzes were premiered as soon as they were composed, but Munro gave the complete premiere of the work in Hobart in March 2003.
 Since then a dozen other pianists have taken up all or some of the work, playing it in Canada, Finland, Poland, the United States, the United Kingdom and throughout Australia.
The new recording, a tour de force, was made in Sydney at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place, and Tall Poppies have released the CD, together with a bonus data disc containing a video interview with the composer and PDFs of 10 of the waltzes for printing out and playing.
> Order this CD through the Australian Music Centre - scores of The Waltz Book, 10 easy waltzes from The Waltz Book and 10 more easy waltzes from The Waltz Book also available.
> Order this CD through Buywell
 Aimez-vous Brahms? Nine fantasies for piano trio
August 2010. Andrew Ford has always loved the music of Brahms, though he is aware that this is not necessarily a fashionable enthusiasm. His new piano trio, commissioned by Selby and Friends for TrioZ, is entitled Nine Fantasies about Brahms and is a sequence of speculative variations on themes from the German composer's D minor piano concerto.
The work receives its first performance on 4 September in Bowral, followed by five further performances in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide. See the news page for details.
Andrew Ford premieres
The Musical Child
 May 2010. Two new works will have their premieres on 20 May at the Australian National Academy of Music under the baton of its outgoing artistic director, Brett Dean. Rauha and The Musical Child were composed during Andrew Ford's residency at ANAM in 2009, and between them they employ all the musicians of the Academy. Rauha is scored for wind, brass, keyboards, percussion and double basses, The Musical Child for piano duet and string orchestra. The latter work, to a text by Cathryn Strickland, also involves a speaker (Ford himself in the premiere) who plays the role of William Crotch, the benighted child of the title. Crotch was an English contemporary of Beethoven and a musical prodigy, horribly exploited by his mother. In Ford and Strickland's piece, he is a 4-year-old boy in the body of a 72-year-old man. (Image: premiere performance at ANAM - click to enlarge.)
> Read program notes of The Musical Child and Rauha.
A Green Room Award
for Rembrandt's Wife
March 2010. Rembrandt's Wife has been named as the best new Australian opera of 2009 at the annual Green Room Awards in Melbourne on 15 March. The premiere season of Andrew Ford and Sue Smith's 75-minute work had already met with considerable critical acclaim. The first full commission by Victorian Opera, in April 2009 Rembrandt's Wife received five performances by the company under its music director, Richard Gill, bass-baritone Gary Rowley sing the role of Rembrandt van Rijn. Read reviews.
Read composer's note.
Read the libretto (pdf 111 KB) of Rembrandt's Wife by the award-winning TV writer Sue Smith (Bastard Boys, The Leaving of Liverpool, Brides of Christ). Read librettist's note.
Image: Roxane Hislop as Geertje Dircx in Rembrandt's Wife (Victorian Opera 2009).
 Tahu Rhodes and WASO
to premiere new work
with Tim Winton's words
January 2010. The gala opening concert of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra's 2010 season begins with the world premiere of a newly commissioned vocal piece by Andrew Ford.
A Dream of Drowning sets to music a passage from Tim Winton's latest novel, Breath. Composed especially for the baritone voice of Teddy Tahu Rhodes, the short piece is scored for the unusual combination of vibraphone, harmonium, celesta, harp and strings.The first two performances will be in the Perth Concert Hall on 12 and 13 March, and the WASO will be conducted by its principal conductor, Paul Daniel.
Read a program note and Tim Winton's text.
For more news, please see the News archive. |
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Performances 2011
January 14:
Domestic Advice, Tales of the Supernatural, Jane Edwards (soprano), Arabella Tenniswood-Harvey (piano), string quartet, Mona Foma Festival, Baha'i Centre, Hobart
January 28: world premiere
The Rising, The Black Dyke Band conducted by Nicholas Childs, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK
March 9: world premiere of complete work
Mondriaan, Janet McKay (flutes), Vanessa Tomlinson (perc), Nozomi Omote (perc), Liz John (perc), Ian Hanger Recital Hall, Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Brisbane
March 19:
Female Nude, Janet McKay (alto flute), Jugglers Art Space, Brisbane
March 27:
Sad Jigs, Sydney Symphony Fellows, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
April 6: world premiere
The Cloths of Heaven, RNCM Cornet Ensemble, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK
April 16:
Golden Slumbers, Aria Co, Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House, Sydney
June 21:
Sad Jigs, members of Sydney Symphony conducted by Fabian Russell, SSO Schools' Concert, City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
July 24:
'Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink' from Mondriaan, Tungsten Duo, Collins St Baptist Church, Melbourne
August 23:
The Furry Dance, Sydney Sinfonia conducted by Warwick Tyrrell, SSO Schools' Concert, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney
August 24:
The Furry Dance, Sydney Sinfonia conducted by Warwick Tyrrell, SSO Schools' Concert, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney
August 25:
The Furry Dance, Sydney Sinfonia conducted by Warwick Tyrrell, SSO Schools' Concert, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney
September 3:
The Waltz Book (excerpts), Sally Whitwell, Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
September 18
Getting Blue, Ensemble Offspring, ABC Classic FM Sunday Live, Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle, NSW
September 18:
Dark Side, Joan Wright (amplified double bass), Etica, Totally Huge New Music Festival, Studio Underground, State Theatre of Western Australia, Perth
October 5:
Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink, Genevieve Wilkins (gongs), Troy Bar, Hoxton, London, UK
October 13:
Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink, Genevieve Wilkins (gongs), Forge Arts Venue, Camden, London, UK
October 24,
The Art of Puffing, Sue Newsome (bass clarinet), Michael Duke (alto saxophone), Daryl Pratt (percussion), Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
October 25:
On Winter's Traces, members of the Sydney Symphony conducted by Nicholas Carter, SSO Schools' Concert, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney
October 26:
On Winter's Traces, members of the Sydney Symphony conducted by Nicholas Carter, SSO Schools' Concert, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney
October 27:
On Winter's Traces, members of the Sydney Symphony conducted by Nicholas Carter, SSO Schools' Concert, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney
October 30:
Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink, Genevieve Wilkins (gongs), soundsofmusic Festival, Groningen, Netherlands
November 6:
Three Shakespeare Songs, Margaret Schindler (soprano), Kevin Power (piano), State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
November 17:
Spinning, Jessica Hately, Melba Hall, Melbourne
November 23:
'Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink' from Mondriaan, Erica Tucceri (bass flute), Matthew Horsley (drums), Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank, Melbourne
Performances 2012
January 21:
Broadway Boogie-Woogie, Philip Eames (piano), Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK
February 23:
The Tears of Geertje Dircx, Ashley William Smith, Gleb Kanasevich (clarinets), Sudler Hall, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
March 8:
Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink, Genevieve Wilkins (gongs), Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK
July 20: world premiere
Waiting for the Barbarians, Sydney Philharmonia Symphony Chorus conducted by Graham Abbott, St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta, NSW
July 21:
Waiting for the Barbarians, Sydney Philharmonia Symphony Chorus conducted by Graham Abbott, St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
August 18: world premiere
Blitz, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Marko Letonja, Federation Concert Hall, Hobart
September 5:
The Spirit of the Staircase, Seraphim Trio, Art Gallery, Ballarat, Victoria
September 6:
The Spirit of the Staircase, Seraphim Trio, Elder Hall, Adelaide
September 9:
The Spirit of the Staircase, Seraphim Trio, Independent Theatre, Sydney
September 10:
The Spirit of the Staircase, Seraphim Trio, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne
September 17: world premiere
You Must Sleep, But I Must Dance, Roger Benedict (viola), Daryl Pratt (percussion), Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
September 20:
An die Musik. Consort of Melbourne conducted by Peter Tregear, Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne
November 4:
The Scattering of Light, Sonus, Independent Theatre, Sydney
November 14:
Getting Blue, Ensemble Offspring, City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
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