Choral

Music for mixed choir and male choir, with and without instruments in response to words by Les Murray, David Malouf and Gwen Harwood, C.P. Cavafy, Sappho and St John of the Cross.

Please click work titles for more information and resources (audio, sheet music, program note etc.) about individual works in this category.

Red Dirt Hymns (2020 -)

Voices and instruments

This is a work in progress. Each song has words by a different Australian poet. Individual songs have different and variable instrumentation.

1. Gone (Jordie Albiston)
2. The New Summer (David McCooey)
3. Hymn of the Garden (John Kinsella)
4. dark cloud (Ellen van Neerven)
5. Isolation Hymn (Judith Bishop)
6. Rain Hymn (Judith Beveridge)
7. What Desire Knows (Sarah Holland-Batt)
8. Ultraviolet (Stephen Edgar)
9. Our Mother's Heart (Kate Fagan)
10. To Whom Do We Sing? (Mark Wakely)
11. My Octopus Teacher (Alison Flett)
12. Respair (Felicity Plunkett)
13. South Golden Beach (Lisa Brockwell)
14. Between Birds (Merlinda Bobis)

More Info

Christmas List (2018)

3 minutes

for SATB choir and organ

Text: David McCooey

Commissioned by the Arts Foundation of St George's Cathedral, Perth

First performance by the Choir of St George's Cathedral conducted by Perry Joyce, Joseph Nolan (organ), St George's Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia, 16 December 2018

More Info

Missa brevis (2015)

14 minutes

for SATB choir and organ

SATB (includes solos for all voices)

Commissioned by St John's Cathedral, Brisbane, St Stephen's Cathedral, Brisbane, St George's Cathedral, Perth, St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne and Father Arthur E Bridge for Ars Musica Australis

First performance by the Choir of St John's Cathedral, Brisbane, conducted by Graeme Morton, Andrej Kouznetsov (organ) St John's Cathedral, Brisbane, 13 December 2015

More Info

Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child (2015)

2 minutes

for six voices or six-part choir

Arrangement of American Spiritual

Text:

Traditional

for six voices: SSAATB or SSATBarB

First performance by Choir of St John's Cathedral conducted by Graeme Morton, St John's Cathedral, Brisbane, 13 December 2015

More Info

Waiting for the Barbarians (2011)

9 minutes

for SATB choir

Text: freely adapted by the composer from the poem by C.P. Cavafy

Commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

First performance by Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic Choir conducted by Graham Abbott,
St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta, NSW, 20 July 2012

More Info

Australian Aphorisms (2010-13)

14 minutes

for six solo voices

1. The Averted (Les Murray) - available separately

2. Death, an Ode (John Forbes)

3. At Night on the Beach (Judith Wright)

4. Sleep (David McCooey)

5. Spring (Maria Takolander)

6. The Highest Form of Love (Barbara Blackman)

7. Hear the Bird of Day (David Campbell) - available separately

Commissioned by Father Arthur E. Bridge for Ars Musica Australis, Barbara Blackman, The Song Company, Penny LeCouteur and Greg Dickson

First performance by the Song Company conducted by Roland Peelman, Canberra International Music festival, Albert Hall, Canberra, 17 May 2013

More Info

A Singing Quilt (2008)

20 minutes

for recorded voices, SATB choir and percussion

SATB choir, percussion ensemble and recorded voices

Commissioned by Wingecarribee Shire Council with financial assistance from the Regional Arts Fund, an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional and remote Australia

First performance by Combined Choirs of the Southern Highlands (drawn from the Berrima Singers, Highlandaires, Serendipity, Singing for Leisure, SHACappella, Southern Highlands Sing Australia, Southern Highlands Voices in Harmony, WENCHes), ANU DRUMatiX, conducted by Andrew Ford

More Info

Elegy in a Country Graveyard (2007)

25 minutes

for recorded voices and environmental sounds, SATB choir and ensemble

This is a version of the radiophonic piece, suitable for live performance.

'Chimney-sweepers' (Fear now more...) from Elegy in a Country Graveyard is available separately for SATB choir and voice and piano.

Commissioned by ABC Radio, funded by the NSW Ministry for the Arts in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

First performance by the Berry Court House Choir and the Southern Highlands Concert Band, Daryl Pratt (percussion), conducted by the composer, Kangaroo Valley Hall, Arts in the Valley Festival, Kangaroo Valley, NSW, 22 April 2007

More Info

Chimney-sweepers (2006)

4 minutes

for SATB choir

A version of this work is available for voice and piano. See also videos and resources about the radiophonic work Elegy in a Country Graveyard.

Text: from Act IV of Shakespeare's Cymbeline

First performance by the Gotlands Körförbunds Kör conducted by Ingvar Stagling, St Mary's Cathedral, Visby, Sweden, 27 September 2009

More Info

An die Musik (2005)

20 minutes

for unaccompanied chamber choir

Text: Poems by David Malouf, Thomas Shapcott and Gwen Harwood, together with folk poetry/songs from Malaysia, the Pueblo people of the south-west United States and the Finnish Kanteletar.

Chamber choir SSSSAATTBB (can be sung be 10 solo voices)

Commissioned by the Adelaide Chamber Singers with financial assistance from the Music Board of the Australia Council

First performance by Adelaide Chamber Singers conducted by Carl Crossin, St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide, 10 December 2005

More Info