Andrew Ford

Composer, Writer & Broadcaster

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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.

Six Medieval Women (2025)

23 minutes
for speaker, women's voices, bells and tam-tams

Text: Hildegard of Bingen; Trota of Salerno; Anna of Rome (aka Anna the Hebrew); Alysoun, the Wife of Bath (Chaucer); Margery Kempe; and Julian of Norwich

The womens's choir divides, at one point, into four parts, but is more commonly in two or three parts or unison

Percussion requirements:

2 tam-tams, large and small

Bells: any combination of handbells, bell plates, tubular bells, vibraphone, crotales, glockenspiel

Commissioned by Melbourne Women's Choir, JESSA, Aurora and Sonus Angelorum, with generous financial support from the Graeme Wood Foundation, Ken and Liz Neilsen, Trish Richardson (in memory of Andy Lloyd James) and Joel Roast.

First performance by Melbourne Women’s Choir conducted by Sharon Batterham, Jaz Hosken (actor), percussion ensemble directed by May Gavin, Southern Community Church of Christ, Cheltenham, Melbourne, 13 September 2026

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I Sing the Birth (2024)

26 minutes
for treble voices and electric guitar

Text: Ben Jonson, Lancelot Andrewes, Christina Rossetti, Wendy Cope, William Dunbar, Robert Southwell, Anon. (Selden Carol Book), Mark Tredinnick, Judith Nangala Crispin and Thomas Hardy

Commissioned by Luminescence Children's Choir, the Flanders Boys' Choir, Aquinas College Schola Cantorum and the Estonian TV Girls' Choir, with support from Helen Moore and the APRA-AMCOS Art Music Fund.

First performance by Aquinas College Schola Cantorum conducted by Hugh Lydon, Aaron Powell (electric guitar), Callaway Music Auditorium, University of Western Australia, Perth, 1 December 2024

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Magnificat & Nunc dimittis (2022)

7 minutes
for SATB choir and organ

Commissioned by St John's Cathedral, Brisbane; St David's Cathedral, Hobart; Arts Foundation of St George's Cathedral, Perth; Christ Church North Adelaide; Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney; Trinity College, Melbourne

Simultaneous first performances on 3 July 2022 by:

The Cathedral Singers conducted by Graeme Morton, Andrej Kouznetsov (organ), St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane; St David’s Cathedral Choir conducted by Thomas Rimes, Peter Warren (organ), St David’s Cathedral, Hobart; Christ Church Choir conducted by Georgia Simmons, Andrew Georg (organ), Christ Church, North Adelaide

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Lullay, my liking (2021)

4 minutes
for SATB choir

Text: Anon. 15th-century English

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

First performance by Choir of St George's Cathedral conducted by Joseph Nolan, St George's Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia, 19 December 2021

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Red Dirt Hymns (2020–24)

approximately 80 minutes
for voices and instruments

Each of these twenty songs has words by a different Australian poet. Individual songs have different and variable instrumentation.

  1. 1. Gone (Jordie Albiston)
  2. 2. The New Summer (David McCooey)
  3. 3. Hymn of the Garden (John Kinsella)
  4. 4. dark cloud (Ellen van Neerven)
  5. 5. Isolation Hymn (Judith Bishop) *
  6. 6. Rain Hymn (Judith Beveridge)
  7. 7. What Desire Knows (Sarah Holland-Batt) +
  8. 8. Ultraviolet (Stephen Edgar) *
  9. 9. Our Mother's Heart (Kate Fagan)
  10. 10. Between Birds (Merlinda Bobis)
  11. 11. To Whom Do We Sing? (Mark Wakely)
  12. 12. Respair (Felicity Plunkett)
  13. 13. This Is to You (Philip Harvey)
  14. 14. The Shape of a Vase (Erik Jensen)
  15. 15. Stand and Weep (Jill Jones) #
  16. 16. Syreeni (Maria Takolander) ##
  17. 17. Looking for Corners (Melanie Horsnell)
  18. 18. Waiting for the Clouds (Martha Marlow)
  19. 19. My Octopus Teacher (Alison Flett) ##
  20. 20. South Golden Beach (Lisa Brockwell)

* Commissioned by Kim Williams AM + Commissioned by Opera Queensland for its Young Artists Program # Commissioned by Evergreen Ensemble ## Commissioned by Luminescence Chamber Singers

Individual songs have been sung by the likes of Gian Slater, Robyn Archer, Lotte Betts-Dean with Sean Shibe and Joseph Havlat, Jess Hitchcock, Jenny Duck-Chong with Halcyon, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Michelle Nicolle, Jenny M. Thomas with Bush Gothic, Thursday's Child with Evergreen Ensemble, the Chapel Choir of Glasgow University, the Young Artists of Opera Queensland, jazz students of Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, and Luminescence Chamber Singers

First performance of Red Dirt Hymns en masse by Luminescence Chamber Singers, Hilary Geddes (electric guitar), Freya Schack-Arnott (cello), directed by Roland Peelman, Canberra International Music Festival, Gandel Atrium, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2 May 2024

First complete performance of Red Dirt Hymns by Opera Queensland with vocal and instrumental students of the Jazz Program, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, music director Steve Newcomb, director Patrick Nolan, Opera Queensland Studio, Brisbane, 2 May 2026

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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

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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

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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 

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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

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

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