Andrew Ford

Composer, Writer & Broadcaster

Home / Compositions / Vocal

Vocal

Andrew Ford’s vocal works are among his best known, and several of them have won awards, notably Learning to Howl, which won the prestigious Paul Lowin Prize in 2004.

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. Between Birds (Merlinda Bobis)
11. To Whom Do We Sing? (Mark Wakely)
12. This Is to You (Philip Harvey)
13. Respair (Felicity Plunkett)
14. My Octopus Teacher (Alison Flett)
15. Waiting for the Clouds (Martha Marlow)
16. Syreeni (Maria Takolander)
17. South Golden Beach (Lisa Brockwell)

* Commissioned by Kim Williams
+ Commissioned by Opera Queensland for its Young Artists Program

More Info

Nature (2019)

23 minutes
for mezzo-soprano and ensemble

Text: poems by Jen Hadfield, R.S. Thomas, Robert Adamson, Maria Takolander, Tomas Tranströmer, Robin Robertson, Maija Konttinen, Edward Thomas and W.B. Yeats

flute (= piccolo), percussion (tabla, crotales, wind chimes and temple block), guitar and cello

N.B. the percussion part is written for an improvising tabla player, though it can be played on other hand drums

Commissioned for Halcyon (Sydney), Haga Duo with Karin Lovelius and Suranjana Ghosh (Stockholm), Lina Andonovska and Crash Ensemble (Dublin) and Elisabeth Holmertz and Poul Høxbro (Oslo), with financial assistance from the Australia Council of the Arts, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body.

First performance by Karin Lovelius (mezzo-soprano), Sareidah Hildebrand (flute), Suranjana Ghosh (percussion), Joakim Lundström (guitar), Mattias Rodrick (cello), Norrtullskyrkan, Söderhamn, Sweden, 5 September 2019

More Info

No One Could Relax around Jezebel (2017)

14 minutes
for soprano and percussion

Text: Anne Carson

soprano, metal percussion

Commissioned by Julian Burnside AO QC for Jane Sheldon and Claire Edwardes

First performance by Jane Sheldon and Claire Edwardes, Port Fair Spring Music Festival, Reardon Theatre, Port Fairy, 13 October 2018

More Info

Comeclose and Sleepnow: six Liverpool love songs (2016)

27 minutes
for singer and 14 instruments

Text: poems by Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and Roger McGough

  1. Evening Song (Henri) - 2. Her Song (Patten) - 3. Comeclose and Sleepnow (McGough) - 4. Dial a Poem (Henri) - 5. Sometimes It Happens (Patten) - 6. Aubade (Henri)

flute (= piccolo), clarinet in B flat, bass clarinet, alto sax, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, vibes, drum kit, piano, electric guitar, violin, double bass

Commissioned by the Monash Art Ensemble

First performance by Gian Slater, Monash Art Ensemble directed by Paul Grabowsky (piano), Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, Melbourne, 13 October 2017

More Info

In transit (2014-16)

15 minutes
for piano and speaker

Text: Andrew Ford

Commissioned by Ian Munro, Roy Howat, Joel Sachs and Aura Go, with the support of a project grant from the Music Funds of the Australia Council for the Arts

First performance by Ian Munro (piano), Andrew Ford (speaker), Arts in the Valley Festival, Kangaroo Valley, NSW, 6 May 2017

More Info

A Pitch Dark Night (2014)

4 minutes
for baritone, piccolo, trumpet and piano

Text: Arthur Taylor, from his Gallipoli diary

First performance by David Greco (baritone), David Shaw (piccolo), Leanne Sullivan (trumpet), James Huntingford (piano), conducted by Roland Peelman, Canberra International Music Festival, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 8 May 2015

More Info

After the Visitors (2014)

3 minutes
for mezzo-soprano and string quartet

Text: poem by Judith Wright

Commissioned by Katie Noonan with financial assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts

First performance by Katie Noonan and the Brodsky Quartet, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, 28 April 2016

More Info

To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship (2013)

3 minutes
for soprano, mezzo-soprano, bass clarinet and vibraphone

Text:

poem by Katherine Philips

First performance by Halcyon (Alison Morgan, Jenny Duck Chong, Diana Springford, Joshua Hill), Sculpture Garden, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 23 October 2013

More Info