Composer, Writer & Broadcaster
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.
Text: Cathryn Strickland (libretto)
Commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music
First performance by Andrew Ford (speaker), Orchestra of Australian National Academy of Music conducted by Brett Dean, ANAM, South Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne, 20 May 2010
The first song in the song cycle The Drowners.
Text:
Tim Winton (from his novel Breath)
Commissioned by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra
First performance by Teddy Tahu Rhodes and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel, Perth Concert Hall, 12 March 2010
Text: poem by Thomas Dekker
First performance by Iva Bittová and Lisa Moore, Canberra International Music Festival, Street Theatre, Canberra, 16 May 2008
Text: from the Book of Proverbs, Kanteletar and the Girl's Own Annual (1919)
Commissioned by Jane Edwards with funds provided by a composer fellowship from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts
First performance by Jane Edwards (soprano) and David Miller (piano), Manly Council Chambers, Sydney, 14 September 2008
1. Orpheus with his Lute (Henry VIII)
2. Chimney-sweepers (Cymbeline)
3. Winter Song (Love's Labours Lost)
Text: William Shakespeare
Nos 1 and 3 commissioned by the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. No 2 commissioned by the Kangaroo Valley Arts Festival (Arts in the Valley) with funds from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts.
First performance by Margaret Schindler and Kevin Power Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Ballroom, Jupiter's Casino, Townsville, Queensland, 7 August 2009.
oboe (= cor anglais), clarinet (= bass clarinet), bassoon, horn and piano
Commissioned by Southern Cross Soloists with funding from a composer fellowship from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts
First performance by Warren Fahey and Dave de Hugard (singers), the Southern Cross Soloists, Queensland Music Festival, Bangalow St Park, Brisbane, 15 July 2006
Also available as part of Three Shakespeare Songs and as a SATB choir version.
Text: from Act IV of Shakespeare's Cymbeline
Commissioned by the Kangaroo Valley Arts Festival (Arts in the Valley) with funds from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts
First performance by Yvonne Kenny (soprano), Andrea Katz (piano), Arts in the Valley, Kangaroo Valley, NSW, 21 April 2007.
1. Niin mina neitonen -- 2. The great silkie of Sules Skerry -- 3. Den fortrollade barnafoderskan -- 4. The Bay of Biscay -- 5. The house carpenter -- 6. The unquiet grave -- 7. Niin minä neitonen.
Commissioned by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust
First performance by Jane Edwards and the Australian String Quartet, Elder Hall, University of Adelaide, 5 March 2004
Text: Christina Rossetti
First performance by Jane Edwards (soprano), Marshall McGuire (harp), Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, 18 March 2005
Published by Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia
Text:
Lorrie Moore, Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, The Kanteletar, Ian Munro, Ann Timoney Jenkin, Queen Elizabeth I, Emily Brontë, Wang Wei and Elizabeth Smart
Commissioned with funds from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts
First performance by Belinda Montgomery (soprano), Margery Smith (soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), Daryl Pratt (percussion) and Marshall McGuire (harp); Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney, 9 March 2003