Voice and ensemble

These works include the Lowin Prize-winning Learning to Howl, and the Lowin Prize finalists Willow Songs and Last Words. They set to music words by Shakespeare and Sappho, Anne Stevenson and Robert Louis Stevenson, Judith Wright and Craig Raine.

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. Respair (Felicity Plunkett)
13. This Is to You (Philip Harvey)
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

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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

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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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Last Words (2013)

30 mins

for soprano, violin, cello and piano

Text: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henry Ward Beecher, Alban Berg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Falcon Scott, Adelaide Crapsey, Chidiock Tichborne, Sappho, Dorothy Porter, Maurice Chevalier, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Sullivan Balou, Florenz Ziegfeld, Tim Winton (from Cloudstreet), Virginia Woolf and Noël Coward.

Commissioned by Jane Sheldon with financial assistance from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts

First performance by Jane Sheldon (soprano), Helen Ayres (violin), Zoe Knighton (cello) and Anna Goldsworthy (piano), Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Lecture Hall, Port Fairy, Victoria, 12 October 2013

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Three Northumbrian Songs (2011-12)

11 mins

for soprano, harp and string quartet

1. Bonny at Morn
2. Maa Bonny Lad
3. Dance to Thi Daddy

Commissioned by Jane Sheldon

First complete performance by Fiona Campbell (mezzo-soprano), Australia Ensemble, Sir John Clancy Auditorium, University of NSW, Sydney, 8 June 2019

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Willow Songs (2009)

20 minutes

for soprano and mezzo-soprano, alto flute (=piccolo), clarinet in A (=bass clarinet), percussion and piano

Text:

poems by Anne Stevenson

Commissioned by Halcyon with the generous financial support of Barbara Blackman

First performance by Halcyon (Alison Morgan, Jenny Duck-Chong , Sally Walker, Jason Noble, John Douglas, Sally Whitwell), Trackdown Scoring Stage, Fox Studios, Sydney, 26 September 2009

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Barleycorn (2006)

18 minutes

for folksinger, wind quartet and piano

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

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