Recorder music : Repertoire : Australian Music Centre

Recorder music

Australian music for recorder

Australia has a long history of both amateur and professional recorder playing. Recorder guilds and societies are still active in most states and have been responsible for many new compositions and arrangements. There are also strong links to early music, with pioneers such as Ruth Wilkinson, Ros Bandt, Howard Oberg, Hans Dieter Michatz and Greg Dikmans creating a culture that has allowed younger players to flourish.

The revival of interest in the instrument was helped by the work of some significant instrument makers (Fred Morgan, Jo Saunders, Michael Grinter) as well as player-composers: Ros Bandt, Zana Clarke, Benjamin Thorn and Ian Shanahan have all contributed to the repertory. Recorder players Genevieve Lacey and Alicia Crossley have actively commissioned and performed numerous new works for the instrument. In recent years this new repertoire created has included the work of composers Tristan Coelho, Kate Moore, Jessica Wells, Julian Day, Dan Rojas and Cameron Lam.

Representative works

	Work	Notes
	Ulpirra (1993) by Ross Edwards	A brief, virtuosic solo, particularly useful as an encore piece for recitals. The work has been performed and recorded on many different treble instruments apart from the recorder.
	Bagpipe music (2007) by Andrew Ford	A delightful duo for recorders and harp featuring rhythms and drones reminiscent of traditional Scottish backpipe music.
	Line drawing (2005) by James Ledger	A significant contemporary concerto, with imaginative use of extended techniques. This expressive, single-movement work uses multiple instruments.
	Confession 2 (2006) by Damian Barbeler	One of a series of recorder pieces by Barbeler, some with electronics. There is also a duo version for recorder and violin.
	Weaver-of-fictions (2007) by Liza Lim	A solo piece for the Ganassi recorder, with extended techniques. The piece also opens Lim's opera The Navigator.
	Re-inventions (2004) by Elena Kats-Chernin	A substantial and melodic 6-movement concerto that draws on the early music associations of the instrument by re-writing Bach inventions. There are version for both recorder and string quartet, and recorder and string orchestra.
	As the Dust Settles (2011) by Tristan Coelho	The work's title is inspired by the intense dust storm of late September 2009 on the east coast of Australia.
	Croutons XIII (2016) by Benjamin Thorn	Written in 2016.
	Five easy pieces (2017) by Julian Day	A 5 minute work first performed by Duo Blockstix.
	Four Dragons in Flight (2019) by Paul Smith	Instrumentation: 2 alto recorders, tenor recorder, bass recorder.
	Inhaltations (2021) by Alice Chance	Commissioned by Alicia Crossley.
	The Clockmaker (2021) by Jessica Wells	The Clockmaker explores a fantastical sound world, rich with steampunk imagery, in which the bass recorder sings, floats and races with the mechanical forces around it.
	of magic and realism (2017) by Daniel Rojas	Paying homage to the literary genre commonly referred to as "magical realism", an approach to literature that has found ubiquitous appeal throughout Latin America.
	Re-Growth? (2021) by Ros Bandt	A site-specific work for hope and action in a time of global environmental vandalism.
	This is not a Toy (2025) by Cameron Lam	The first in a series of works for soloist and Nintendo Gameboy.