Vocal music : Repertoire : Australian Music Centre

Vocal music

Australian music for solo voice

Australian has produced some wonderful singers and vocal artists which include renowned singers from the past such as Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Joan Sutherland. Much of the music composed in early colonial Australia was vocal and there was healthy industry in parlour song and other light music well into the twentieth century.

As an avid collector, Percy Grainger made many arrangements of folk song, including several for voice and piano. Other important composers of solo song in the early twentieth century include Margaret Sutherland, whose settings of John Shaw Nielson and Judith Wright are especially fine, Dorian Le Gallienne, whose choice of texts ranges freely from the Elizabethan period on, and Peggy Glanville-Hicks.

Following these composers, repertoire for solo voice has evolved to reflect the diversity in our culture including works written by First Nations composers William Barton, Rhyan Clapham, Nicole Smede and Deborah Cheetham-Fraillon. In addition, ensembles such as Halcyon have been committed to the performance of new works for solo voice and have commissioned composers such as Elliott Gyger, Larry Sitsky, Nicole Murphy and Diana Blom for their projects. Finally, new technologies have allowed the genre to extend beyond the range of acoustic instruments with the added sounds of recorded tracks and looping stations during a live performance.

Representative works

	Work	Notes
	Plum tree by Linda Phillips	Phillips's two songs show this composer’s exquisite craft in setting verse (by Kathleen Dalziel and herself).
	Cradle song by Linda Phillips	Phillips's two songs show this composer’s exquisite craft in setting verse (by Kathleen Dalziel and herself).
	Woman to man (2004) by Richard Mills	Is an Australian Frauenliebe und -leben based on poems of Judith Wright.
	Hermit of Green Light (1979) by Ross Edwards	A song cycle to the allusive verses of Michael Dransfield.
	Eight cabaret songs (1989) by Keith Humble	Shows the genuinely witty side of this usually serious composer in verse by a range of poets including Yeats and Auden.
	Learning to howl (2001) by Andrew Ford	A song cycle for soprano, soprano saxophone/clarinet/bass clarinet, harp & percussion to a rich selection of different texts.
	Kindled skies (2001) by Gordon Kerry	This work for soprano and orchestra is a tribute to the artistry of singer Merlyn Quaife.
	The Silence of Thunder (the hidden river) (2024) by Nicole Smede	A work for voice and looper that explores the origins of the Molonglo River - which runs through Ngambri and Ngunnawal Country (Canberra, Australia).
	1770 (2020) by Rhyan Clapham	1770 is 'a documentation of our history from the time Henri Henrion made this square piano (circa 1770).
	Above Knowing (2020) by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon	Above Knowing is a derivative of Woven Song - Pukumani by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon.
	A seagull's shadow (2018) by Clare Maclean	This work sets four short poems of Gillis Maclean in one song.
	Amelia (2019) by Andrée Greenwell	Arranged in 2019 for voice and piano from the song cycle 'The Villainelles' (2008).
	The Pear & Sweet Plantain (2019) by Nicholas Vines	A 4-minute work commissioned by Perrin Ford.
	...and Peter went out, and wept bitterly (2019) by Carl Crossin	Crossin says: my aim with these interludes is to allow for meditation upon a meditation - to provide space for personal contemplation in an otherwise close emotional environment.
	ashrei se'meemei dorech (2026) by Adam Yee	These short songs follow a carefully graded sequence of pitch and rhythm concepts, alternating between simple and compound metres.
	At the end of the world we learn to dance (2012) by Diana Blom	The song adopts the different tango styles and moods through a three-song structure with a refrain and interludes.
	Dearest mother... (2015) by Nicole Murphy	This song cycle is a setting of letters taken from 'Queenie: Letters from an Australian Army Nurse, 1915-1917'.
	Advice To A Girl (2020) by Anne Cawrse	The Lyrics are from Sara Teasdale's poem Advice To A Girl. The music, like the text, is gentle but confident; simple, but direct.
	A Feast of lanterns II (2015) by Larry Sitsky	First performed by Halcyon at Winter Moon Secrets (Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music), Sept 2015.
	Un poilu Australien (2015) by Elliott Gyger	In this work the mezzo-soprano sings extracts from Jacques Playoust's letters to his French relatives, written in French, while the bass sings extracts from those written to his younger siblings in Australia.
	Liederkreis by Heagney, Roger	these songs for soprano, mezzo soprano or baritone are set to texts by Graeme William Ellis, after Eichendorff.