Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

A Gwen Harwood Cycle celebrates one of Australia's finest female poets, Gwen Harwood (1925-1990). The music expands upon Harwood's texts, highlighting those that focus on women's voices, creativity and the struggles of the woman artist. The composition combines two art forms: poetry and instrumental music, in a nascent genre - that of narrated contemporary classical instrumental music, which I have been exploring in recent works: my Herring Island Piano Sonata (2022) for Narrator, Piano and Soundscape (score available from AMC; recorded for CD https://toccataclassics.com/product/linda-kouvaras-piano-music-chamber-works-and-songs-vol-2/), and Buluwirri Bugaja Piano Suite (2023) for Narrator, Piano and Soundscape.

One movement, "III. Anniversary", is a reworking of one of my previous works: "I. Shelter in Place," from Nightpieces: Reflections after COVID-19 for Soprano Saxophone and Piano (2021) (score available from AMC; recorded for CD https://toccataclassics.com/product/linda-kouvaras-instrumental-music-chamber-works-and-songs-volume-one/). I relish intratextuality at times - the bittersweetness of memory rising and formed anew, in a different context, with one informing the other to provide deep resonance in associations, both musical and extra-musical.

A Gwen Harwood Cycle also builds on my woman-centred settings in large-scale song cycles: Art & Life (1997) for Soprano and Piano (score available from AMC; recorded for CD https://toccataclassics.com/product/linda-kouvaras-instrumental-music-chamber-works-and-songs-volume-one/) , with the theme of domestic violence, and Winter Came Early (2022) for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano and Piano (score available from AMC; recorded for CD https://toccataclassics.com/product/linda-kouvaras-piano-music-chamber-works-and-songs-vol-2/), exploring the inner life of a woman stationed with her family in Africa in the 1990s.

The musical language is postmodern; neo-tonal/modal; metrically organised, with a splash of aleatory.

Work Details

Year: 2025

Instrumentation: Narrator, soprano saxophone, piano.

Duration: 60 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Some virtuosity required at times.

Dedication note: Dedicated to Helen Morse and Stephanie Trigg.

Commission note: Composed with generous support from the City of Melbourne and Creative Victoria.