Instrumentation

solo cl - perc(1): tam-t/ch.cym/tgl/flexatone/BD/bongos/rain stick - harp - strings

Availability

Score and parts for hire

Programme Notes

This work lovingly describes my feelings about certain well-known places in Sydney. It makes references to popular music and its five movements, all very straightforward, are motivically related. The movements are: Prelude, From Bondi Beach, At Circular Quay, From Kings Cross, and Postlude. Following the Prelude, the second movement, the longest, is concerned with lazy days spent at Bondi Beach. The third movement begins and ends with night sounds on water, its central section suggesting an operatic aria floating across from the Opera House. In the fourth movement, I recall a time in my youth, when I lived in Kings Cross writing music for the theatre. Bringing the work to a close, the Postlude refers to earlier material. Sydney Singing is a joint commission from the festivals of Cheltenham and Sydney. It was written especially for Nicholas Daniel and Julius Drake, for first performance in the Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, on 6 July 2002. Peter Sculthorpe

Sydney Singing

No Venue (Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia)

Goldner String Quartet

Sydney Singing

ABC Classic FM (Australia)

Joanne Sharp (cl)/Matthew Krel/SBS Youth Orch

Sydney Singing

Evolution Performance Centre (Sydney, NSW, Australia)

Grevillea Ensemble

Sydney Singing

Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Sydney, NSW, Australia)

Brett Dean/Daryl Pratt/Emma Jane Murphy/Helena Rathbone/John Rodgers/Paul Dean