Chamber Music
Chamber music by Katy Abbott: trios, quartets and larger chamber works; from piano and mixed trios to string and percussion quartets and instrumental and vocal sextets. From tertiary to professional players. Scores and parts are linked with each piece.
Piano Trios
Autumn Song
(1996/2025)
Piano Trio
Duration: 5 minutes
This version of Autumn Song is for Piano Trio and arranged for Sutherland Trio.
Autumn Song is also available for other instrumentation.
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Making Angels
(2001)
Piano Trio
Duration: 7 minutes
This work has a companion piece: Music for Demons (2010).
The original version of Making Angels is for Flute, Clarinet in Bb and Piano.
Appears on Sunburnt Aftertones: The Chamber Music of Katy Abbott.
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Please contact me for Score and Parts.
Music for Demons
(2010)
Piano Trio
Duration: 8 minutes
Piano Trio arrangement by Tim Dargaville.
This work is a companion piece for Making Angels (2001).
This piece is based on a painting by Matthew Quick from his Pure Series titled Pure Obsession where digital looking space-invaders descend from the clouds.
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From the program of the premiere of Music for Demons.
Alcoholism, Chocoholism, Overeating, Bulimia, Sex Addiction, Drug Addiction, Kleptomania, Excessive Excercies, Caffine Cravings, Cigarettes, Gambling, Shoe Shopping, High-adrenalin sports, Self-help Books, Video Games – we human beings struggle each day with a colourful and voluminous number of addictions, some rather innocent, others highly dangerous – inner demons we must all do battle with.
Katy Abbott’s Music for Demons, written for Syzygy Ensemble as a companion piece to Making Angels, comments upon the ability of human nature to become easily obsessed, with a particular focus on the mesmerising pull of computer games. Playing video games can be a very hypnotic activity and without any obvious break in the pathways of the game, the player can feel persuaded to continue, often well into the night, torn between stopping and continuing play. Consciously choosing to stop playing becomes difficult.
Abbott has created musical pathways in Music for Demons to reflect this theme, particularly in the quirky dance-like section towards the end, which draws the listener in by the seemingly repetitive patterns, with no real way of knowing when the end is in sight.
Coady Green, 2010
Mixed Trios
Aspects of Dreaming II
(2018)
Clarinet + Violin + Piano
Duration: 10 minutes
UndercurrenT II
(2017)
Trumpet in Bb + Trombone + Electric Guitar
Duration: 10 minutes
Original version, for Soprano Saxophone + Piano was commissioned by HD Duo with University of Sydney.
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Midnight Songs
(2013)
Flugel Horn, Trombone, Guitar + Loop pedals and Delay
Duration: 25-30 minutes
Premiered in China September 2013.
Note: guitar can be on acoustic or electric guitar.
Appears on Punch: The Brass Music of Katy Abbott.
Recorded on Ensemble Three’s debut disc Midnight Songs (Tall Poppies).
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Music for Demons
(2010)
Flutes/s, Bass Clarinet in Bb + Piano
Duration: 8 minutes
This work is a companion piece for Making Angels (2001)
This piece is based on a painting by Matthew Quick from his Pure Series titled Pure Obsession where digital looking space-invaders descend from the clouds.
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From the program of the premiere of Music for Demons.
Alcoholism, Chocoholism, Overeating, Bulimia, Sex Addiction, Drug Addiction, Kleptomania, Excessive Excercies, Caffine Cravings, Cigarettes, Gambling, Shoe Shopping, High-adrenalin sports, Self-help Books, Video Games – we human beings struggle each day with a colourful and voluminous number of addictions, some rather innocent, others highly dangerous – inner demons we must all do battle with.
Katy Abbott’s Music for Demons, written for Syzygy Ensemble as a companion piece to Making Angels, comments upon the ability of human nature to become easily obsessed, with a particular focus on the mesmerising pull of computer games. Playing video games can be a very hypnotic activity and without any obvious break in the pathways of the game, the player can feel persuaded to continue, often well into the night, torn between stopping and continuing play. Consciously choosing to stop playing becomes difficult.
Abbott has created musical pathways in Music for Demons to reflect this theme, particularly in the quirky dance-like section towards the end, which draws the listener in by the seemingly repetitive patterns, with no real way of knowing when the end is in sight.
Coady Green, 2010
No Ordinary Traveller
(2006)
Song Cycle for mezzo-soprano + Mixed Trio
Duration: 25 minutes
Commissioned by Halcyon and Arts Victoria.
Appears on Sunburnt Aftertones: The Chamber Music of Katy Abbott.
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The Empty Quarter
(2008)
Percussion Duo + Cello
Duration: 15 minutes
Appears on Sunburnt Aftertones: The Chamber Music of Katy Abbott.
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Making Angels
(2001)
Flute + Clarinet in Bb + Piano
Duration: 7 minutes
This work has a companion piece: Music for Demons (2010).
Also available for piano trio.
Appears on Sunburnt Aftertones: The Chamber Music of Katy Abbott
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Performance at 28:19 by Juventus New Music Ensemble
Egyptian Wish
(2001)
Soprano Saxophone Trio
Duration: 7 minutes
Composed for Barry Cockcroft.
Also available for Solo Soprano Saxophone and CD.
Appears on Sunburnt Aftertones: The Chamber Music of Katy Abbott.
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String Quartet and Percussion Quartet
‘Taking Chances’ from Hidden Thoughts: Do I Matter?
(2017/arr. 2020, Eric Wilie)
Percussion Quartet
Duration: 2 minutes
Premiered at PASIC 2021: Percussion Arts Society International Convention, Indianapolis.
This work, originally for solo player (2 hi-hats + crotales) is the opening movement of Hidden Thoughts: Do I Matter?, winner of the 2019 Paul Lowin Prize for Composition.
This arrangement could act as a ‘palette cleanser’ being fresh and short, yet is also a vibrant and energetic concert opener/closer.
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Recorded and arranged by UNC Greensboro (Eric Willie, Director).
Vertical Horizon
(2000)
String Quartet
Duration: 9:45 minutes
Segments of Vertical Horizon were used in a 2020 reimagining for the Flinders Quartet 20th Birthday Commission Hidden Thoughts II: Return To Sender.
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Larger Chamber Music
Splitting The Ambivalence
(2022)
Mezzo-Soprano + String Quartet
Duration: 22 minutes
Text: The words of Margaret Sutherland, compiled by Katy Abbott.
Splitting the Ambivalence in psychology terms is about polarising positions between two separate entities (such as a couple, two countries for example) so that any question between them becomes an either/or scenario. This or That. There is no middle ground.
When reading the words of Margaret Sutherland and noticing how she is often referred as feisty, strong-willed, a get-things-done kind of woman – I wondered about her other side – the side that isn’t so visible to the public and the public perception of Margaret versus what might be the ‘real’ Margaret.
Her writing, her letters, her music and the stories that accompany her life, paint an image of a woman unafraid to rattle the establishment, described often as “incensed” and “indignant” we are left with a sense of a woman who (somewhat admirably) took on the world and all of its irritations with great insouciance. Entitled, opinionated and sedulous in putting angry pen to paper, criticising where – in her less than humble opinion – critique was long overdue!
But of more interest to me was the split – the underlying gentleness, the wistfulness, the delicacy, romanticism almost that also appears in her work and reflections. The image staring back in the mirror, the white against the black; ambivalence.
It was tempting to only choose text which would portray her wonderful stubbornness and her forthright ideas, or stories that would delve into relationship dramas with colleagues and the ABC!
Certainly, she cannot be genuinely captured without that insight but the gentle reminiscing and the soft-focus descriptions, in particular in her life as a child, offers completeness. I wonder at the moments when Margaret Sutherland superbly ‘belonged to herself’ and how that made the woman and the composer.
© Katy Abbott / Maureen Johnson. 2022
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Hidden Thoughts: Return to Sender
(2020)
Mezzo-sop + Narrator + String Quartet
Duration: 60 minutes
Text: Katy Abbott with Maureen Johnson.
From the unopened, returned letters of encouragement from Australians to asylum seekers on Nauru Island.
Composed with support of a Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship (Music).
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Also available for String Orchestra. Score + Parts available soon. Please use the Contact Page.
SSATBB Voices + Mixed Sextet (Flute, Clarinet in Bb, Piano, Percussion, Violin, Cello)
Anonymous answers from a survey created by Katy Abbott asking women for their ‘hidden thoughts’.
Commissioned with the assistance of Australia Council for the Arts (Arts Projects for Individuals).
This work was the winner of the 2019 Paul Lowin Prize (song-cycle category).
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Interview and (almost full) recording on ABC FM New Waves Podcast
Earth Lullaby
(2017)
Shakuhachi + String Quartet
Duration: 10 minutes
Commissioned by and composed for Enigma Quartet + Riley Lee.
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Culturally, we have lost the art of trusting our intuition as individuals or a group. This piece requires the musicians to trust their own instincts as well as each other’s sense of musicality. It requires trust ideally with one instrument not being more ‘present’ than another.
The musical and human elements must interlock in order to function fully.
Our environment – the Earth, is a most wonderful role model.
It Is Just The Heart
(2006)
Song Cycle for Soprano + String Quartet
Duration: 25 minutes
Text: Various + Katy Abbott.
It Is Just The Heart is a song-cycle in four Movements where each movement is inspired by the composer’s experience at four different Melbourne Institutions:
I: The Immigration Museum (‘Hinta Palinta’)
II: The Melbourne Museum (‘Dinosaur’)
III: The Cunningham Dax Collection (‘It Is Just The Heart’)
IV: The Melbourne Planetarium (‘Night Thoughts’)
“I wanted to capture the ‘human’ element of each collection. Buildings and museums hold ‘things’; evidence of human interaction, innovation and feeling. I like to think of these places as a depiction / portrayal of our humanity. I have chosen the title to represent an emotional and human aspect of each institution.”
Katy Abbott.
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Sunburnt Aftertones
(2001/rev.2010)
Mixed Sextet
Duration: 5 minutes
Composed for Zurich Ensemble of New Music, ANAM young composers seminar.
Appears on Sunburnt Aftertones: The Chamber Music of Katy Abbott.
Representing the intense and sometimes unrelenting heat of the Australian Summer, Sunburnt Aftertones was composed as a commission for the Dorian Le Gallienne Prize for Composition 2001.
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