Vocal Works
Vocal works by Katy Abbott: art songs, song cycles and vocal chamber music for solo voice, vocal ensemble, works for one singer per part, and works for voice and orchestra. From a single voice with piano to soloists with orchestra and string orchestra. Scores and parts are linked with each piece.
Songs and Vocal Chamber Music
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.
Stop Talking
(2017)
Flute and Whispered Voice
Duration: 2 minutes
”’Stop Talking is from Hidden Thoughts: Do I Matter? for solo flute with voice accompaniment. As the vocal part is whispered, it can be performed by any voice or by one or more voices.
The anonymous text was written by a female aged 75+, who said she wished she could say these words to her grown-up children: ‘Stop talking, just stop talking’.
Coming soon (please contact for advance copy)
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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The Domestic Sublime
(2011)
Soprano + Piano
Duration: 25 minutes
Six Songs from The Domestic Sublime by Chris Wallace-Crabbe.
Winner of the ‘Gold Medal’ for Art Song: Boston Metro Opera (2013).
Finalist in APRA AMC Art Music Awards: Work of The Year: Song Cycle(2013).
Appears on The Domestic Sublime: The Vocal Music of Katy Abbott (ABC Classics)
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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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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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‘Handsome’ from Words of Wisdom
(2003)
Vocal miniature for solo male voice
Duration: 1:30 minutes
Text: Olivier Martinez: Voted Who Magazine’s Most Handsome person (2004)
“It is not a problem if people think I’m handsome. It is a quality.
It is nothing I have any control over. What else can I say?
I thank my Mum.”
Olivier Martinez
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Vocal Ensemble
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
Flying
(2015)
SSATTB Voices
Duration: 6 minutes
Commissioned: Black Family in memory of Dorritt Black, artist for The Song Company’s All Leunig Almanac. Flying is based on the month of June and part of a 12 composer work; one for each month the year.
Text: Michael Leunig
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Words of Wisdom
(2003)
SSATTB Vocal Sextet
Duration: 10 minutes
Text: Katy Abbott and various
A collection of vocal miniatures
Words of Wisdom in its original form comprises of nine humorous vignettes and was composed for The Song Company. Since that time, there have been many performances of Words of Wisdom, which often include fragments of the whole work. Chosen for their delightful truths, the songs shed light on some elements of the human condition: emotion, relationships, image and purpose. Although all the words contain some truth, some of the wisdom is conventional, some silly or poignant whilst others are mere observations.
Appears on The Domestic Sublime: The Vocal Music of Katy Abbott. (ABC Classics)
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Voice and Orchestra
Hidden Thoughts: Stories of Awe
(2024)
Narrator + Mezzo-sop + Bass-Baritone + Orchestra
Duration: 48 minutes
Text: Katy Abbott with Maureen Johnson.
Please contribute a story for this work by completing this short questionnaire: bit.ly/stories-of-awe
Premiere August 9 + 10, 2024 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
> See this page for more details
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Hidden Thoughts: Return to Sender
(2020/arr.2024)
Mezzo-sop + Narrator + String Orchestra
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 Quartet.
Stars That Split The Night
(2017/arr. 2023, Joseph Twist)
