Andrew Ford (composer)

Andrew Ford OAM (born 1957) is an English-born Australian composer, writer, and radio presenter, known for The Music Show on ABC Radio National.

Early life and education[edit]

Andrew Ford was born in 1957 in Liverpool, UK.^[1][2]

He attended St Olave's Grammar School in Orpington, Kent, then studied at Lancaster University with Edward Cowie and John Buller. As a student, a meeting with Sir Michael Tippett had a profound influence on him, when he told him "to forget about musical systems and trust his instincts".^[3]

Career[edit]

Ford was a research fellow in music Bradford University from 1978 to 1982.^[4]

After moving to Australia, he lectured at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong, NSW, from 1983 to 1995,^[4] and during this time earned a PhD for his thesis on "musical word setting from Elvis Costello to Elliott Carter.^[3]

Ford was composer-in-residence with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (1992–94),^[3] held the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer Fellowship from 1998 to 2000 and was awarded a two-year fellowship by the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts for 2005 to 2006.^[5] He was appointed composer-in-residence at the Australian National Academy of Music in 2009.^[3]

Other activities[edit]

He has written widely on music and published ten books. For the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, he wrote, presented and co-produced the radio series Illegal Harmonies, Dots on the Landscape, Music and Fashion, Earth Dances and Three Front Doors a Paddock (with painter Ben Quilty) ^[3]

Since 1995 he has presented The Music Show on ABC Radio National.^[3]

Recognition and awards[edit]

• 1982: Yorkshire Arts Composers Award, joint winner (with Mark-Anthony Turnage) for Portraits^[3]
• 1998: Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer Fellowship, a two-year fellowship during which he began work on The Waltz Book^[3]
• 1998: Pascall Prize for critical writing^[3]
• 1998: Sydney Spring Festival award, for Tattoo^[3]
• 2002: Jean Bogan Prize, for The Waltz Book^[3]
• 2004: Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize, for Learning to Howl^[3]
• 2007: shortlisted, Prix Italia, for his radiophonic work Elegy in a Country Graveyard
• 2010: Green Room Award, for the music for the opera Rembrandt's Wife^[3]
• 2012: Albert H. Maggs Composition Award for his work Rauha^[3]
• 2013: shortlisted, Paul Lowin Prize, for Blitz and Willow Songs
• 2014: Poynter Fellow and visiting composer at Yale University^[3]
• 2015: visiting lecturer at the Shanghai Conservatory^[3]
• 2016: shortlisted, Paul Lowin Prize, for Last Words ^[6]
• 2016: Order of Australia Medal^[3]
• 2018: H. C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellow at the Australian National University^[3]
• 2020: Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, Facilitator's Prize (awarded 2021)^[7]

APRA / Art Music Awards[edit]

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).^[8] They include the Art Music Awards (until 2009 Classical Music Awards) which are distributed by APRA and the Australian Music Centre (AMC).^[9] These awards include:^[5]

Selected works[edit]

Music theatre[edit]

• Poe, opera (1983, premiered 1985, Sydney Opera House)^[18]
• Whispers for tenor and chamber orchestra (1990)
• Casanova Confined for baritone and backing track (1995)
• Night and Dreams: The Death of Sigmund Freud for tenor and backing track (1999)
• Rembrandt's Wife (libretto by Sue Smith), opera (2007–2009)^[3]
• Peter Pan, children's opera (2017), for Gondwana Choirs

Orchestral[edit]

• Concerto for Orchestra (1980)
• The Big Parade (1986)
• Manhattan Epiphanies for string orchestra (1999)
• The Furry Dance (1999)
• Scenes from Bruegel for chamber orchestra (2006)
• Headlong (2006), for 75th birthday of Sydney Symphony Orchestra
• Symphony (2008)
• Bright Shiners for string orchestra (2009)
• Blitz for orchestra, (optional) chorus and pre-recorded voices (2011)
• Big Bang for orchestra (2019)
• The Meaning of Trees for orchestra (2020), for Australian Youth Orchestra, premiered 2022^[3]

Concertos[edit]

• Piano Concerto: Imaginings (1991)
• The Great Memory for cello and orchestra (1994)
• The Unquiet Grave for viola and chamber orchestra (1997–1998)
• Raga for electric guitar and orchestra (2015–2016)

Vocal and choral[edit]

• A Martian Sends a Postcard Home for tenor, horn and piano (1986)
• Wassails and Lullabies for SATB choir and percussion (1989), recorded by ABC Classics
• Harbour for tenor and string orchestra (1992)
• The Past for counter-tenor, flute and string orchestra (with ad lib didgeridoo) (1997), a setting of Oodgeroo Noonuccal's poem 'The Past' and excerpts from James Cook's ship's log
• Learning to Howl for soprano, clarinet/sax, harp and percussion (2001)
• Tales of the Supernatural for folk singer and string quartet (2002)
• An die Musik for SATB choir (2005)
• Elegy in a Country Graveyard for SATB choir, brass or concert band (flexible instrumentation) and pre-recorded voices and instruments (2007)
• Domestic Advice for soprano and piano (2007)
• A Singing Quilt for SATB choir, percussion ensemble and pre-recorded voices (2008)
• Willow Songs: six poems of Anne Stevenson for soprano, mezzo-soprano and mixed ensemble (2009)
• Waiting for the Barbarians for large chorus (2011), based on the poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
• Last Words, song cycle for piano trio and soprano (2013 premiered by Anna Goldsworthy, Seraphim Trio, Jane Sheldon)^[19]
• The Drowners for baritone and chamber orchestra (2015)
• Missa brevis for SATB choir and organ (2015)
• Comeclose and Sleepnow for singer and jazz ensemble (2016), to words by Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and Roger McGough
• Nature for mezzo-soprano and ensemble (2019), to words by Jen Hadfield, R.S. Thomas, Robert Adamson, Tomas Tranströmer, Maria Takolander, Edward Thomas and W.B. Yeats
• The Blessing for mezzo-soprano and oboe (2021), libretto by J.M. Coetzee based on a scene from his novel Elizabeth Costello
• Red Dirt Hymns for voices and instruments (2020–24), lyrics by Jordie Albiston, David McCooey, John Kinsella, Ellen van Neerven, Judith Bishop, Judith Beveridge, Sarah Holland-Batt, Stephen Edgar, Kate Fagan, Merlinda Bobis, Mark Wakely, Felicity Plunkett, Philip Harvey, Erik Jensen, Jill Jones, Maria Takolander, Melanie Horsnell, Martha Marlow, Alison Flett and Lisa Brockwell

Ensemble[edit]

• Chamber Concerto No 3: In Constant Flight for solo violin and ensemble (1988)
• Ringing the Changes for piccolo, bass clarinet and piano (1990)
• Pastoral for string octet (1991)
• Tattoo for 12 timpani (6 players) and 4 pianos (1998)
• Icarus Drowning (1998)
• Chamber Concerto No. 4 (2002)
• Sad Jigs for string quintet (2005)
• A Reel, a Fling and a Ghostly Galliard (String Quartet No 2) (2006)
• Oma kodu for clarinet and string quartet (2006)
• Nine Fantasies about Brahms for piano trio (2009)
• On Winter's Traces for piccolo, bass clarinet, piano and string quartet (2009) for the 30th anniversary of the Australia Ensemble
• The Rising (2010) for the Black Dyke Band
• The Scattering of Light for piano quartet (2010) commissioned to mark the centenary of the University of Queensland
• String Quartet No 3 (2012) for the Brodsky Quartet
• String Quartet No 4 (2012) for the NOISE String Quartet
• String Quartet No 5 (2013) for the Australian String Quartet
• Uproar for 11 trombones and four bass drums (2013)
• Common Ground for two string quartets (2014)
• Contradance for 11 players (2015)
• String Quartet No 6 (2014–17) for the Flinders Quartet
• Scenes from Streeton (2019) for Arcadia Winds
• String Quartet No 7: Eden Ablaze (2020) for the Brodsky Quartet and William Barton

Instrumental[edit]

• Like Icarus ascending for solo violin (1984)
• Swansong for solo viola (1987)
• Spinning for solo alto flute (1988)
• The Very End of Harvest for viola and piano (2000)
• The Waltz Book (60 one-minute waltzes for solo piano, 2002; commissioned by Ian Munro)^[3]
• War and Peace for violin and percussion (2004)
• Chorales from an Ox Life for viola and double bass (2007)
• Folly for solo piano (2007)
• You Must Sleep, but I Must Dance for viola and percussion (2010)
• On Reflection for two pianos (2012)
• Once upon a time there were two brothers...for flute and voice (2013)
• Hook for solo vibraphone (2018)
• In My Solitude for solo viola (2020)

Radiophonic[edit]

• Deirdre of the Sorrows (1989)
• Elegy in a Country Graveyard (2007)
• Untuning the Sky (2013)

Bibliography[edit]

• Composer to Composer: Conversations about Contemporary Music (paperback 1993, ISBN 1-86373-443-0, hardback 1993, ISBN 0-7043-7061-1, 2nd edition paperback 1997, ISBN 0-86806-631-1)
• Illegal Harmonies: Music in the 20th Century (hardback 1997, ISBN 0-86806-635-4, 2nd edition paperback 2002, ISBN 0-7333-1130-X)
• Undue Noise: Words about Music (paperback 2002, ISBN 0-7333-1057-5)
• Speaking in Tongues: The Songs of Van Morrison by Martin Buzacott and Andrew Ford (paperback 2005, ISBN 0-7333-1297-7)
• In Defence of Classical Music (hardback 2005, ISBN 0-7333-1594-1)
• The Sound of Pictures: listening to the movies from Hitchcock to High Fidelity (paperback 2010, ISBN 9781863955102)
• Illegal Harmonies: Music in the Modern Age (expanded 3rd edition paperback 2011, ISBN 9781863955287)
• Try Whistling This: writings about music (paperback 2012, ISBN 9781863955713)
• Earth Dances: music in search of the primitive (paperback 2015, ISBN 9781863957120)
• The Memory of Music, Black Inc (2017, ISBN 9781863959490)
• The Song Remains the Same: 800 Years of Love Songs, Laments and Lullabies by Andrew Ford and Anni Heino, La Trobe University Press/Black Inc. (2019, ISBN 9781760640118)
• The Shortest History of Music, Old Street Publishing (2024, ISBN 978-1913083656)

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• "Composer's subterranean half-century". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 March 2007.
• Kennedy, M.; Kennedy, J.B. (2007). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford paperback reference The concise Oxford dictionary of music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920383-3.

External links[edit]

• Official website
• The Music Show, ABC Radio National