Piano music : Repertoire : Australian Music Centre

Piano music

Australian piano works

The piano has been a valued instrument in Australian communities for over 200 years. In the late 19th early 20th century the piano performed as part of the various choral societies established in Australian town centres. In Australian composition the piano features in repertoire in a wide range of contexts that include: solo piano, chamber music, concertos, jazz trios and within large ensembles such as the orchestra and big band to name a few. Australian piano composition has also featured composers who are virtuoso pianists such as Miriam Hyde, Larry Sitsky, Penelope Thwaites, Andrea Keller, Elena Kats-Chernin and Michael Kieran Harvey. These composer/performers all understand the idiosyncrasies and technical demands of the instrument which is evident in their compositions. In recent years composer/pianist Zubin Kanga has pushed the boundaries of composition incorporating electronics and AI into his music. In addition, there has been detailed research into the music of early Australian women composers by pianist/academic Jeanelle Carrigan. This valued research has contributed to bringing more diversity into the canon of Australian piano repertoire.

This list has been prepared in collaboration with Jeanell Carrigan.

See also: representative Australian works for piano with orchestra

Representative works

	Work	Notes
	Piano games (1973) by Nigel Butterley	This set of six pieces uses alternative techniques which stretch both the technical capabilities and imagination of the performer, while being aimed at an intermediate standard of ability. One piece has an aleatoric dimension (no. 5 'Choose for Yourself'), another invites the player to discover harmonics by silently depressing chords (no. 2 'Echoes'.) Written by a composer who is also a pianist, the works are rhythmically quite challenging.
	Mantras and night flowers (2001) by Ross Edwards	Ross Edwards has a unique and recognisable language. Each of these nine short pieces (including some of the 'Mantras') is dedicated to a friend. The most pianistically simple of the series – 'Emily’s Song' - was written for his daughter and now appears on the AMEB syllabus for fourth grade. It is lyrical but with a lilting rhythmical flow. Most of the other eight pieces in the series are more technically and rhythmically challenging.
	After (2020) by Evan Lawson	This composition employs a series of chords discovered in an old notebook. These melancholic and abstract chords intermingle in sparse gestures, with minimal dynamic shifts.
	A Mother's Lullaby (2025) by Chloé Charody	composed for children and people from all over the world to play to remember the Palestinian Holocaust.
	and maggie discovered a shell that sang so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles (2016) by Jim Coyle	A left hand only piano work.
	arcing, stilling, bending, gathering (2022) by Lisa Illean	For piano, 6 violin, 3 viola, 2 cello, double bass, pre-recorded sounds.
	as flower as fire (2020) by Anne Cawrse	Composed in response to Beethoven's 'Waldstein' Sonata, Op. 53.
	Carpe Diem (2015) by Michael Kieran Harvey	Carpe Diem (Latin for "seize the day") is an Italian Gothic "bas-relief" for solo piano.
	Water nymph (1987) by Miriam Hyde	Miriam Hyde was a brilliant pianist and performed in public well after her 80th birthday. She was a teacher and examiner and knew how to write music that would develop technical and pianistic skills at all levels. Water nymph is a short work – one of many individual pieces – and like all Hyde’s works, it is comfortable for the pianist to play. The work uses the whole tone scale.
	Red blues (1999) by Carl Vine	A great deal of the piano music written by Carl Vine (e.g. the three sonatas) is very difficult. This set of four pieces is aimed at a more intermediate standard of student performer. The pieces are quite different in style and character. 'Red Blues' is a jazzy number,' Central' is very controlled, 'Semplice' has many changes of meter, and 'Spartacus', with cluster chords played in a driving rhythmical pattern, is the most challenging of the set.
	8 Australian birds discover the music of the 20th century (1989) by Andrew Ford	These eight short and humorous pieces are aimed at a student who is not yet very advanced. Ford cleverly gets to the core of the musical language of eight well-known 20th-century composers, simplifies it, and then attributes it to an Australian bird. So we get – for example – a 'Brolga behaving like Bartók'. The pieces are sometimes quite rhythmically challenging and use a wide range of the piano. Some of the chordal writing is thickly textured which may prove demanding for small hands.
	Red hot rhapsodies (1997)	Sonny Chua's piano music lends itself particularly well to teaching purposes because of the uncanny way he relates to children in the themes. Red Hot Rhapsodies contains three short works ('Transylvanian Romp', 'Siesta' and 'Jamaican Fumble') which are aimed at a more advanced level of ability. They are pianistically appropriate but nonetheless quite difficult to perform because of the technical demands and also the sense of jazz style which is an integral part of the interpretation.
	12 one page piano pieces (2001) by Elena Kats-Chernin	The title of this work is misleading, as none of the twelve pieces is only one page long. They are attractive, basically tonal and very pianistic works. The pieces become more difficult towards the end of the series. The eleventh piece, 'Drums', is a rhythmical glissando exercise in which the pianist can also practice leaping from the middle of the piano to the outer extremes. The last piece ‘Cinema' is virtuosic and bombastic, suggesting music created for a silent film.
	Moments of plastic jubilation (1999) by Matthew Hindson	This single-movement work was composed in 1999 and lasts around five minutes. It was written for the brilliant pianist Michael Kieran Harvey and consequently consists of some very virtuosic writing in a contemporary idiom. It is technically demanding and requires strength and endurance rather than beauty of sound. It is definitely a piece in which the player can display many skills and also a piece which, due to the originality of its compositional language, is entertaining for the audience.
	Conversation (2015) by Elena Kats-Chernin	A movement from the work Three Dancers, inspired by the Picasso masterpiece of the same name.
	Danza de la Alegria (2023) by Margaret Brandman	Includes arpeggiations and syncopated rhythms.
	Life is Brut[if]al (2019) by Andrea Keller	This work forms part of the solo piano suite/soundtrack to 'Journey Home'.