Margaret Morgan

HarbouR

song cycle for tenor, strings and tubular bell

Words by Margaret Morgan
Music by Andrew Ford

A love's embrace.
Inverted grin with gunboat teeth,
A waving, white-nailed hand,
A velvet bed for comfort,
Sliced with opal.
Harbour.
Harbour me.
Harbour.

"Harbour" was written especially for tenor, Gerald English and commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra. It premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney in March 1993, and was subsequently been performed at the Huntington and Adelaide Festivals. It deals with issues of conception, birth and growth, and on another level with leaving home and returning... to Sydney Harbour.

"Outstanding in the originality of its concept and the force of its realisation... By turns gritty, stringent, reassuring and threatening in words and music, "Harbour", like home, is both sanctuary and grave."                                   

 - Adelaide Advertiser

A CD recording of "Harbour" is on sale online from Tall Poppies Records (TP128), and at classical music record stores, in Australia, UK and USA. It is performed by Gerald English and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and conducted by David Stanhope. [Tall Poppies TP128]

Back to Words for Music