Kate Moore Music

The Body is an ear (2011)

Commissioned by Stichting Orgelpark, The body is an ear was originally a composition for solo organ. The piece explores the different registration and stops of the organ, creating stereo dialogue within the instrument itself. She was given the opportunity to arrange the piece to be performed on two organs on opposite walls of Orgelpark, which translated into an arrangement for two pianos. It was inspired by the reflection of an ancient Iranian folk story told in the modern Sufi exegesis The Mystery of Sound and Music by Hasrat Inayat Khan, whereby the soul happily floating freely was encouraged by God to enter the body so as to be able to hear the beauty of the music of the spheres.

VELVET (2010)

Commissioned by Ashley Bathgate and Lisa Moore, with the assistance of The Australia Council for the Arts, Velvet was inspired by the depiction of cloth in Renaissance paintings – movement, vitality and earthiness are captured and distilled within the frame and stillness of the painting. The shades of light and dark are emphasised by the lines and creases where the sun catches its outlines. Where the tactile fabric is inverted, shadows are made darker by the turgid grottos and canyons carved into the tectonic landscape of its folds.

PRELUDE (2019)

Prelude was written with the idea of bird flight and the freedom a bird has to follow the currents of the wind. I wanted to see where the melody would take me. Constructed in a way that each note responds to the one before, note by note, the music takes itself on a journey. Different to Bach, where the preconceived map or underlying harmonic blueprint of the piece is the defining feature, I set the melody free to find its own way.

LUCIDITY: HANDS OF EYES (2018)

LUCIDITY was inspired by the apparition of St Lucie who appears to Dante at the beginning of the Divine Comedy to light the true path when he was lost in a dark forest. Saint Lucie, a saint whose jealous lover gauged her eyes out, she was given the gift of Divine Sight in return by God who took pity on her. Her iconic imagery is powerful, depicting a blind woman who holds her eyes on the palm of her hand. With the power of divine-sight, she can navigate through the darkness without being able to see, and lead those who are lost to safety. Her feast day is celebrated in the depths of winter, where young women wear wreaths of candles upon their head. The music is mysterious and mystical, a ritual demonstrating the push and pull between darkness and light.

heather (2013)

Commissioned by the Bendigo festival of music for Anna McMichael and Zubin Kanga, Heather was written whilst hiking in the inner and outer-Hebrides of Scotland. Taking her notebook with her, the composer drew patterns of the ancient ruined walls that scatter the islands, upon which the purple flower of the heath grew. The title Heather alludes to a wild hedge of purple flowers that grows in patterns marking the lines where a building once stood. The piece is rich in resonant textures that intertwine and slowly rotate like undergrowth as it gradually overtakes the ruined wall.

dies irae (2015)

Dies Irae for violin and piano was written at Tanglewood as part of the composer fellowship program A Piece a Day challenge. The composer, deep in her own world, peered out the window over the grounds of the Boston Symphony summer residence while the theme of the Dies Irae drifted between the floorboards from as student practising below. The composer thought about the words of the Requiem Mass and as a result her piece became a miniature glimpse into an inner world seeking transcendence. It is spiritual meditation on forgiveness and redemption.

ZOMER (2006)

Zomer was written in the late summer as golden sun gleamed through the windows of the studio. It is a miniature constructed upon a folly, written after another composition written by Moore for Orkest de Ereprijs entitled “In that Gate They Shall Enter”, inspired by an excerpt of John Donne’s Sermon XV

And into that gate they shall enter, and in that house they shall dwell, where there shall be no Cloud nor Sun, no darknesse nor dazling, but one equall light, no noyse nor silence, but one equall musick, no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession, no foes nor friends, but an equall communion and Identity, no ends nor beginnings; but one equall eternity.

The piece captures the essence of simplicity and complexity in balance in one equal eternity.

way of the dead (2017)

Way of the dead is a dance macabre inspired by the Mexican festival Day of the Dead on all souls day. It was commissioned by Ken Unsworth for the dance cycle “Restraints” that later became renamed as “Revolver”, released as an album on the label Unsounds. The violin is often associated with the character of Death, the grim reaper and it was the grim reaper that danced to this piece. It was premiered in Ken’s studio on Halloween performed by Anna McMichael with an ensemble featuring Claire Edwards (percussion), Genevieve Lang (harp) and Rowena McNeish (cello) and Kirsty McCahon (bass).