This third instalment of the ABC Classic series Women of Note: A Century of Australian Composers features over two hours of music by a mix of established and emerging composers. From the opening bars, it is immediately clear that the impeccable standard of the preceding volumes has been maintained. 

Women of Note

Most of the 17 works featured are for small ensembles but Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ Sinfonia Da Pacifica and The Witching Hour (Concerto for Eight Double Basses) by Elena Kats-Chernin are notable and monumental exceptions. Many also share a preoccupation with various aspects of nature: earth, sky, oceans, and, continuing a long tradition in Western classical music, birds and their songs. Cockatoos and lorikeets have provided inspiration for Hilary Kleinig and Fiona Loader respectively; Jessica Wells has built a dramatic work around the Night Parrot and a spine-tingling movement from Emma Jayakumar’s Bell Birds suite is a particular highlight. 

Others include Caerwen Martin’s Stars Come Out in a Midnight Sky, a quietly perfect evocation of lights twinkling in...