This is a work in three movements and was composed for guitarist Adrian Walter and flautist Janusz Kwasny. They included it in their program for a European tour. It was written in 2002 and also featured in one of the Darwin International Guitar Festivals.

Fragments Of Reflection

This performance: The Darwin Youth and Children's Choir directed by Emma Tantengco.
Recorded live in 2006 – Jerudong International School, Brunei. The concert was attended by the Sultan of Brunei.
Commissioned for the Australian Society for Music Education (ASME) conference held in Darwin in 2003.
Premiered by the NT Music School Choir directed by Nora Lewis.
Arafura was inspired by the beaches around Darwin, Australia. Many are edged by casuarina trees that whisper as the breezes blow through them.
The Arafura Sea and Indonesia lie to our north. The use of metallophones and gong, as well as the overall musical form, borrow from Balinese music in particular.
I was lucky indeed to take part in a Gamelan orchestra under the instruction of a Balinese music teacher; an amazing experience.
I have employed the use of spoken word and vocal effects in addition to conventional melodic lines in an effort to evoke images of the sea.
The 2002 terrorist attack in Bali occurred during the composition of this work and hence the reference to lost souls and the desire for peace.


Arafura

Fourteen Lines: Shakespeare on Love, Time and Poetry
	This is an arrangement that I made of one of the movements from my orchestral work, Fourteen Lines. It was performed on May 10th 2015 at a concert celebrating women composers by the Arafura Ensemble in Darwin, Australia. I have included amplified guitar and piano in the score.
 Fourteen Lines takes seven of Shakespeare's Sonnets as inspiration for seven short pieces of music, the sonnets being read over the music. For the 2015 chamber performance, we replaced Shakespeare with the poem - Song for a Summer Day - by Sylvia Plath.

Fourteen Lines No 1: Sonnet18 - Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day

I wrote this piece for my bassist friend and her bassist daughter, Lucy.

A Song For Lucy   - Double Bass Duo

This is one of the movements from my orchestral work - The Wetlands Suite - here arranged for solo viola and harp. 

Barramundi (from The Wetlands Suite) Arranged For Viola And Harp

This is one of 7 short pieces inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnets - my work 'Fourteen Lines'. Commissioned by the Darwin Symphony Orchestra. 
This is computer 'mock up' of the work.

Score 5. Sonnet 40 - Take All My Loves, Yea, Take Them All

This piece by Cathy Applegate has been written for the Australian Doctors Orchestra who are performing in Darwin, Australia for the first time in June, 2016. The title is a neurological term which means difficulty with rapidly repeated movements - so, ... repeated notes are a feature of the work. Various other neurological terms also get mentioned in the score.

Dysdiadochokinesis

Draft   -  Cockatoo Scene - Ballet

Movement 1. This work was commissioned and performed by James Teh in 2016. The title of the work takes its name from a Portuguese word that has no real equivalent in English. Roughly translated, it refers to a deep, bittersweet emotion, a nostalgic longing for something unattainable. This may relate to the past or to the future, and the subject of the longing can be many different things, such as people, places or even a bygone era. 
	The Portuguese writer Manuel de Melo defined it as: "a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy."
 	I explore different aspects of Saudade in each of the three movements of this work.
Photo credit: Eleanor Wilks

Saudades I

Movement 2.  This work was commissioned and performed by James Teh in 2016. The title of the work takes its name from a Portuguese word that has no real equivalent in English. Roughly translated, it refers to a deep, bittersweet emotion, a nostalgic longing for something unattainable. This may relate to the past or to the future, and the subject of the longing can be many different things, such as people, places or even a bygone era. 
	The Portuguese writer Manuel de Melo defined it as: "a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy."
 	I explore different aspects of Saudade in each of the three movements of this work.
Photo credit: Eleanor Wilks

Saudades II

Movement 3: This work was commissioned and performed by James Teh in 2016. The title of the work takes its name from a Portuguese word that has no real equivalent in English. Roughly translated, it refers to a deep, bittersweet emotion, a nostalgic longing for something unattainable. This may relate to the past or to the future, and the subject of the longing can be many different things, such as people, places or even a bygone era. 
	The Portuguese writer Manuel de Melo defined it as: "a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy."
 	I explore different aspects of Saudade in each of the three movements of this work.
Photo credit: Eleanor Wilks

Saudades III

The Brolga and the Star was premiered in November 2016 by the Palmerston Association of Dance at the Darwin Entertainment Centre.
It is a 45 minute ballet in one act that is, at it's heart, a love story in the classical  ballet tradition, but evokes strong images of the Top End of Australia.
This is the opening scene which introduces the wetlands and its creatures under a full moon.

Popular tracks by Cathy Applegate