Women, spirituality, landscape : the music of Anne Boyd, Sarah Hopkins and Moya Henderson

Anne Boyd (b. 1946), Sarah Hopkins (b. 1958) and Moya Henderson (b. 1941) are Australian composers for whom notions of place and spirituality play a significant role in their lives and in their music. In different ways their music is inspired by the Australian landscape, the indigenous inhabitants of Australia and, for Boyd in particular, the sounds of Asia. The sparseness that characterizes Boyd's early works invites comparison with the vast, arid landscape that surrounded her as a child in outback, central Queensland.