Betty Beath
Betty Beath composes chamber music, art song and piano works that lean toward lyric line and reflective mood, often coloured by Balinese and Javanese scales and a quiet sense of place.
Her suite From a Quiet Place pairs viola and piano in two still movements and a quicker close, music of mood rather than display. Mikri Thalassa, for mandolin forces, needs rise and fall within the phrase and room to feel the line. On Homegrown her art song sits among settings concerned with nature, motherhood and belonging. Research in Bali and Java has fed the writing: gamelan-inflected scales and textures enter otherwise Western chamber and solo piano scores, including the pentatonic Merindu Bali.
Compositions by Betty Beath appear on
Still Life: Australian Music for Viola
This is the third solo viola disc on Tall Poppies, and one of the few such albums ever issued in Australia. Patricia Pollett is widely regarded as among the country’s finest musicians, and the violist who has done most to draw new works for the instrument.