ABSTRACT
Anne Boyd, Sarah Hopkins and Moya Henderson 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, and the sounds of Asia. A number of commentators on the subject of spirituality draw a distinction between religion and spirituality, suggesting that the latter is something that extends beyond the borders of the practice of religion. The chapter presents three composers who have addressed issues to do with their gender, spirituality and national identity in very different ways. It would be inappropriate to reduce the complex variety of their styles and influences to a singular interpretation, attempting to find a thread that is common to all, for each articulates very different notions of what it means to be Australian, to be in contact with the spiritual, and to be a woman.
