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Marie Cowan: composer or arranger?

Allan and Co. Pty Ltd was assigned shared publishing rights to the printed music in 1925 following Marie Cowan’s death in 1919. The firm claimed that she was the ‘composer’ of the melody. From the musical evidence, however, it seems more likely that Marie Cowan either knew the Macpherson/Paterson original version and adapted that tune, or at least knew and adapted an oral version of the song.

Christina Machpherson claimed in her letter to Thomas Wood that she sent a copy of the notated music and words to Banjo: ‘Later on he told me he had sent it on to a musical friend of his who thought it would make a good bush song’ (view image).This indicates that the Cowans had some association with Paterson and it is unlikely that Marie Cowan would have changed the words without Paterson’s knowledge.

Changes in the song’s character >

 

Marie Cowan’s arrangement of the Macpherson/Paterson version of ‘Waltzing Matilda’

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