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Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me? Swagies
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The mainstream, popular version

In 1903, Marie Cowan arranged a version of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ for James Inglis & Co. Ltd, with an advertisement for Billy Tea on the back cover.

This first published version of the song is the one most generally known today. Marie Cowan is named on the sheet music as the ‘arranger’ of the song, with words by A.B.Paterson, promoted as the author of The Man from Snowy River.

Harry Nathan registered another manuscript version of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ with the Patent’s Office in 1903, claiming the melody as his own composition, but there is problematic evidence supporting his claim of originality. His version is a hybrid of the Marie Cowan music and the original Paterson words.

English freelance composer and writer, Thomas Wood wrote about the Macpherson/Paterson version in his book Cobbers, and included his own arrangement of the song with a rich piano accompaniment featuring distinguishing musical characteristics that are close to the Cowan version. This was the first international publication of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and established the basis for the ‘composed’ tradition of vocal, choral and orchestral arrangements and sets of musical variations.

There is another oral folklore version collected by John Meredith, the most recognised Australian collector of field recordings in this genre, that is based primarily on the Marie Cowan tune, but thought by Meredith to pre–date the 1895 song. He claims this version is related to the folk tune ‘The Bold Fusilier’.

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Marie Cowan’s 1903 arrangement of ‘Waltzing Matilda’

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