Music Collections in the National Library of Australia
Abstract
The National Library of Australia has an extensive collection of printed music, both overseas and Australian, available for research purposes. The main focus of the collection is Australian composers, lyricists, editors and publishers.
Glimpses into the history and social fabric of Australia can be obtained through the printed songs and music used from it’s beginning through to the present time and this is reflected in the types and topics of music held in the Library’s music collection. To provide efficient access to this material the collection required cataloguing. This cataloguing and control of the music collection has increased the use of the collection from many different aspects and has had an impact on future music acquisitions. Now and in the future the National Library’s comprehensive music collection will be a rich resource for researches.
“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn”—Charlie Parker (1920-1955) American jazz performer and composer.
This paper reflects some of my “music” experiences and thoughts. I’m not sure about the wisdom part, enthusiasm yes! but wisdom I doubt. I have had a great deal of pleasure and enjoyed working with the music collection, so with that in mind I would like to “blow my horn” about the wonderful collection of music held in the Library and thereby give you a glimpse into Australia’s musical heritage.
Introduction
Firstly some background information on the National Library of Australia. The Library aims to advance and promote the development and preservation of a comprehensive collection of material relating to Australia and Australian people in accordance with the National Library Act 1960. It has extensive collections of printed materials – monographs, serials, newspapers, music - and special format collections such as microforms, maps, manuscripts, pictorial, oral history, and ephemera, as well as a growing range of electronic publications.
The National Library’s Music Collection is printed music only. The Library does not collect published CD’s or other music sound recordings, except as part of a printed music item or kit. We do, however, have an extensive and growing folkloric collection of sound recordings in our Oral History Section. The organisation collecting published sound recordings is Screensound Australia (formerly National Film and Sound Archive)
Research into music is supplemented by many other collections in the National Library, besides the music collection. The Library’s general collection has books and serials on many aspects of music, including theory and history, and biographies of composers and musicians. The Oral History Section has interviews with prominent Australian composers, performers and musicologists, as well as recordings of Australian folk and Aboriginal music. The Manuscript Section looks after manuscripts scores, letters and papers of various Australian composers. The Pictorial Section has paintings and photographs of Australian composers. Other music research resources are the NLA’s newspaper clipping file relating to Australian composers and musicians and the collection of theatre programs and ephemera.
Housing the National Library's Music Collection
The National Library of Australia’s music collection is housed in a separate stack, which allows for the best storage options. Printed sheet music, which by its very nature consists of only a few pages, is placed in boxes and these are stored horizontally on shelves. Other printed music, such as albums, hard cover editions and spiral bound items are stored vertically on shelves fitted with dividers. As most music albums or larger works are published as paperbacks or with spiral binding (very little music is published with a hard cover or as a bound volume) the dividers provide physical support on the shelves. Large format items are stored horizontally on special shelves with a depth much greater than normal library shelves. Our largest score measures 54 x 86 cm, so the need for this type of special shelving is evident.
Most material in the collection is also individually placed into a mylar sleeve or in a zip-lock plastic bag for additional protection before storage in the boxes or shelves in the stacks. This provides additional protection for the item, particularly when it is retrieved for use.
Our Heritage
Music is A Part of Our heritage
The Library acquires music by Legal Deposit, by purchase (both current and retrospective items) and by gifts and donations. The collection consists of approx 169,000 pieces of printed music, both Australian and Overseas, which are available for research purposes. While the collection has a significant overseas component, the strength of the collection is in the estimated 90,000 Australiana items – music composed, arranged, edited, and transcribed or with lyrics by Australians or music about Australia or Australians.
Glimpses into the history and social fabric of Australian society can be obtained through the printed songs and music that were used in Australia from the early days of the colony through to the present time. This includes music composed by Australians as well as music by overseas composers that was “transported” or was published and printed in Australia.
The collection covers a wide range of printed music including, as you would expect, all types of classical music. It has a large component of popular music, both vocal and instrumental, as well as music for children and instructional and theoretical works.
Music is requested in a number of ways. Works by individual composers or specific titles can be easily identified if they are held in the collection, but often music researchers want to survey the collection by other aspects such as topic or type of music.
Do you have any songs or music about …? Or, Where would I find music for … ? are some of the questions asked.
Examples of some topics requested include:
- Patriotic songs and music
- Songs about sport
- Songs about events
- Songs about places
- Songs and music featured in pantomimes and musicals
- Humorous songs
- Advertising jingles
- Themes from movies and television
Our heritage is reflected in this music. Besides the words and musical content, other items of interest are the titles; the events commemorated; the dedications; the illustrations, particularly the covers; the music publishing and printing industry; the performers, composers, arrangers, editors, lyricists; and even the “popularity” of the work.
This heritage and use of the music is evident in the work done by Mr John Shortis, a 1998 Harold White Fellow at the National Library. His Fellowship to research the popular sheet music in the Library culminated in 3 musical performances.
These performances, accompanied by vocalist Moya Simpson, were titled:
‘Sheet dip – A humorous and moving performance of the songs that defined a nation’.
The 1st show ‘They shoot footage, Don’t they’ was performed at the National Film and Sound Archive. This was followed by ‘Battle lines’ at the Australian War Memorial and finally ‘Hear! Hear!’ at Old Parliament House. These shows, besides being very entertaining and great fun, reflected the spirit, the humour and the events of the times, through the songs and music used.
According to Mr Shortis Sheet dip featured “the gems of a century of popular music held in the collections of the National Library of Australia”. He has put forward a proposal for an exhibition featuring the National Library’s sheet music collection, specifically Australian popular music of the 20th century, hopefully to be held in the second half of 2000.
Songs and music have always played a part in people’s lives, and often a printed music item can evoke and enhance memories of events and other times, and as such the Library’s music collection is often used as a resource for material for exhibitions.
A Library exhibition that stands out was ‘King and Country’ (1996-7) when music was used to great effect to enhance the exhibition. Colour facsimiles were made of some sheet music of the time (with copyright clearance, of course) and were left on a table where visitors could sit and physically handle the copies. It was a delightful hands-on experience for many people.
Music has also been the main feature of other exhibitions. In 1994 the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney mounted a very successful exhibition ‘Real Wild Child’ to celebrate the evolution of Australian rock music. This exhibition featured J. O’K (Johnny O’Keefe for the younger members of the group) Australia’s pioneer rock musician. In an article by Barry York on J. O’K written for the National Library of Australia News he enthuses about the printed music scores held in the Library, especially the rare original publication of ‘Wild one (Real wild child)’ by Southern Music Publications in 1959.
On the more serious side of our musical heritage, the National Library has extensive holdings of 19th century music, including music by Isaac Nathan, an English composer who came to Australia in 1841 and is often described as the father of Australian music. Of particular interest is a piece of music titled “Aboriginal Father” a traditional Aboriginal song sung by the Maneroo tribe. This is believed to be one of the first examples of an Aboriginal song written in music notation. History, heritage and music all together!
20th century music is also well represented in the collection. Research on the Australian composer Don Banks (1923-1980) by Professor Graham Hair, a 1997 Harold White Fellow, has highlighted the depth of the music collection, both musically and as a reflection of society. Don Banks, a leading figure in the Australian music scene, was also a pioneer in the early development of electronic music and was closely associated with jazz in Australia. He composed classical and jazz music as well as music for feature films. A wide variety of music by the one composer - classical, popular, film and electronic music.
Illustrated title pages are another interesting aspect of printed music, with some of these illustrations having an historical value in their own right, such as the cover on the presentation copy of a cantata written for the opening of Sydney International Exhibition 1879-80. Many 19th century sheet music items have illustrated title pages, ranging from highly ornate to simple line drawings. Many are coloured, some hand-coloured and others having tipped-in photos.
A lot of sheet music of the 20th century while not having the fine art work of the earlier times, still carry illustrations on the title page or cover. A portrait of the composer or performer is often included and the illustrations can be of a particular event or just reflect the style of music or fashion of the day. Once I was asked for a piece of music from 1920 with a cover illustration of a female performer. They didn’t want the item for the musical content but for the hairstyle! I should mention that when working with this music it is very easy to get lost in the illustrations and forget the music.
Music Cataloguing and Control in the National Library of Australia
While the Library has always acquired Australian music a separate Music Section was established in 1973. The new Music Section was responsible for reference, acquisition and control of music and set out to build an important music research collection. Over time, due to a number of factors including staff shortages, limited resources and a rate of acquisition in excess of its capacity to provide bibliographic control, backlogs developed and the music was housed in many different sequences and under various forms of control. In 1985 a task force of ‘Special Materials Cataloguers’ was brought in to tackle these backlogs. The organising and control of the music backlog became their major objective.
Each collection and run was examined and decisions made as to its bibliographical and physical control. Priorities were assigned, with Australian music having the highest priority. Many runs and existing collections were combined, reducing the number of sequences and enabling the identification and separation of the Australian and overseas music. These items were then filed in alphabetical order according to types and/or form of music. This arrangement provided a form of access for Library users, but to provide more efficient access the collection needed cataloguing. Now there were many thousands of Australian music items identified and waiting to be individually catalogued. A formidable task indeed! The work started and was to be done on a project basis, with the specific priority components to be dealt with one by one by the Special Materials Cataloguers.
The Library’s organisational changes in 1991 resulted in the integration of the Music Section and the main-streaming of the music acquisition and reference services. 1997 saw the Special Materials Music Cataloguing Team integrated into the main Acquisition and Cataloguing Section. Music acquisition and cataloguing was now located together in one unit, where along with current acquisitions, the work continued on the retrospective priorities, with cataloguing of the Australian Songs Collection of approx 10,000 items being completed in late 1998
There are still some collections to be individually catalogued and work continues with an estimated 8,000 items recently catalogued (July 1999) under contract. The next priority for cataloguing is a fine collection of overseas imprints of 19th century sheet music, with illustrated title pages. A visual and musical feast.
Not every item in the National Library’s music collection will be individually catalogued, as some collections are not appropriate for that level of control, or have a lower priority. For music in these categories, such as the Kynoch Music Archives of Overseas Job Files, the access is provided by a collection level record.
During the many years of tackling the backlog, staff working with music also had to manage the selection, acquisition and control of currently published and retrospective music, being mindful not to acquire duplicates of retrospective music already held in the Library but not yet catalogued.
With the majority of the Library’s collection of Australian music now catalogued we have been able to accurately identify gaps in the collection for possible acquisition of this material. While the collection is particularly strong in holdings of earlier Australian composers’ works, a large gap recently identified was music by Australian contemporary composers. This gap is now being covered, as last financial year the Library was able to allocate funds and we are now in the process of acquiring a large number (ca. 4000) of scores by contemporary Australian composers from the Australian Music Centre. These scores will be individually catalogued onto Kinetica, and this ensures that newer composers’ works, along with all the other music in the NLA, will be preserved and be available to our future musicologists, historians, musicians, composers and other researchers.
For the Library’s staff it means a challenge - another major music cataloguing project to be tackled!
Our Achievements - Challenges Met and Won
Our achievements are evident, as 15 years ago many items in the Library’s music collections had not been individually catalogued, but were maintained in many different sequences, with a different filing order within each sequence. In the years since then many thousands of music items have been individually catalogued and are accessible through an on-line catalogue.
As previously mentioned there are approx 169,000 music items in the collection. This number represents the number of pieces of music and not the number of titles, as the Library holds extra copies of many Australian items. In 1985 little of the collection was catalogued onto the National Bibliographic Database. By 1991 the numbers had risen to about 15% and by 1998 approx 70% of the collection had been catalogued, an increase of 63%. This 70% of the collection is represented by 67,682 bibliographic records on the NBD and in the Library’s OPAC.
A good outcome of the music backlog cataloguing project and a great contribution to the musical heritage of Australia. A challenge met and won!
Over the years there has been an increase in the use of the collection mostly as a result of the music being catalogued and accessible on the NBD. Evidence of the increase of usage occurred in June this year when we had an ILL request for a piece of music that had been catalogued only 3 days before. Other benefits of the cataloguing were also illustrated a few months ago when we were able to inform a prominent Australian composer researching 20th Century Australian piano works, that all music falling into this category has been individually catalogued and could be located through our catalogue. The catalogue can, if he chooses, be searched via the Web, but he will still have to visit the library to look at the music he selects, as on-line access to the actual material is not yet available! Needless to say he was delighted, as he has spent many hours in the past delving through many of our boxes of music trying to find items related to his research.
Now for a little boast and to “blow my horn” I will quote from a letter received from a United States music researcher who visited the NLA in November 1998.
“I am fairly experienced in using major collections in the US and Britain … and in my judgment not only are Australian institutions in general very user-friendly by international standards, but the NLA is outstanding. In my field it has a great collection which (most unusually) has been thoroughly catalogued and opened up to outsiders”.
What a compliment! We didn’t write back to tell him that we still have a few collections that are waiting to be catalogued.
Conclusion
Vision for tomorrow
Over the past 14 years, I have seen and been involved in the growth of the music collection and its control, and have shared in the work, the challenges and the achievements.
There are still some components of the collection that need more work and some “gems” to be located and acquired, so the work is not finished - the challenge continues.
Hence my vision for tomorrow
I see a comprehensive collection of Australian printed music in the National Library of Australia, all individually catalogued onto Kinetica and available for research purposes to Australians and to the rest of the world.
My vision for the future sees the continuation of publication of Australian music compositions, the acquisition and control of this music in the National Library, and digitisation projects that would allow researchers to “see” the score on-line and not just the bibliographic record, particularly for early Australian music with decorative covers and title pages.
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the support and help of my colleagues in the National Library of Australia. In particular I would like to thank Mrs Pam Dunlop, the Library’s Manager, Cataloguing, for her help, advice and support for this paper and as the leader of the Special Materials Music Cataloguing Team for many years.
References
Dunlop, Pam. Do you have a song about a mother and a luggage Van? : cataloguing special materials in an on-line network. National Library of Australia 1991
Dunlop, Pam. Harold White Fellows at the National Library of Australia: From Bop to Pop. Paper presented to IAML (Australia) conference, Sydney, 1-2 October 1998
Dunlop, Pam. Music cataloguing marches on. National Library of Australia 1st Division News [staff bulletin] No. 2, May 1999
National Library of Australia. Collection Development Policy for Australian Materials 1998
York, Barry. Johnny O’Keefe. National Library of Australia News September 1998.