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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 41 | October 1999


The collections

Sheet music: a key to our past

A post office, a rowing club and an Australian cricket team are each featured in nineteenth-century sheet music acquired recently for the Library’s collections. They are a snapshot of history, and a key into our past.

Sheet music

The first New South Wales Postmaster-General was appointed in 1865. By 1870 the post and telegraph offices were amalgamated and a grand new General Post Office, that opened for business on 1 September 1874, was erected in Martin Place, Sydney. The G.P.O. Waltz by C.L. Biddulph is in honour of this building, and features a lithograph of the imposing edifice, complete with clock-tower, on its cover. The image also depicts Sydneysiders in a more leisurely period wandering broad streets, together with a railway horse-drawn carriage and other smaller vehicles. The music is dedicated generously to ‘The Hon. The Post Master General and Staff’.

Sport featured in the music of yesterday, as it does today. The Mercantile Rowing Club Gallop by J. Devlin was played by the Albion Band at the annual Sydney Regatta of 1877. Towards the end of 1877, the Victorian Rowing Association, established the previous year, suggested to the Sydney rowing clubs that an inter-colonial eight-oared race be rowed on the Yarra. After lengthy discussion, the Mercantile Rowing Club agreed to represent New South Wales and the race was rowed in 1878—with, unfortunately for them, Victoria placed first. Was that the end of this tune in the top of the pops?

Hurrah for the Bat and Ball: The Universal Cricket Song celebrated the Australian cricket tour of England in 1896, and carries a photograph of the Australian team on the cover. In this tour, three tests were played, with England winning the first and the third and Australia the second. Another acquisition, Some Cricket by E.J. Formby brags about how Bradman and Grimmett won the Ashes during the 1930 tour of England.

A music curiosity, also acquired recently, is a music theory self-teaching device. The Self Examiner for Acquiring Fluent Knowledge of Each Major and Minor, Key Note, Key Signature, Leading Note, Triad and Dominant Seventh Chord, and The Self Examiner for Acquiring Fluent Knowledge of Intervals … are two cards which contain dials for setting notes and conditions to teach the relevant theories. The self-examiners appear to be invented by Edward Atkins, Box 15, Ashfield, NSW and one carries the motto ‘At kins with the world’. Unfortunately, to date the Library’s music experts have been unable to unravel the key to this self-help!

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

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