National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 56 | April 2002


The Symphony Australia Collection

The first page of Mirrie Hill's Symphony in A (Arnhem Land)
The first page of Mirrie Hill's Symphony in A (Arnhem Land)

The Symphony Australia Library, formerly the ABC Federal Music Library, recently donated to the National Library of Australia its very extensive collection of unpublished music scores and parts by Australian composers to ensure the collection’s long-term preservation and access.

During the ABC’s extensive years of commitment to developing orchestral life in this country, the national broadcaster also had a secondary role of facilitating the composition, performance and broadcast of works by Australian composers. Australia is fortunate that the ABC’s Federal Music Library preserved many of the musical scores and parts arising from the ABC’s function as Australia’s premier classical music performing organisation of the time. This so-called collection of Australian works, with scores dating from the early 1900s through to the 1970s, was developed, used and maintained by the ABC Music Library in the days when archiving Australia’s musical history was not a significant consideration for any national institution.

Musical scores were, of course, at that time handwritten and, until the 1970s, mostly hand copied. Thus these scores and parts have mainly survived in this original form, many well used, at times tattered and battered, replete with composers’ revisions and performers’ interpretive markings, scribblings, drawings, notes … and accompanied on occasion by letters, commission and dedication information, broadcast dates, performer autographs, even photographs. Thus the materials also document the history of their performance and stylistic interpretation. The physical condition and the range of annotations render the scores and parts in the collection less than usable as orchestral sets for contemporary performances. But they represent an invaluable source—indeed often the only surviving documentation—for research about this aspect of Australia’s musical creativity and performance history. The collection represents a large number of composers, amongst the most notable Alfred and Mirrie Hill, John Antill, Dorian le Gallienne, Clive Douglas, Edgar Bainton, Frank Hutchens, Miriam Hyde, Margaret Sutherland and James Penberthy. The repertoire is primarily orchestral, but also includes choral, chamber, vocal and piano works, as well as arrangements of standard classical fare by Australian composers and conductors.

This loose collection of unpublished music held at the Library is what we now call the Symphony Australia Collection. The name reflects the organisational change that occurred when the ABC orchestras were transferred to their new management structure under the auspices of Symphony Australia in 1997. The Symphony Australia Library became increasingly aware of the need to preserve these manuscripts in appropriate archival conditions and to find a permanent home for the collection that would make it accessible long-term to researchers and musicians. Symphony Australia consulted with the ABC, the National Archives of Australia, the Australian Music Centre and the Library. The consensus between all was that the Library was the most appropriate home for this substantial collection—some 76 boxes of materials! The prime considerations were preservation and physical management of the collection, cataloguing, access, research and information service support … as well as consideration of the nature of the material and the strategic role of each organisation in managing Australia’s music resources.

Portrait of John Antill of Sydney, composer of the orchestral ballet suite Corroboree based on ceremonial dances of Australian Aborigines
Portrait of John Antill of Sydney, composer of the orchestral ballet suite Corroboree based on ceremonial dances of Australian Aborigines
Photograph; gelatin silver 20.6 x 15.5 cm
Pictorial Collection

The Library is also actively working with other organisations to fulfil its primary role to collect, preserve, maintain and make available Australian music of all types and styles, past and present. For example, the Australian Music Centre and the Library have an agreement about the long-term preservation of works by contemporary Australian composers, collected and reproduced under licence by the Centre. The Library and the Centre continue their ambitious plan for the Library to systematically purchase from the Centre one facsimile copy of retrospective and new scores. The Library provides access to these facsimiles for research purposes and the Centre continues its mission to support and promote Australian composition by providing a broader access to Australian works for use in performance, education and research. In this way, composers and performers continue to benefit, and their music has the opportunity to live, in addition to being preserved for Australian’s of the future.

The large historically significant Symphony Australia Collection has now been housed in the Library and sorted and indexed. Though it is not yet fully catalogued, researchers can now access the collection; the Library can locate works by composer and title, and is able to make available to users its electronic index to the collection. You can request assistance or further information through the Library’s web site Ask Us service at www.nla.gov.au/infoserv/askus.html. The material can be used on-site in the Petherick Reading Room, or, for those unable to visit the Library, the materials can be copied on a cost-recovery basis through the Document Delivery service when the request includes relevant copyright permissions.

The agreements between our national institutions about archiving this kind of material marks a new stage in building national cooperative strategies that will ensure the preservation of and access to Australia’s music for future generations. Just as Symphony Australia continues to facilitate the composition and performance of Australian music, it also hopes to ensure that new manuscript materials are also preserved and made accessible in optimum conditions. We are delighted to be able to announce the availability of this remarkable collection in its new permanent home!
—Robyn Holmes, Carolyn Waller, Music Librarian, Symphony Australia and John Davis, General Manager, Australian Music Centre

| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |


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