National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 67 | February 2004


Cooperative Digitisation of Australian Printed Music

'Allan's dance folio no. 7, c.1925-cover. Allan and Co., State Library of Victoria 'He Was Only a Private - That's All', c.1904-cover, W.L.Werden and Fred'ke E. Gladdish. State Library of Victoria

Allan's dance folio no. 7, c.1925
Allan and Co., State Library of Victoria

He was only a private—That's all, c.1904
W.L. Werden and Fred'ke E. Gladdish
State Library of Victoria

Back in the August 2002 edition of Gateways, the National Library announced the release of its Digital Music Collection, providing online access to 2000 printed music items from its Australian collections. At the beginning of 2004, this figure has risen to nearly 5000 items, and the Library aims to increase this number to 8000 items by mid-2005.

Of course, the National Library is not the only library with significant Australian printed music collections. Australian State Libraries, in particular, hold collections of unique music items, many of which have particular significance for their local communities. These items have previously only been available to researchers able to make onsite visits, and many treasures have been all but invisible to the wider community.

During 2003, the State Libraries of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia commenced digitising their own Australian print music collections, with the assistance of the National Library’s Cooperative Printed Music Digitisation Project. Each of the libraries used Kinetica to establish which Australian music items they hold uniquely, before proceeding to digitise and deliver selected music content, thus avoiding duplication of effort across the country.

'Four songs of the west' cover. State Library of Western Australia 'Fair western land song' cover. State Library of Western Australia
left:Four songs of the west
Above: Fair western land,1929
State Library of Western Australia

In the process, some real local music gems have either been uncovered or highlighted.  The State Library of New South Wales, for instance, has digitised The Lays of the Hebrews: A Selection of Hebrew Melodies as Sung at the Consecration of the Sydney Synagogue, published in Sydney in 1840. The late nineteenth century phenomenon of ‘exhibitions’ prompted the composition and publication of a number of musical works. The Sydney Exhibition Valse (NSW), composed by Charles D’Albert for the 1879 International Exhibition in Sydney, is dedicated to ‘the Ladies of New South Wales’, and consists of four waltzes with a grand finale. The State Library of Western Australia has digitised Western Australia’s 1929 Centenary song, Fair Western Land, with music composed by Haydn K. Hardwick and words by Malcolm Donald. Four Songs of the West, Walter P. Meston’s celebration of the sentimental link between Perth, Western Australia and Perth, Scotland, will also now be available online. In Queensland, local themes abound, with early 20th century items selected including the song When the Jacaranda Blooms, by F. Turbayne, and the piano waltz, The Waters of the Brisbane, by Wallace Anderson, the latter illustrated by a photograph of a section of the Brisbane River. 

Many early printed music items have magnificent covers, often depicting local places or occasions. The Castle Fraser Polka (State Library of New South Wales) was written in the 1870s by R. Randolph Arndell and dedicated to his former teacher, Presbyterian Rector Dr John Fraser, who established a school modelled on Castle Fraser in Scotland. The Campbell-Town Waltzes (State Library of Tasmania) is one of the earliest examples of Tasmanian sheet music with an illustrated cover. The composer was Francis Hartwell Henslowe who, before becoming a parliamentary officer, spent six years as Police Magistrate at Campbell Town, in central Tasmania.  Dedicated, like the Sydney Exhibition Valse to ‘the Ladies of the district’, the piece features a cover based on an original watercolour sketch by Francis Russell Nixon (the first Anglican bishop of Tasmania), and lithographed by Thomas Browne, a well-known Hobart printer. This beautiful item was printed in Hobart in 1849. 

'A Soldier Rosary' , 1918-cover. J.E. Dempsey and Joseph A. Burke. State Library of Victoria
A soldier's rosary, 1918
J.E.Dempsey and Joseph A.Burke
State Library of Victoria
'Pandora march', [188- ] - cover. Herbert H. Chandler. State Library of Victoria

Pandora march, 188-
Herbert H. Chandler
State Library of Victoria

War music is also well represented in the cooperative project—which concentrates on pre-1930 material, as this presents fewer copyright challenges. The State Library of Victoria’s A Soldier’s Rosary, by J.E. Dempsey and Joseph A. Burke, and He Was Only a Private, That’s All, by W.L. Werden and Fred’k E. Gladdish, have covers which throw new light on another State Library of Victoria collection—the Argus newspaper collection of war photographs.

Many hundreds of printed music items from State Library collections have been digitised in the course of this project. Digitisation itself is, however, only part of this story. With no really viable digital collections management and delivery systems available in the marketplace, each state library has—like the National Library itself— developed its own infrastructure for making these digitised treasures available in the online environment. This is a major development exercise for any library, and is always more complex than it first appears!

For this reason, some state libraries are still working on their delivery systems, but all will have their content available online by the middle of 2004. Once these local collections are online, users will be able to discover the digital music collections via the local catalogues and websites of each of the State Libraries. But each of the libraries also contributes its records to Kinetica, and has agreed to contribute to the MusicAustralia service (due for release in the first half of 2004). Australian and international music lovers will, therefore, be able to discover these wonderful digital collections via cooperative national services, allowing users to experience digital collections from multiple organisations via a single search service. 
—Marie-Louise Ayres, Project Manager, MusicAustralia

For more information, contact mayres@nla.gov.au

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