Music

Our Music Collections

The Library holds the largest research collection of music in Australia. Its strengths are in retrospective and contemporary Australiana, including printed music, published and unpublished scores, and archival sound recordings of folk song and dance traditions in Australia. The collection consists of music and music-related materials that form part of the documentary record of Australian culture, including:

  • music (published and unpublished scores, and archival sound recordings)
  • resources about music and musical life (books, journals, electronic resources, programmes, images, oral histories, pictorial collections and papers of individual musicians and music organisations)

The term ‘Australian music’ is defined as music created by Australians, published in Australia or associated with Australia by explicit Australian performance or subject reference.

 
Printed Music

All types and styles of Australian printed music are collected: for example,

  • popular
  • classical
  • folk
  • church
  • dance
  • educational
  • film
  • children's
  • multicultrual
  • indigenous
  • jazz
  • band
  • instrumental
  • vocal and choral
  • theoretical and didactic
  • electronic.

Unpublished Australian music is collected either as part of the archives of Australian musicians, held in the Manuscript section, or as special collections of Australian musical works.

 
Archival Sound Recordings and Oral Histories

Sound recordings are collected to document the intangible musical heritage of Australia across a range of musical traditions, including folklore and vernacular music. The Library collects archival sound recordings but does not actively collect commercially distributed sound or audiovisual recordings, except where these form part of a musician’s personal archive. Screensound Australia collects commercially recorded and released moving images and sound recordings. Oral histories are recorded where they focus upon Australian composers and performers, music scholars, and notable entrepreneurs or directors.

 
Indigenous Music

The National Library's indigenous resources are revealed through the Mura Gadi service.

 
Overseas Music

The aim of collecting overseas music is to:

  • develop and maintain a core collection of music and music information for study and research;
  • acquire specialist research material; and
  • illustrate the artistic relationships and cultural contexts that inform the development of music and musical life in Australia.

The current strengths of the overseas music collection are in British and European music, ranging across musical styles forming the musical and cultural backdrop to the European settlement of Australia.

 
Resources about Music and Musical Life

The Library acquires a selection of resources about music, encompassing books, serials and electronic publications, placing an emphasis on the history of music, its social and cultural contexts and reference resources. These include:

  • books about music of general public interest, predominantly in English, capable of supporting sustained independent study;
  • comprehensive music reference and bibliographic resources and indexes; and
  • music serials, retrospective and contemporary, including those accessed through electronic aggregated services.

Digital Music

Our Digitized Music

The National Library’s audio-delivery system makes it possible to listen to those interviews in the collection which have 'open' access by clicking on the link in the catalogue record. If a timed summary is available you can use the text to navigate through the audiorecording. The Library’s access policies are intended to preserve the rights of the interviewee and protect the reputation of individuals. To learn about our conditions of access read the End User License Agreement. All the sound recordings available online have been copied in digital form for long-term preservation. To review our progress read Oral History and Folklore digitisation - progress so far and Digitisation - Overview.

 

Australian Performing Arts (PROMPT) Collection

Our Digitization Program

Find an oral history interview in our collection

Advanced Search

 
Holdings List

The Performing Arts Programs and Ephemera (PROMPT) Collection provides access to a range of materials relating to the performing arts in Australia. It includes programs, brochures, publicity information.

Holdings lists of programs in the collection for selected individuals, companies and entrepreneurs are being compiled. The following are available online

 

Symphony Australia Collection

Scope Note

During the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) extensive years of commitment to developing orchestral life in Australia, the national broadcaster had a secondary role of facilitating the composition, performance and broadcast of works by Australian composers. 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 in the days when archiving Australia's musical history was not a significant consideration for any national institution. This resulted in a collection of Australian musical works, dating from 1912 through to the 1970s.

The National Library of Australia acquired this collection, known as the Symphony Australia Collection in 2000, from the Symphony Australia Library, formerly the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Federal Music Library (ABC Federal Music Library).

This large collection of music covering seven decades of Australian musical history, consists of scores and performance parts. The works in the collection cover many genres of music, including orchestral, chamber, choral, operatic, piano and vocal works by Australian composers and arrangers. These scores and parts, replete with composers' and performers' interpretive markings, scribbling, drawings and notes represent the performance materials used by the ABC's orchestras and ensembles. The majority of the works are original manuscripts, in the composers' and copyists' hand, with some published works and photocopies.

There are both many original works by Australian composers and a number of arrangements of mainstream repertoire by Australians for Australian performance contexts. Seventy eight composers and arrangers are in the collection that contains over 1000 items. Those most represented in the collection are:

John Antill, Edgar Bainton, James Brash, Alex Burnard, Robert Dalley-Scarlett, Clive Douglas, George Selwyn English, Felix Gethen, Camille Gheysens, Edith Harrhy, Alfred Hill, Mirrie Hill, Frank Hutchens, Miriam Hyde, William James, Henry Krips, Dorian Le Gallienne, William Lovelock, Leslie Mallin, David Sydney Morgan, Arnold Mote, William Arundel Orchard, Meta Overman, Katherine (Kitty) Parker, James Penberthy, Peter Roake, Larry Sitsky, Margaret Sutherland, Georg Tintner, Felix Werder, Malcolm Williamson.

The largest single component of the collection consists of works by Alfred Hill (over 500).

This large historically significant Symphony Australia Collection now forms part of the nation's music collection and is therefore not available for loan. It can however be used on-site in the Library's Petherick Reading Room, or, items from the collection can be copied on a cost-recovery basis through the Library's Document Supply Service or Copies Direct when the request includes the relevant copyright permissions.

National Library of Australia
January 2002

 
Composer Order

This collection is not available for loan but can be used on-site in the Library's Petherick Reading Room. Items from the collection can be copied on a cost-recovery basis through the Library's Document Supply Service or Copies Direct when the request includes the relevant copyright permissions.

Download this Listing by Composer

 
Title Order

This collection is not available for loan but can be used on-site in the Library's Petherick Reading Room. Items from the collection can be copied on a cost-recovery basis through the Library's Document Supply Service or Copies Direct when the request includes the relevant copyright permissions.

Download this Listing by Title

 
Alfred Hill Listing

This collection is not available for loan but can be used on-site in the Library's Petherick Reading Room. Items from the collection can be copied on a cost-recovery basis through the Library's Document Supply Service or Copies Direct when the request includes the relevant copyright permissions.

Download Alfred Hill Listing in Title Order

Download Alfred Hill Listing in Item Number Order

 

 

Helm Collection (19th Century Music)

The Helm Collectionn

This is a notable music collection formed by Everett Helm, an American composer and musicologist. Comprising 1,163 books, 675 serial pieces, 172 libretti, 115 pieces of sheet music and some manuscripts, the collection represents a broad basis for the study and appraisal of European music from the time of Mozart and Haydn to the latter part of the nineteenth century, with an emphasis on the first half of the century.

The books constitute a working library covering all fields of music, many of them out of print and some extremely scarce. The music material consists of:

  • music prints representing the great composers (Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Lizt, Mendelssohn, and others) in first and early editions, and
  • music prints and manuscripts of secondary composers which have in recent years become scarce and are now avidly sought.

Dr Helm described the collection in the following terms:

"a thesaurus of the most varied categories and forms of music of the century roughly 1780-1880. It includes quadrilles, waltzes and romances - the "pop" music of the time; fantasies and parodies on operatic themes - the theme equivalent of "light" music; methods, instructors, etudes and other pedagogical works for the instruction of genteel amateurs, and others for conservatory and professional use; transcriptions for piano solo, four hands and other arrangements of symphonic and other concert works - the LP of the 19th century, bringing larger works into the home. And, finally, "serious" music of all shades and varieties, from "elevated" salon pieces to the great master-pieces. The extensive collection of piano and vocal scores is especially rich in French opera ... supplemented by a large group of separate numbers from 19th century operas, including many rare works that were apparently never published in their entirety, and by a large number of libretti".

A second collection was purchased from Dr Helm in 1979. This collection contains nineteenth century British music, and is especially valuable for the understanding of Australian musical life of the time. This part of the collection contains over 700 items including re-editions of old music, and a complete set of the publications of the Musical Antiquarian Society, established in 1840 for the publication of scarce and valuable works by early English composers. There are a number of song books, chiefly of the period before 1850, eg The Nightingale: a Choice Selection of the Most Admired Popular Songs; Heroic, Plaintive, Sentimental, Humourous and Bacchanalian (c. 1830). There are also folk and traditional songs in the melodies of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There is a good deal of church music and a large quantity of sheet music, roughly 1800-1860, being piano music and songs, many with fine pictorial titles. Items of special interest include two handsomely bound volumes of music from the library of Princess Beatrice, youngest child of Queen Victoria and an ardent pianist.

 

Other Music-related Collections

 

Australias Oral History Collections

The Oral History Handbook was first published by the South Australian Branch of the Oral History Association in 1983 and has been in print ever since. It is well established as the national standard.The author draws on 25 years experience of practising and teaching oral history techniques and preserving sound recordings.

 
australia's oral history collections: a national directory
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Petherick Reading Room

Opening Hours

The Petherick Reading Room is open at the following times:

Monday to Thursday 9.00am - 9.00pm
Friday and Saturday 9.00am - 5.00pm
Sunday 1.30pm - 5.00pm
Open only to registered
Petherick Readers.

Items may be requested until 30 minutes prior to closing time. After hours access to some collection material is possible by prior arrangement.

 

 
Location
 
Our Petherick Reading Room

 

Petherick Reading Room

The Petherick Reading Room (next to the Main Reading Room on the Ground floor) provides services to advanced researchers and is used to access special collections such as rare books, sheet music, ephemera and oral history interviews.

In the Petherick Reading Room visitors will also find:

  • facilities for using special collection material
  • audio cassette, CD-ROM reader and compact disc player
  • Sibelius music notation software.

If you are undertaking advanced research or need to make long-term use of the Library’s collections you may apply for a Petherick Reader’s card.

After hours access to material from the Maps, Manuscripts, Pictures and Asian collections may be possible through the Petherick Reading Room by prior arrangement.

 

 

Reader Education

 

School of the Air

 
Courses at the National Library

Upcoming events

The Library has the following events you can attend to learn more about how to use the facilities in the reading rooms:

  • Reader Education - 'Read all about it!' Finding Newspaper Articles
    Learn how to make the most of the Librarys large collection of newspaper resources. This session includes an overview of the Librarys print and microform collections as well as the rich collection of historic newspapers in the Australian Newspaper Digitisation...
 
Demonstration Video
 
 

Our Desiderata List

Further Information

If you can find any of the items listed here, you could help us by donating them to the Library or simply letting us know of their whereabouts.

Please direct all enquiries and offers of materials to:

Music & Dance Branch
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600
email: music@nla.gov.au
phone: 02 6262 1489

 
WANTED!
Title
Adelaide fanfare / Malcolm Williamson. London: Josef Weinberger, c1973
Ancient Hebrew melodies / Joseph Reichenberg (or Richenberg), 1845
Australian quadrilles / Joseph Reichenberg (or Richenberg), 1826
Australis, or, The city of zero : an entirely original musical and spectacular pantomomic extravaganza of the future :  written and staged for Federation 1900/01 / with music by Bernard Espinasse ;  and script by J.C. Williamson
Bridge song / composed by Betty Newell, 1932
Bridge two-step : the latest dancing craze / words by John L. Bepper ; music by Nicholas Robins.  Australia : John Bepper, c1932
Busker’s story / Alison Bauld. London: Novello, c1974
Butcher-baronet, or The Wagga Wagga mystery : a new and original musical burletta in three acts / by Frank Hutchinson. Wagga Wagga, NSW : Advertiser Printing Office, 1871
Canberra fanfare / Malcolm Williamson. London: Josef Weinberger, c1973.
Concerto for Bernadette ; concerto for piano accordion, piano and strings / by Michael J. Easton.
Courtship : song : / written and composed by R.A.A. Stoneham and C. J. De Garis. Melbourne : Melola Phonograph & Publishing Co., [19--] "F.F.F. : an Australian Musical Comedy"—Cover..
Every day is a rainbow day for me / composed by Don Bradman ; words by Jack Lumsdaine.
Federation : opera / by Louis Bayer.
Federation musical album
Fontainbleau fanfare / Malcolm Williamson. London: Josef Weinberger, c1981
Gerda : opera / Dudley Glass
Hail Australia! : a patriotic song / composed by Alberto Zelman. Melbourne
Harbour Bridge : musical skit / John Henry and Gladys Horridge, 1931
Hobarton quadrilles / Joseph Reichenberg (or Richenberg), 1828
Icy mirror / Malcolm Williamson ; text by Ursula Vaughan. London: Josef Weinberger, c1972
In a dead brown land : a dramatic pastoral / by Alison Bauld. London: Novello, c1974
In thanksgiving - Sir Bernard Heinz / Malcolm Williamson, 1982
Lucky-Peter's journey : a comedy with music / by Malcolm Williamson ; libretto by Edmund Travey ; based upon a fairy-tale play by August Stringberg. London: Weinberger, c1969
May the grace of Christ : 4 part canon : in Sound the bamboo / Colin Brumby. Manila : CCA, 1900
Mirror : fur zwei floten / Felix Werder. Frankfurt : Musikverlag Zimmermann, c1988.
Mr Nightingale : an operetta for junior schools / by June Epstein. Melbourne : Allans Music Australia, c1978.
Music for wind band / Don Banks. Published by Schott, 1971
Next year in Jerusalem : for high voices and orchestra / Malcolm Williamson ; poems of Jorge Luis Borges. Buntingford, Hers. : Campion Press, [198-]
Oh, come and worship / words by Juliet Hoey ; music by Colin Brumby. [Minneapolis, Minn.] : Augsburg Fortress, 1990.
Overland mail : galop / composed by Charles D'Albert. Sydney : J.R. Clarke, 356 George Street, [18--]
Procession of Psalms /  Malcolm Williamson. London : Josef Weinberger, c1965
Postludium / William Lovelock ; edited by Martin Shaw. London : Cramer, c1939
Psalm 117, O praise the Lord / Colin Brumby. [U.S.} : Augsburg Fortress, 1991
Pumpkin 1 / music and text by Alison Bauld. London : Novello, c1974
Richmond fanfare / Malcolm Williamson. London: Josef Weinberger, c1980
Ride! Ride! : a musical based on a story about John Wesley / lyrics Alan Thornhill ; music Penelope Thwaites ; arrangements Will Reed. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, c1976.
Sleeping ‘neath the veldt : descriptive song / words & music by Alf. Graham. Sydney : W.H. Paling, [190-}
Sonata for flute and piano / Keith Humble. New York : John Wion, c1994
Song of the Ashes : the great cricket hit / words by F. T. Wrightson ; music by Alfred J Hodges. York, England : Hodges Studio, 1926.
Song of the bridge / words by Walter T Bourke : music by Percy Davies. 1932
Song of the great bridge / composed by Albert Cazabon. 1932
String quartet no. 3 / Malcolm Williamson. Buntingford : Campion Press , c1963
Symphony no. six : liturgy of homage to the Australian Broadcasting Commission in its fiftieth year as university to the Australian nation / Malcolm Williamson. 1982
Tasmanian new quadrilles and country dances for 1832 / Joseph Reichenberg (or Richenberg)
Text I : fur solo flote / Vivienne Olive. Kassel, Germany : Furore Edition, c1988
Tout Paree : revue : written for the entrepreneur Ernest Rolls / by Jack O'Hagan. 1930's
True Endeavour : a symphonic statement for speaker, mixed chorus and orchestra / Malcolm Williamson ; the texts are drawn from the works of Manning Clark. Buntingford, Herts. : Campion Press, c1988
Variations on La Follia / Mary Mageau. Hannacroix, N.Y. : Loux Music Publishing Co., [2000?] For flute, violoncello obbligato and keyboard.
Variations on "Oh no we never mention her" / Joseph Riechenberg (or Richenberg), 1833
Waltzing Matilda published in languages other than English.
The Warriors : music to an imaginary ballet for orchestra and 3 pianos / by Percy Aldridge Grainger. Mainz, Germany : Schott, c1926.
 
Can I be interviewed?

Since the Apology, there has been widespread interest in being interviewed for the project. The Library will be selecting people to interview so as to build a collection which will contain stories telling the diversity and complexity of the experiences. If you would like to express an interest in being interviewed, then you can complete an Expression of Interest by completing this form.

 
Is the Library collecting other materials?

The Library is seeking to collect other materials about the experiences of Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants including ephemera, self-published autobiographies, websites and manuscripts. The Library has made a list of a significant number of publications which it does not hold and would like to collect, catalogue and make available. If you have published a book about your experiences you can check here to see if the National Library holds a copy. There is information about the Legal Deposit scheme and where to send a copy of your book.

 

FAQs

 

Oral History Handbook 5th Edition

 
How do I conduct an Oral History interview?

 

 
How do I choose the right equipment for recording my grandma's oral history?

We recommend that you consult the latest edition of the Oral History Handbook. The Handbook contains a comprehensive chapter on recording equipment, including suggestions based on needs and budget. There is also information on research, interviewing techniques, and producing transcripts.

 

Trove can help you find and get items at libraries near you. See the FAQ What is Trove and how can I use it?

 

The book can be purchased through the Oral History Association of Australia.

 
Where can I find Australian folklore?

A couple of useful websites to try include:

Folklore Australia, a resource base for Australian folklore and folklife. The site includes a select bibliography of Australian folklore.

The Australian Government’s Culture and Recreation Portal has an article on Australian folklore, which includes links to other sources of information.

The National Library Oral History Collection contains a significant quantity of folklore field tapes, dating from the post-war Australian folklife revival. These include the John Meredith, Norm O'Connor, and Alan Scott Collections, and the Wattle Collection. The Anne O'Connor Collection highlights the contribution of the Irish to the Australian cultural experience. Discover more about using the oral history collection and where to find oral history and folklore.

To find items held in the Library’s collections you can search our online catalogue with the words "folklore australia" (include the quotation marks). You can also search using the words "folklore research australia" or "folklorists australian interviews" (including quotation marks).

Trove can help you find and get items at libraries near you. See the FAQ What is Trove and how can I use it?

The National Library can provide copies of certain materials and interlibrary loans for registered users.. For more information go to our Copies Direct service.