Brady Collection

The Brady Collection brings together a rich mix of Australian and international sheet music. Collected by musician and publisher Kathleen Brady, it consists mostly popular songs and piano works from the 19th and early 20th centuries. A passionate performer and scholar, Brady preserved rare scores, manuscripts and programs that offer a lively window into the musical tastes and traditions of earlier generations.

Performing arts

Hand drawn picture of a smartly dressed middle aged man with a moustache

Phillip-Stephan Photo-Litho. and Typographic Process Company, Portrait of Mr. Frederic H Cowen, musical conductor at the Centennial Exhibition, 188?, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-137138084

Key items in the collection

Highlights from this collection demonstrate its historical significance and variety.

The Brady Collection includes around 12,500 albums and sheet music items, with a focus on popular songs and piano music from the 19th and early 20th centuries. You'll also find chamber music, orchestral and band works, opera arias and choral pieces.

Most of the music was published overseas, but the collection features many Australian editions. These include a significant number of works by Australian songwriter May Brahe (1884–1945).

Many of the older items have finely illustrated lithograph covers, an eye-catching feature also seen in the Snell Collection.

The collection includes rare scores by composers such as:

JS Bach
Ludwig van Beethoven
Cécile Chaminade
Frederic Chopin
Franz Liszt
Gioacchino Rossini
Francis Poulenc
Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov
Australian composers George Chapman and Robert Mackie

You’ll also find programs, a small selection of overseas books, and Stella Nerret’s History of the Musical Society of Victoria 1861–1981.

The collection holds a range of manuscript music dating back to the mid-19th century. While much of it is unattributed, it includes works by George Bell and three nursery rhyme albums by Helen McKenzie.

The largest group is a set of photocopied vocal, piano and orchestral works by Australian composer Conrad Gerard Zilles (1892–1958). You’ll also find manuscripts of songs and choral pieces by Brady, written between 1952 and 1971.

The collection also includes a small selection of visual materials. These include:

a lithograph of conductor Frederic H. Cowen
four photographs of the Tait family
a scrapbook of portraits featuring actors, singers, vaudeville artists and musicians—many linked to J.C. Williamson

The collection includes several albums of personal papers belonging to Kathleen Brady. These contain letters, references, concert programs, flyers, recital reviews, newspaper cuttings and material relating to Musica Australiana Press.

You’ll also find photocopied articles, notes and other resources she gathered during her research.

About Kathleen Brady

Kathleen Teresa Brady (1934–1989) was born in Traralgon, Victoria. She began learning piano at the age of four and later graduated from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in 1955. She went on to teach music at Lauriston Girls’ School and Flemington Girls’ School.

From 1963 to 1965, she studied piano and harpsichord at the Quebec Conservatoire de Musique. After returning to Australia in 1967, she worked as a music tutor at Monash University for five years.

Overseas study and teaching

Between 1973 and 1976, Brady lived in London, where she studied piano with Louis Kentner and nineteenth-century piano performance with Rhea Perrin. She returned to Australia and taught at Loreto College, Ballarat, followed by various short-term teaching roles in Melbourne.

She also started a small music publishing business called Musica Australiana Press.

Performance and publishing

Brady performed piano and harpsichord recitals in Australia, Canada and the UK. In her later years, she focused on performing, recording and publishing nineteenth-century music, especially works by composers like Franz Liszt.

The first publication from her press in 1979 was a string quartet by Charles Edward Horsley (1822–1876), whose manuscript she discovered in a Melbourne music shop.

Collector and music historian

Brady was a dedicated collector and seller of sheet music, albums and concert programs, with a particular interest in piano music and popular songs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She also produced several music catalogues to support her work.

After marrying in 1981, she often wrote and published under the name Kathleen Brady-Zilles.

Background to the collection

Kathleen Brady sold the original collection in 1979, then added more material in 1982, 1986 and 1988. A major instalment followed in 1984, purchased from dealer Ken Snell. In 1990, Brady’s nephew, Michael Daly, donated further items.

Both the printed and unpublished music from the Kathleen Brady Collection are held in the Music Collection.

The overseas music is uncatalogued and kept together as a formed collection under MUS Brady piano music. Most of the sheet music—mainly piano scores—is arranged alphabetically by composer. Albums are grouped into piano, orchestral, instrumental and vocal music, with each group also arranged alphabetically by composer.

The Australian music has been individually catalogued and is part of the Australian sheet music collection.

Kathleen Brady’s personal papers are also held in the Music Collection, but they haven’t been sorted or catalogued. The pictures and scrapbook are stored separately in the Pictures Collection.