Early Australian music

The Library has an immense collection of 19th century music published in Australia. It provides a snapshot of what colonial Australians were singing or dancing to with the earliest music by Isaac Nathan dating to the 1830s.

The collection includes songs celebrating explorer Leichhardt’s return, transcriptions of Indigenous Australian melodies, early attempts at a national anthem, celebrations of buildings, places or expositions; by such publishers as F. Ellard, Henry Marsh, Francis Cunninghame and John Degotardi. Many have beautiful covers showing what localities such as Rose Bay looked like at the time.

Major early Australian music collections

Musica Australis

The collection comprises of research (including photocopies and original works of early Australian music) undertaken by Richard Divall and others for the ABC Musica Australis radio and concert series in the late 1960s - early 1970s.

Helm collection

The Helm collection contains 18th and 19th century European and English vocal and instrumental music (such as piano, symphonies, choral, operas and songs) including music manuscripts and pictorial title pages. The collection also includes works which would have been known or played by colonial Australians, such as 18th century Scottish fiddle tunes and 18th century British vocal music. One of the highlights is The bonnie woods of Craigie-Lea, which was the basis of Waltzing Matilda.

20th century Australian music

The National Library has a large collection of material about contemporary Australian composers. Some of the major collections include the Australian Music Centre Archive and the Symphony Australia Collection, as well as current works issued by the Australian Music Centre, Wirripang and small composer-publishers.

Another major collection held at the National Library is 20th century popular music published in Australia. These works can be found in the catalogue using a general music search, or you could search for specific collections like the Symphony Australia Showbands collection (which includes scores used by the ABC dance bands and light orchestras for performances on radio and television). These works indicate what Australians were playing, listening to, dancing to or singing in the 20th century. They are often illustrated with photographs of popular Australian singers, performers or bandleaders of the day.

Major 20th century Australian music collections

Australian Music Centre Archive

The Archive contains approximately 3,800 scores and parts (both as manuscripts and as reproductions) by Australian composers represented by AMC.Most of the materials have composition dates or performance dates spanning from 1940-1980. These works are all catalogued by the composer’s name, with their works listed collectively in the record.

Symphony Australia Collection

This collection of 3,000 items covers seven decades of Australian musical history. The collection includes scores and performance parts across 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, written in the composers' and copyists' hand, with some published works and photocopies.