Recordings of Australian folk songs, dance music, recitations and oral history, collected by folklorist John Meredith (1920–2001). The collection also includes photographs and manuscripts documenting folk traditions and the bush music revival.

Topic

One of the world’s oldest music traditions that is still performed is the bunggul ceremony. This can be seen annually at the Garma Festival held in Gulkula, a sacred site in north-east Arnhem Land. The Garma Festival runs for four days and observes the traditions and customs of the Yolngu people.

The Library has a diverse collection of materials documenting the history of Australian musical performance.

Recordings of Australian folk songs, some British folk songs, Greek and Turkish music, African songs, dance music, recitations, poetry, jokes, children’s rhymes, yarns, and recollections recorded in Victoria 1953-1969.

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: The Arts for years 5 & 6 students.

We hold one of Australia’s largest collections of performing arts materials.

80 oral history interviews with musicians, dancers and others, and recordings of songs and performances, as well as sheet music, imprints and personal papers.

40 recordings of folk music, folklore and reminiscences from people in rural New South Wales recorded from 1983 to 1988.

Recordings of folk music, dance music, folklore and oral history from New South Wales and Queensland recorded during the period 1955 to 1990.

Personal papers, manuscript scores, literary manuscripts, sound recordings and family photographs of Peter Sculthorpe, plus videos of films for which he wrote the music and television interviews.

A comprehensive collection of manuscript pencil scores, drafts of compositions, and fair copies of Sitsky's music dating from 1958 onwards.

About 15,500 items of sheet music and about 700 music albums from the late eighteenth century to the 1980s, as well as the personal papers of Snell.