Hearing the Music
of Early New South Wales
A Home with No Walls
In the early decades of the colony, across the town of Sydney and beyond, the music of Aboriginal clans, convicts and free settlers mingled in the air. Just as the people cohabited, so did their music. Indigenous observers mimicked and parodied British songs, and settlers listened in on corroborees. Traditional working-class songs mixed with the strains of waltzes from the regimental bands and the pianos of the colony’s elite.
Many colonists felt keenly isolated from Britain, separated by a perilous voyage of several months, and strove to maintain familiar musical practices with the limited resources available to them. They attended balls and concerts, sang psalms at home or in church, and danced and sang at home to entertain family and friends.
Those settlers living far from towns and with limited access to new sheet music from Britain created their own songs, many reflecting the uniquely local experiences of convicts and stockmen. However, other musical innovations continued to be driven by imported British fashions, particularly as transport and the musical infrastructure in NSW improved
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View of part of the river of Sydney, in New South Wales, taken from St Phillip's Churchyard, 1813
John Eyre attributed
CAROLINE SIMPSON COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
First Nations Music
... one of the gentlemen with me sung some songs; and when he had done, the females in the canoes either sung one of their own songs, or imitated him, in which they succeeded beyond conception. Any thing spoken by us they most accurately recited, and this in a manner of which we fell greatly short in our attempts to repeat their language after them.
JOHN WHITE, JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO NEW SOUTH WALES …, J DEBRETT, LONDON, 1790
From shore to shore, Australia has long been filled with music. First Nations people lived within communities shaped by dance and the sharing of song.
In 1788, new musical sounds began to fill the air in small pockets of the country of the Darug, Darawal and clans north of Sydney. These British tunes were quickly picked up by clan members adept at learning the songs of other Aboriginal language groups. In turn, the European newcomers attended Aboriginal ceremonies, and documented their corroborees, dances, songs and musical instruments in paintings, glossaries and musical transcriptions.
Even amid increasing dispossession, displacement and conflict, Aboriginal people practised a lively exchange with early European settlers in song and dance, on the streets of Sydney Town, in bays around the harbour and in the colonists’ outlying settlements.
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Corroboree at Newcastle
J. Lycett, ca. 1818
Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales | Digitally Lightened
YOO-LAHNG ERAH-BA-DIANG AT WOGGANMAGULLY (FARM COVE)
He held his shield in one hand, and a club in the other, with which he gave them, as it were, the time for their exercise. Striking the shield with the club, at every third stroke the whole party poised and presented their spears at him, pointing them inwards, and touching the centre of his shield.
Description of the initiation process ‘Yoo-long Erah-ba-diang’, in David Collins, An account of the English colony in New South Wales, T Cadell Jun and W Davies, London, 1798
In the early years of European settlement, cultural practices continued at the sacred site of Yoo-lahng at Wogganmagully, near what is now Mrs Macquaries Point in Farm Cove. Song and dance played an integral role in these gatherings, such as the initiation ceremony that Lieutenant-Governor David Collins was invited to attend in February 1795. Collins’s detailed descriptions and illustrations of this ceremony, in which 15 boys made their transition to manhood, were published in London in 1798.
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Illustration of the initiation process ‘Yoo-long Erah-ba-diang’
From David Collins, An account of the English colony in New South Wales,
Cadell & Davies, London, 1798, plate 6.
CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
‘IAH, IAH, GUMBERY JAH’ (‘HARRY’S SONG’)
In 1825, a song sung by Corrangie, also called Harry (c1787–after 1837), a leader of the Burramattagal or Parramatta clan, was published in England. The song had been transcribed a few years earlier by Barron Field, then serving as a judge in NSW, and accompanied his description of a corroboree – a ceremony of music and dance. Field believed it was the first ‘Australian national melody’ to have been written down; in fact, there are several earlier examples, including the song performed in London by Corrangie’s brother-in-law Bennelong.
AUDIO
‘Iah, iah, gumbery jah’ (‘Harry’s song’)
Performed by Clarence Slockee and Matthew Doyle (voices and clapsticks), 2010
Recorded by Kevin Hunt at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney
CULTURAL PERMISSION GRANTED BY METROPOLITAN LOCAL ABORIGINAL LAND COUNCIL
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A south-west view of Parramatta in New South Wales
Artist unknown, 1811
Contemporary First Peoples Composers
Nardi Simpson
GRAPHIC (ABOVE)
Photo @ Nicole Foreshew
‘Treading water’ is inspired by Gadigal and Cammeraigal women’s fishing songs, and Irish musical traditions. It is the joining of the waters, the practice and peoples of these unique singing cultures.
NARDI SIMPSON
Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay writer, musician and educator from NSW’s north-west freshwater plains. As a member of Indigenous duo Stiff Gins, Nardi has performed nationally and internationally for the past 20 years. She also sings in Freshwater, a group dedicated to the teaching and learning of NSW River languages through song. In 2019, Nardi began her tenure as musical director of Barayagal, a cross-cultural choir of Indigenous and non-Indigenous singers run by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
LEARN MORE
Contemporary First Peoples Composers, Museums of History NSW
AUDIO
‘Treading water’
COMMISSIONED EXCLUSIVELY FOR SONGS OF HOME
Composed by Nardi Simpson | Performed by members of the Royal Australian Navy Band: Able Seaman Andrew Crago (soprano saxophone), Able Seaman Thomas Duck (alto saxophone), Able Seaman Martin Aujard (tenor saxophone), Able Seaman Ellen Zyla (baritone saxophone) and Able Seaman Ritnarong Coomber (clapsticks), 2019
RECORDED IN PARTNERSHIP BY ABC CLASSIC
Street Sounds of Sydney
I defy all the frying-pans, rams-horns, bagpipes &c. in the world, to combine more discordant sounds than proceed from the ill-played bassoons, clarinets, and flutes, … and grating voices, which compose the orchestra in the churches.
A LOVER OF SWEET SOUNDS, ‘TO THE EDITOR’
THE SYDNEY GAZETTE AND NEW SOUTH WALES ADVERTISER, 23 DECEMBER 1824
By the 1820s a stroll through the town was accompanied by the ‘Sydney soundtrack’ of marches and opera tunes played by parading regimental bands, tavern songs and fiddle music spilling out of every public house, lone bagpipers playing a mournful tune, rehearsals for the latest concert, the piano practice of young girls, hymns and psalms from the rough and ready church choirs, and hits stored on numerous barrel organs.
The sounds of early music making reveal a vibrant musical culture in which people from across colonial society participated. Colonists used music to maintain social and civic networks, engage in sacred practices, make money, and for sheer pleasure.
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Sydney in all its glory
From Edward Charles Close, ‘New South Wales sketchbook: sea voyage, Sydney, Illawarra, Newcastle, Morpeth’, c1817–40
MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Military Bands
Military bandsmen played a central role in colonial musical and social life. In addition to their regimental and ceremonial duties, these skilled musicians were kept busy performing at balls and other private functions, often at Sydney’s first Government House, located where the Museum of Sydney now stands.
During the Rum Rebellion of 1808, Governor William Bligh was arrested and removed from office by the local regiment, the NSW Corps. The soldiers marched to Government House in step to the beat of the regimental band playing the traditional military marching tune ‘The British grenadiers’.
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The arrest of Governor Bligh, 1808
Artist unknown, 1888 copy based on original 1808 watercolour
MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
AUDIO
‘The British grenadiers’
Composer unknown
Performed by the Central Band of the Royal British Legion; directed by David Cole mvo obe, 2010
© CLOVELLY RECORDINGS LTD 2010
Early Band Instruments
Early regimental bands consisted of clarinets, oboes, horns and bassoons, as well as fifes, drums and often also a serpent (a bass wind instrument). From the 1830s, further brass instruments were added, including the trombone and the ophicleide (a keyed bass instrument). Traditional keyless bugles were used on parade to call or dismiss troops. The keyed or ‘Kent’ bugle was widely used in military bands during the 1830s. A rare surviving example of this instrument was presented to Acting Corporal John Shanaghan (1823–1895) of the 58th Regiment ‘for his industry & talent as a Musician’ sometime before his arrival in NSW in 1844.
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Sheet music cover
The 77th Galop, by P Cavallini, Sydney 1858
Museums of History NSW
A Barrel of Music
This barrel organ, made in England around 1830, plays 18 tunes that make up almost 20 minutes of music, including favourites such as ‘Home! Sweet home!’ and ‘Auld lang syne’. Such machines were advertised for sale from 1812 onwards, and their distinctive mechanical sound was heard on Sydney’s streets as well as in private homes in the country. In the very early days they were even used to play hymns in small churches.
AUDIO
‘Home! Sweet home!’
Composed by Henry Rowley Bishop
Played on English barrel organ, c1830
RECORDING BY FRANK LEWIS AND RUSSELL MOONEY;
DIGITAL ENHANCEMENT BY NIGEL MCLEAN
OBJECT
Small barrel organ
Maker unknown, England, c1830
COURTESY FRANK AND ROBYN LEWIS
An Immigrant's Collection
The collection of music which you can visit by clicking the image to the right belonged to Lucy Havens (c1804–1867), who was born in Scotland and grew up in northern England. Lucy emigrated to Sydney in 1839 with her mother and her siblings and their families. The volume includes music printed in England and Scotland and reflects the tastes of a financially comfortable family, with compositions by Europeans such as Ignaz Pleyel and Mozart, as well as Scots such as Nathaniel Gow and William Browne. It also contains dance tunes such as waltzes, reels and strathspeys, including the song below, 'Mr Frank Walker's Strathspey'.
AUDIO
'Mr Frank Walker's strathspey'
Composed by Nathaniel Gow
Performed by Luca Warburton (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC
GRAPHIC
'Mr Frank Walker's strathspey'
Published by Nathaniel Gow, Edinburgh and London, c1804–11; in a volume of music belonging to Lucy Havens, The Rocks, Sydney
STEWART SYMONDS SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION
CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
Visit Lucy Havens' collection of music by clicking on the score above
Church Music at St James'
The design of the steeple on Sydney’s St James’ Church, in King Street, was typical of English town churches in the late 18th century. The music within would have been similarly familiar to many of Sydney’s immigrants. Before St James’ first pipe organ was installed in 1827, the music was led by a small band of amateur singers and players on instruments such as the violin, cello, flute, clarinet and bassoon. The ‘church band’ included soldiers, convicts and free settlers.
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St James’ Church, the Supreme Court and Hyde Park, Sydney
J Ellis, early 1840s
CAROLINE SIMPSON COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
AUDIO
‘First hymn for Christmas Day’
Composed by James Johnson for St James’ Church, c1840s
Performed by The Choir of St James’, directed by
Warren Trevelyan-Jones, and Alistair Nelson (organ), 2019
RECORDED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ST JAMES’ CHURCH, KING STREET, SYDNEY
Earliest Concerts
The earliest concerts in NSW were held in any building large enough to accommodate a few hundred people. In 1826, a series of 12 public concerts was given, first at the Freemason’s Tavern on George Street and then in the ‘Old Court House’, on the site of what is now David Jones’s Elizabeth Street store. This first extensive series of concerts was popular with music lovers hungry for good entertainment. During the 1830s and 40s, concerts were regularly put on in Sydney’s theatres, with programs combining popular and classical pieces, and featuring both vocal and instrumental artists.
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Concert room, Charlie Napier Hotel, Ballarat
Samuel Thomas Gill, 1855
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
VIDEO
Violin sonata in D major, Op 5 no 1, movements 1 and 2
Composed by Arcangelo Corelli, who was first performed in a Sydney concert in 1826
Performed by Aaron McGregor (violin) and Concerto Caledonia, 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON AND CONCERTO CALEDONIA
Convict Musicians
... it is curious to observe with what nonchalance some of these [convicts] will turn the jingling of their chains into music whereto they dance and sing.
PETER CUNNINGHAM, TWO YEARS IN NEW SOUTH WALES, HENRY COLBURN, LONDON, 1827.
Many of the tens of thousands of convicts transported to NSW played folk instruments such as the fiddle, flute, bagpipes and Jew’s harp. Some were professionally trained instrumentalists, singers, teachers and composers, and a few of these went on to have successful colonial music careers.
Other convicts were skilled in tuning pianos, printing music and making violin strings. Not all convicts were British, and those from other British colonies such as Jamaica and Mauritius brought quite different musical traditions to Sydney.
Surviving ballads relating to convict life tend to be cautionary in nature and were often better known in Britain than in the colony itself. In a few local instances, old tunes were repurposed with new words to reflect actual colonial conditions, such as in ‘The Norfolk Island exile’. Hardship is a constant theme, and there are numerous reports of convicts writing songs while under sentence. Among them, Frank McNamara (transported in 1832), known as ‘Frank the Poet’, is credited with the well-known song ‘Moreton Bay’.
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‘Convictos en la Nueva Olanda’ [Convicts in New Holland]
Juan Ravenet, 1789–94, in Felipe Bauza’s collection of drawings made on the Spanish Scientific Expedition to Australia and the Pacific in the ships Descubierta and Atrevida under the command of Alessandro Malaspina
MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
AUDIO
‘All round my hat’
Composed by John Valentine
Performed by Jacqueline Ward (voice) and Neal Peres Da Costa (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
All Round My Hat
The comic song ‘All round my hat’ tells the story of a girl transported to Australia for stealing and is recounted by her English lover. This handwritten copy was made and sold by Sydney’s leading music seller, Francis Ellard, in the late 1830s. It was purchased by Lilias Dowling, a wealthy young woman born and raised in Sydney, and suggests that the topic of convict transportation was acceptable in the genteel drawing room. A well-known version of ‘All round my hat’ was recorded by English folk band Steeleye Span in 1975.
OBJECT
‘All round my hat’ by John Valentine, c1834
Manuscript copy, late 1830s
SCORE, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
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Absolute pardon issued to convict John Onion the Elder, 1835
MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW.
GIFT OF DAVID PERRY, 2007
John Onions
John Onions, or Onion (c1770–1840), a political prisoner from Derbyshire, was transported to NSW in 1818 and assigned as a servant to the publisher and philanthropist Edward Smith Hall. A keen singer, clarinetist and flautist, Onions brought with him long experience as a performer of sacred music. Encouraged by Hall, he served as choir leader at St John’s Church, Parramatta, and later at St Philip’s, Sydney. He also led the music at the Wesleyan Chapel, Macquarie Street, Sydney, and gave singing lessons to schoolchildren. Onions was granted this absolute pardon in 1835.
The Jew's Harp
The instrument below, which probably belonged to a convict, was found by archaeologists beneath the floor of the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney in 1980–81. Small and easy to carry, Jew’s harps (or jaw harps) were particularly popular with convicts and labourers during the first half of the 19th century. The narrow end of the instrument is placed between the player’s lips, resting against the teeth, and the instrument’s ‘tongue’ is plucked with a finger to produce a ringing tone. Adjusting the shape of the mouth changes the pitch, allowing simple tunes to be played.
GRAPHIC (ABOVE)
Jew’s harp with scrap of convict shirt
Early 19th century
MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
GRAPHIC (RIGHT)
Girl with a Jew’s harp
Sarah Fitzhugh Hewett, date unknown
LEAMINGTON SPA ART GALLERY & MUSEUM (WARWICK DISTRICT COUNCIL)
AUDIO
‘Miss McLeod’s reel’, accompanied by Jew’s harp
Traditional, arrangement unknown
Performed by Sally Sloane (button accordion) and Les Sloane (Jew’s harp), c1953–61
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA: ORAL TRC 4/10
READ MORE
Fiona Starr, The archaeology of music at Hyde Park Barracks, Museums of History NSW
Music on the Land
At the harvest home, the men used to be very well treated; they had plenty of grog; it was once a year, they used to get two glasses in the day; … we used some-times to ask for more grog, and it was given to us; on those occasions we used to dance to music in the yard.
CONVICT RICHARD NAGLE, ON THE FARM OF JAMES MUDIE, HUNTER VALLEY, THE MONITOR (SYDNEY), 28 JANUARY 1834
Many rural traditions faced an uncertain future in the rapidly industrialising Britain of the early 19th century. Among those that briefly found a haven in Australia was the annual ‘harvest home’, when farming communities put on a feast, with songs and dancing, to celebrate the end of the harvest. The heavy drinking associated with such events was sometimes reported in early court records and provides some evidence of these gatherings. The tradition soon faded, and from the 1840s new colonial songs emerged, contributing to the development of a distinctively Australian rural folklore.
A HOMEGROWN FOLK SONG
Whither stockman or not, for a moment give ear
Poor Jack’s breathed his last, and no more shall we hear
The crack of his whip or his steed’s lively trot,
His clear go a-head and his jingling quart pot.
He rests where the wattles their sweet fragrance shed,
And the tall gum trees shadow the stockman’s last bed.
From ‘The stockman’s last bed’, words by Bessie and Maria Gray, 1846,
to the tune ‘The last whistle’ by William Shield
At Port Macquarie on the North Coast of NSW in 1846, Bessie and Maria Gray, teenage daughters of a settler farmer, wrote new lyrics set to a popular old English sea song, ‘The last whistle’. The original song was an epitaph to a doomed British sailor bravely facing his last storm. By adapting the chilly imagery of the British original to a colonial bush setting in ‘The stockman’s last bed’, the sisters bequeathed Australia one of its first homegrown folk songs.
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‘The stockman’s last bed’
Words by Bessie and Maria Grey (sic), 1846, to the tune of ‘The last whistle’ by William Shield
MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
AUDIO
‘The stockman’s last bed’
Sung to a traditional variant of a tune by William Shield; words by Bessie and Maria Gray
Performed by Jenny Gall (voice) and Ian Blake (lyre), 2006
© JENNY GALL / ELIDOR
Margaret Catchpole
Raised in rural Suffolk, England, Margaret Catchpole (1762–1819) was transported to Sydney in 1801 for stealing a horse. In NSW she was employed on a number of farms, including Richmond Hill, owned by the Rouse family. A romanticised bestselling biography of Catchpole published in 1845 describes the Suffolk harvest home tradition she may have seen practised here. The farmer’s table is laden with puddings, roast vegetables, meats and sweets for the labourers and their families. Ale is shared, and there is much frivolity, music and dance. Together the party sings:
We merry, merry reapers joyful come
To shout and sing our happy Harvest-Home,
Hallo Large! Hallo Large! Hallo Largess!
Richard Cobbold, The history of Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk girl,
Henry Colburn, London, 1845, vol 1
ABOVE
‘Margaret Catchpole'
From Richard Cobbold, The history of Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk girl, Henry Colburn, London, 1845, vol 1
CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
A Convict Farmer
This rustic plough is believed to have been made by James Ruse (1759–1837), a convict and agricultural labourer from Cornwall, who in 1789 became the colony’s first European farmer at what is now Rose Hill, near Parramatta. Numerous songs about ploughing and ploughboys were written in England from the 18th century, and many of them were sung and played by farming communities in Britain and Australia.
OBJECT (LEFT)
Mouldboard plough
Attributed to James Ruse, c1811
MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES, SYDNEY. PRESENTED BY WILLIAM ASHLEY, 1920
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My harvest home
John Glover, 1835
TASMANIAN MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY.
PRESENTED BY MRS CECIL ALLPORT, 1935
AUDIO
‘Breakdown’, also known as ‘Harvest home’
Traditional, arrangement unknown
Performed by Sally Sloane (button accordion), 1957
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA: ORAL TRC 4/23B
Explore the Exhibition
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we live and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.