Music in AustraliaAuthor(s): CECIL HILLSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1979 April-Juni), pp. 127-130Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23505707 .

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Cecil Hill: Music in Australia 127

many museums without written or printed catalogues; if catalogues exist, they are often not detailed

enough for RIdIM work, e.g., the size of the work, the medium in which the work was created, etc. Another problem is encountered when a large part of a collection is not on display, since, for insurance

purposes, a staff-member must often accompany the cataloguer to view the works of art kept under

special security. Finally, not all items in a collection are photographed, creating considerable expense in having a new negative made. Despite these problems, work is progressing. The completed RIdIM

cards, together with photographs, are being sent to the RILM center in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, where they are stored.

Italy (Mariangela Donà): RIdIM work is moving forward in Italy with the help of funds from the

Ministry of Education. The cataloguing instructions have been translated into Italian, and the work is now projected to proceed region by region. Centers are being established in Florence and in Perugia. Among those who have consented to participate in the project are Michelangelo Pascale and Fabio

Bisogni.

Germany (German Democratic Republic) (Karl-Heinz Köhler): Over 3000 items with musical

subjects have been catalogued from the Dresden collection of more than 500,000 photographs, which is housed in an institution connected with the State Library in Berlin. Vol. 16 of Musikgeschichte in

Bildern, to be published soon, will contain information about the history of music in India.

Panel Discussion

"The Application of New Computer Technologies to Cataloguing and Retrieving Visual Informa tion"

Participants:

Garrett Bowles (Stanford, California), Philipp Drummond (City University of New York), Harald Heckmann (Kronberg, German Federal Republic).

Summary of the Discussion:

Ideally, computerized and stored RIdIM data should have two facets: a) the catalogued informa tion should be available for retrieval on a dial-up basis, and b) the picture itself should be stored, perhaps through a method similar to that of television, producing an imperfect reproduction on the screen for identification. A better copy can be made, if desired, from microform files. Through the latter approach, materials could be made available in areas that do not have sophisticated computer facilities. The cataloguing aspect of computerization has already been tested; the real problem is in

joining it to the display of stored visual materials.

Barry S. Brook, Chairman Maria Calderisi, Secretary, pro tem

CECIL HILL (ARMIDALE, NEW SOUTH WALES)*

Music in Australia

The growth of Australia into a nation of more than 14 million people, approaching its

Bi-Centenary, one of the twenty largest economies of the world with a potential for

enormous growth, and with an obviously growing importance in the future, makes it one

whose cultural life should be examined for its European heritage; it should be studied as

well for the influence of its indigenous people - the aborigines — and for any trends that

are beginning to emerge or are likely to emerge from the present circumstances.

* The paper was prepared for presentation at the Lisbon meeting; at the last moment however the author was unfortunately unable to attend.

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128 Cecil Hill: Music in Australia

Australia has a musical tradition going back to the Dreamtime in the case of the

aborigines, and to the days when the first prison hulks left England for Botany Bay in May 1787 in the case of the new Australians. Both musics of that time are simple in character;

the aborigines rely mostly on the didgeridoo and clapsticks to accompany tribal rituals

and entertainment; the early convicts, bushmen and miners adapted British folk-tunes to

words that described their conditions or expressed their feelings. As the settlements of

Sydney, Hobart,Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth developed, a fairly wide-ranging cultural life developed along with them, though always on a fragile basis. We find libraries,

museums, theatres, and schools of art fulfilling the needs of people who were all-too

conscious of the tyranny of distance. In fact, when one thinks of the horrors of the

prison hulks that took seven months to sail from London to Sydney, the tedium of a

24-hour flight by 747 becomes unbelievably brief and luxurious, and the pain of jetlag a

passing discomfort. Indeed, the jet aircraft is something that has altered the face of

Australia in recent years in almost every respect, but especially in its cultural life.

During the past 190 years efforts have been put into increasing the availability of

music to the Australian audience by composers, performers, musicologists and educators, both Australian-born and migrant. Now, Australia has seven major orchestras, two of

them enjoying respected international standards; several chamber ensembles, which have

been acknowledged overseas as equal to the majority of their colleagues; many distin

guished individual performers, composers and conductors; seven conservatoria; music

departments or music teaching in eleven of its nineteen universities, as well as in many of

its colleges of advanced education; a school music programme in each state and territory, which is adequate, if not all one desires; and a fairly active amateur musical life through local orchestras, choirs, opera groups, music camps and summer music schools. There is

an active musicological society and a composers' society. The Australian Music Examina

tions Board offers graded examinations in most instruments and in theory and musician

ship, much along the lines of the Associated Board and Trinity College in the United

Kingdom. Again, while one would like to see changes there, the system does offer an

incentive for individual improvement. Music publishing and recording companies are working in a small market against the

competition of better equipped multi-nationals, but, bearing that in mind, they are doing some good things for Australian musicians. The Australian Broadcasting Commission, a

national government body, offers a minimally satisfactory amount of fine music on both

radio and television. On the other hand it does a splendid job as the world's largest concert agency in presenting international artists in the capital cities and in many country towns. Musica Viva and several other smaller concert agencies supplement the A.B.C.'s

activities. In association with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Music Viva also sends

many Australian musicians (from orchestras down to individuals) to countries all over the

world. We have a thriving Australia Music Centre doing excellent work in documenting various aspects of the country's musical life, especially in the field of contemporary

composers. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies has produced several records of

aboriginal music and encourages its study. Much of what is done is supported financially

by the Music Board of the Australia Council. The Australia Council is a Federal Govern

ment agency whose purpose is to support the arts through various subject Boards. And I haven't forgotten present company. There is an active branch of the International Associ

ation of Music Libraries, which is concerned to preserve Australia's musical heritage, and

to build up the musical resources of Australia's libraries.

Several major works have been written about Australia's musical life, including general histories by Roger Covell, Ruth Hausmann and Arundell Orchard, on aboriginal music by Catherine Ellis, and on contemperorary composers by James Murdoch. And there is an

increasing number of recordings of music of both old and new Australians. We now have

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Cecil Hill: Music in Australia 129

four significant journals, among them carrying a good deal of Australian material: Musi

cology, the journal of the Musicological Society of Australia; Studies in Music, from the

University of Western Australia; Miscellanea Musicologica, from the University of Adela

ide; and Music Now, from the University of Sydney. In addition, IAMLANZ publishes its own typescript journal, Continuo.

I give you this résumé of the present state of music in Australia to indicate to you that there is a substantial musical life and a body of music representing the culture of a grow ing nation that requires documentation and study. I want to spend a few minutes report ing on some of the important projects that have been completed recently, or are in hand.

1. A couple of years ago, cajoled by Rita Benton at her best, I submitted myself to the task of producing the Australian section of her excellent series of directories of music research libraries. I put it that way, because it turned out to be much more interesting than I feared, because it brought home to me just how much material really does exist. (I was no less than astonished by K.V. Sinclair's Descriptive Catalogue of Mediaeval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia [Sydney University Press, 1969], a very substantial volume.) Of 77 libraries asked to complete a questionnaire, 44 were selected for inclusion, taking the term "music research library" in its broadest sense. Even so, half of them hold reasonable quantities of material in original, reproduced or sound-recorded

form, which can be described strictly as primary sources for Australian, Western and Ethnic music. And this is quite apart from other primary sources known to be in private hands - about which little can be said as yet. Volume IV of Dr. Benton's Directory is to

appear very soon.

2. Over the past two years, the Australia Music Centre has been publishing catalogues of Australian compositions, covering the whole range of musical genres. This year it has

published a Directory of Australian Musical Organisations, a very valuable guide to the whole range of institutions participating in or in any way connected with music. And just off the press is an A ustralian Directory of Musical Research, a who's who and what's what of Australian musicologists and musicology.

3. These directories along with others that have appeared from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, the Grainger Museum and some individuals have given us a basis for what seem to be two important steps forward. One is a selected edition of Australia's music along the lines of the national editions that have been appearing in European coun tries for many decades; the other is an encyclopaedia of Australian music and musicians. Earlier this year a group came together and the outcome is that two editorial committees, each of seven members, are now working; that for the edition is under my colleague. Gor don Anderson, that for the encyclopaedia under myself.

The encyclopaedia will doubtless turn out to be an Aussie Grove, as we are affection

ately calling it at present. It will be a comprehensive work of reference about all Australian

music and musicians, with the possibility of it being extended to all Australasia. I needn't

elaborate on the kind of articles that will be included, as that should be fairly obvious.

Naturally the encyclopaedia will be a long-term project, with publication not possible before the mid-1980s. This has persuaded us to think of it as one of a variety of publi cations that are being prepared at this time for the Bi-Centenary in 1988 by a group of

scholars centred around the Australian Academy of the Humanities, with which we are

working closely.

4. The edition can get underway much sooner, and we are hopeful that the first

volume devoted to Alfred Hill's symphonies (edited by Andrew McCredie) will be out

about a year from now. The edition will be in series form, so that we might be able to

devote more than one volume to each composer. Initially it will include composers of the

past; but we hope that eventually it will become a place in which distinguished Australian

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130 Annual Conference of 1ASA, Lisbon

composers might want to put some of those works that have difficulty in finding a normal

commercial outlet; there are a number of works that already fall into that category. Part of what we are doing will build up a central information bank, so we can have up

to-date knowledge of sources as well as a union list. A good deal of work has already been

done for the contemporary scene by the Australia Music Centre. Our purpose will be to

extend that to the whole of Australian music. Therefore, we are discussing storage and

retrieval systems, and at the same time the possibility of introducing computer music

printing, which has yet to come to Australia, though a company has been founded for the

purpose. For a big country with a widely dispersed population the latter two ventures are

bound to help bring us together, and we are anticipating close co-operation between all

the organizations mentioned and many of their individual members.

Annual Conference of the International

Association of Sound Archives

Lisbon, 23-28 July 1978

Report of Proceedings

At Lisbon a new Executive Board was elected to serve for the next three years. The new officers of the Association are as follows: President: Rolf Schuursma (The Netherlands); Vice-Presidents: Marie France Calas (France), Tor Kummen (Norway), Dietrich Schüller (Austria); Editor: Ann Briegleb (USA); Treasurer: Ulf Scharlau (German Federal Republic); Secretary: David Lance (Great Britain).

In addition Anne Eugène (France) succeeded Ann Briegleb as Chairman of IASA's Cataloguing Committee. Further organisational developments announced at Lisbon were the formation of new national branches of the Association in Australia and France and the election of John MacQueen to succeed Timothy Eckersley as Chairman of the UK National Branch. A joint IAML - IASA Committee under the Presidency of Claes Cnattingius and Vice-Presidency of Marie-France Calas was set up to deal with all matters relating to IAML - IASA cooperation in fields of mutual interest and particularly as far as sound archives and collections of music recordings are concerned. Finally, the new Executive Board of IASA appointed Frank Gillis (USA) as Associate Editor of the Phonographic Bulletin.

At Part I of the General Assembly various reports were made on the work of IASA during the preceding year and the following matters were highlighted:

1. Three issues of the Phonographic Bulletin had been published; a special publication An Archive Approach to Oral History had been printed and is available through the Secretary ; a Directory of IASA Member Archives was ready for printing and would be published before the end of 1978.

2. A draft revised Constitution and By-Laws had been prepared and circulated to all members (the new statutes of the Association were discussed and approved during the General Assembly, Part II).

3. Membership of the Association increased since July 1977 from 176 to 189 and the Association's financial report showed a surplus balance of 1,732 (Canadian) dollars.

Several important decisions were taken during the conference affecting the future work of IASA. It was decided to prepare and publish as soon as possible A Technical Manual for Sound Archives; a comprehensive international survey of the recording and preservation of parliamentary proceedings would be carried out during the next year; the Copyright Committee would establish information sharing relationships with appropriate world bodies such as MIDEM and the IFPI; a special member ship recruiting drive is to be carried out and various members of the Executive Board untertook partic ular responsibilities for this effort; a preliminary programme for the Salzburg conference was also agreed upon. It would include sessions on "Sound Archives in Austria", "Sound Archives and Radio

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