Hearing the Music
of Early New South Wales
Consuming Music at Home
In 1851, gold was discovered in NSW. The economic and cultural boom that followed transformed musical life in the colony.
The First Fleet had arrived in 1788 with little more than a handful of musical instruments and the tunes captured in the heads of some 700 convicts and their guards. By the early 1860s, NSW residents could purchase almost anything they needed to fulfil their musical aspirations.
With fast and comfortable steamships shortening the sea voyage from Britain, Australia was now regularly visited by international opera stars and instrumental virtuosos. Imports of cheap printed music and an ever-growing range of musical instruments allowed residents to adopt the latest fashions from Britain, Europe and America. Sydney amateur musicians now had access to hundreds of music teachers, and there were few middle-class drawing rooms without a piano and a pile of the latest sheet music published in London, New York and Sydney.
GRAPHIC (BACKGROUND)
‘The first appearance of Miss Catherine Hayes at the Victoria Theatre, Sydney, on Tuesday September 25th, 1854’
Reproduced in The Australian picture pleasure book... engraved, selected and arranged by Walter G Mason, Sydney: J.R. Clarke, 1857
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
International Opera Stars
As a singer of ballads, particularly of the Irish and Scotch plaintive class, Madame Bishop was not equal to [Catherine] Hayes; but, as an operatic artiste and a musician Bishop was far her superior; during the first visit of the latter to Sydney she did much for the advancement of colonial taste in music.
FRANCIS CAMPBELL BREWER, THE DRAMA AND MUSIC IN NEW SOUTH WALES …, CHARLES POTTER, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, SYDNEY, 1892
From the early 1850s, performers from Britain and America appeared on the stages of Sydney and Melbourne and in the shantytowns popping up on goldfields in NSW and Victoria. Small-time entertainers, blackface minstrel troupes and the first truly international opera stars looked to profit from the discovery of gold. These visiting artists significantly influenced musical taste in the Australian home.
Two sopranos, Anna Bishop and Catherine Hayes, already had major international reputations on arriving here in the mid-1850s. Local audiences were dazzled as these two exceptional singers performed some of the great operatic roles for the first time on the Sydney stage. New works were also written for them by local composers, and copies of these and their other ‘hits’ were printed by Sydney music publishers for purchase by the singers’ many fans.
Catherine Hayes
I have little to tell you to-day, except that our usually quiet
cozy, dozy, citizens have gone raving mad on the subject
of Catherine Hayes. She is reaping a golden harvest.
THE ARGUS (MELBOURNE), 10 OCTOBER 1854
When Catherine Hayes (1818–1861) arrived in Sydney in September 1854, she was already famous in Europe and America. Hayes was born into a poor family in Limerick, Ireland, but her naturally beautiful voice, enthusiastic benefactors and professional tuition paved her way to starring roles at La Scala in Milan and London’s Covent Garden. In Australia she won a huge following, especially among Irish immigrants, for her performances of both popular Irish ballads and great operatic roles. She donated the proceeds of one Sydney concert, in October 1854, to what would become the Catherine Hayes Hospital, in Randwick.
GRAPHIC (LEFT)
Catherine Hayes / Swan of Erin
Artist unknown, 1849–61
STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
AUDIO
‘Fair land of Australia! … written expressly for Miss Catherine Hayes’
Composed by L Lavenu; words by F H Dicker
Performed by Amy Moore (voice) and Luca Warburton (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
GRAPHIC (BELOW)
‘Departure of Miss Catherine Hayes from Sydney, October 18th, 1854’
From The Australian picture pleasure book ... engraved, selected and arranged by Walter G Mason, J R Clarke, Sydney, 1857
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, REX NAN KIVELL COLLECTION NK2106/154
Anna Bishop
Anna Bishop (1810–1884) toured Australia in 1855–56 hoping to usurp Catherine Hayes’s title as the colony’s favourite visiting opera star. Born in England, Bishop was both famous for her extraordinary vocal talents and infamous for having left her husband Henry Bishop (the composer of ‘Home! Sweet home!’) to tour the world with her lover Nicolas Bochsa (1789–1856), formerly Napoleon’s harpist. Bochsa died only two weeks after their arrival in Sydney and was buried beneath an ornate monument in Newtown cemetery. Always the professional, Bishop returned to the stage a week later. Like Bishop, Australian international opera star Dame Joan Sutherland (1926–2010) made the title role of Lucrezia Borgia her own in Sydney. The costume on display was made for Dame Joan by the Australian Opera for its 1977 production of the opera at the Sydney Opera House.
GRAPHIC (RIGHT)
Anna Bishop dressed as Lucrezia Borgia in Sydney
Engraving featured on the cover of Frederick Ellard’s ‘Morceau de salon Lucrezia’, from Australian album, J R Clarke, Sydney, 1857
MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
GRAPHIC (BELOW)
‘Really enjoying oneself; Madame Anna Bishop is singing “Home Sweet Home”’
Published in Melbourne Punch, 22 May 1856
STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA
AUDIO
Air ‘Portrait charmant’ and Rondo ‘Le garçon volage’
Composed by Robert Nicolas-Charles Bochsa
Performed by Karen Hickmott (harp), 2019
RECORDED BY MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
VIDEO
Dame Joan Sutherland's Lucrezia Borgia Costume
RECORDED BY MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
AUDIO
‘Era desso il figlio mio’, from Lucrezia Borgia
Composed by Gaetano Donizetti
Recorded live by Joan Sutherland (voice) with the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra and Australian Opera Chorus, conducted by Richard Bonynge, 8 July 1977
© OPERA AUSTRALIA
Home, Sweet Home
If the Victorian period had a theme song it would be ‘Home! Sweet home!’ In Sydney in 1856, it was a huge hit for Anna Bishop, whose late husband, Henry Rowley Bishop (1786–1855), had composed the song in 1823. It had long since become one of the most popular songs in Britain, America and Australasia. For those who had emigrated from their British homelands, the song uniquely captured a nostalgia and sentimentality that was a signature of the Victorian age.
LEARN MORE
‘Home! Sweet Home!’, Museums of History NSW
GRAPHIC (BACKGROUND)
‘Leichardt’s concert at the Royal Victoria Theatre’
Published in The Illustrated Sydney News, 25 March 1854
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
VIDEO
Home, Sweet Home!
Performed by Anna Fraser, October 2023
From Music of the 1840s at Warrane and Government House Sydney
SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC AND THE HEARING THE MUSIC OF EARLY NSW PROJECT
THE ELLARDS: MUSIC RETAILERS
Mr Ellard of George-Street, has erected a spacious Music Saloon on his premises which presents an appearance superior to anything of the kind yet seen in the colony.
THE AUSTRALIAN, 15 AUGUST 1839
In 1832, Francis Ellard (c1802–1854) established a Sydney branch of his family’s Dublin music business. His father, Andrew (c1780–1859), and brother William sent him regular shipments of sheet music, pianos and guitars, as well as instruments from their Dublin factory. From his ‘music saloon’, first in Hunter Street and later in George Street, Ellard offered a music copying and binding service, and once a year he travelled as far as Wollongong and Maitland to tune pianos.
Ellard began to publish music himself during the depression of the early 1840s, when it became cheaper to print sheet music locally than import it from England. Most of his titles were pirated editions of popular songs and piano music from London, but he also published music by his cousin, performer and music teacher William Vincent Wallace, as well as by renowned English composer Isaac Nathan, and his own son Frederick Ellard.
GRAPHIC (BACKGROUND)
Grocott’s music saloon (formerly Ellard’s), 486 George Street
From Sydney in 1848: illustrated by copper-plate engravings of its principal streets, public buildings, churches, chapels, etc. from drawings by Joseph Fowles, J Fowles, Sydney, 1848
CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
ELLARD'S MUSIC STOCK
Though his music business enjoyed a healthy turnover, Francis Ellard was bankrupted twice in the depression of the 1840s. His father had not helped: in 1839 Andrew followed his son to Australia and opened a music store in competition with Francis. Within a year, however, Andrew shut up shop due to an economic downturn. He sold his remaining sheet music and instruments to the commandant of Norfolk Island, a secondary penal settlement, for use by the convicts there, and returned to Ireland. Francis closed his own shop for good in 1847, and made a living by engraving music for other Sydney publishers until his death in 1854.
Ellard begs particularly to invite the attention of the public to several newly invented Instruments, particularly to the Phisharmonicon and Metalaphone, whose beauty of tone require only to be heard to be appreciated.
THE SYDNEY GAZETTE AND NEW SOUTH WALES ADVERTISER, 31 DECEMBER 1833
This phisharmonicon, probably based on the German physharmonica, was manufactured by Andrew Ellard in Dublin, and is the only known surviving example from his workshop. Designed for the home, the phisharmonicon makes an organ-like sound produced by blowing air through brass reeds. Only a small number were ever produced, sold mainly in Ireland and South Africa, though Francis sold one or two in Sydney in 1833–34. This instrument comes from Glenarm Castle in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and was recently acquired by a descendant of Andrew Ellard in Sydney.
AUDIO
‘No 9, lento’
Composed by Sigismund Neukomm
Performed and permission granted by Dean Eckmann (physharmonica, c1830) and recorded by Steeve Bélanger, 2011
© DEAN ECKMANN AND STEEVE BÉLANGER
OBJECT
Phisharmonicon
Andrew Ellard, Dublin, c1831–34
COURTESY STEPHEN FORD
SCORE (ABOVE)
Three favourite waltzes by W A Mozart
Published by Francis Ellard, Sydney, 1839–45; from the music collection of Maria Lee (1829–1923)
STEWART SYMONDS SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION, CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
SCORE (ABOVE)
The beauties of Il Crociato in Egitto by G Meyerbeer
Published by J Willis & Co, Royal Repository of Music, London, c1826; sold by Andrew Ellard in Sydney, c1839; bound in Sydney, c1854–56
STEWART SYMONDS SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION, CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
AUDIO
‘Waltz 1’, from Three favourite waltzes
Composed by W A Mozart
Performed by Shaun Warden, James Tarbotton and Bridgitte Holden (violins) and Sophie Funston (cello), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
A FAMILY OF MUSIC CONSUMERS
Oh the clangs & laughter – and that precious ‘Puritane’ –
The Irish jig we danced as if our toes were tipped with blarney
The Game of Snip – Snap – Snorum – & Chaunts of Ethiopians
The Riddles and the puns we made like wonderful Utopians …
E EVELYN ROBINSON, DESCRIBING A VISIT TO ROUSE HILL IN THE 1850s, QUOTED IN C R THORNTON, ROUSE HILL HOUSE AND THE ROUSES, CAROLINE THORNTON, NORTH SYDNEY, 2015
BACKGROUND
Rouse Hill. 8 miles from Windsor N.S. Wales
Thomas Wingate, 1856
CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
Having arrived in NSW in 1801, the Rouse family nurtured generations of music makers at their home at Rouse Hill, west of Sydney. Now a museum operated by Museums of History, Rouse Hill Estate holds one of Australia’s largest and most intact 19th-century domestic sheet music collections.
Inheriting Rouse Hill House in 1852, Edwin (1806–1862) and Hannah (1819–1907) Rouse soon acquired the musical trappings of the well-to-do: a new Erard piano from local supplier W H Paling and sheet music from Woolcott & Clarke, as well as a fine canterbury (or music rack) to store it in.
They bought instruction books for piano and singing, and blank manuscript paper to copy out music borrowed from friends. Interested in the latest musical technologies, they also purchased a mechanical music box, and a French harmonium (or reed organ).
Tools for a Musical Life
The Oranges & Marmalade – the Medlars and the damper –
And that opera dear to Mrs Rouse! The Memorable ‘Zampa’!!!
E EVELYN ROBINSON, DESCRIBING A VISIT TO ROUSE HILL IN THE 1850s, QUOTED IN C R THORNTON, ROUSE HILL HOUSE AND THE ROUSES, CAROLINE THORNTON, NORTH SYDNEY, 2015
Edwin and Hannah Rouse instilled in their children a cultivated taste in music, and provided them with the tools to entertain family and friends. The children were taught sol-fa – a singing method based on sight-reading music. The family’s mechanical music box, purchased in 1860, played eight songs, including opera tunes from Hérold’s Zampa (one of Hannah’s favourite operas), Verdi’s Il trovatore and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
LEARN MORE
The Rouses of Rouse Hill: a family of music consumers, Museums of History NSW
AUDIO
'Zampa Overture'
Composed by Ferdinand Hérold | Le Coultre music box, Rouse Hill House & Farm, c1859
RECORDED BY MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW, 2019
PHOTOGRAPH (BACKGROUND)
The Rouse family in front of Rouse Hill House
Thomas Wingate, 1859
THE MIRIAM & IAN HAMILTON COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
OBJECT (TOP)
An eight-tune music box in a fruitwood case
Le Coultre, c1859; sold by Walker & Jones, Sydney
HAMILTON ROUSE HILL TRUST COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
​
OBJECT (BOTTOM)
Receipt to E Rouse for purchase of music box
Walker & Jones, jewellers, watch and clock makers, Sydney, 28 August 1860
MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
The following section discusses blackface minstrelry and contains images and wording that may cause distress.
If you would prefer to miss this section click here.
Blackface Minstrelry
... it cannot be forgotten that [blackface minstrelsy] was hand in hand with a racial prejudice that has become baked into some of our most cherished traditions around the world.
RHIANNON GIDDENS, 2019
Many colonial sheet music collections contain pieces described as ‘Negro’ or ‘Ethiopian’ melodies. Believed at the time to have originated from the music of African American slaves on plantations in the American South, in reality these songs were mostly written by Europeans, and were performed by troupes of white minstrels or serenaders wearing black make-up. Hugely popular in America, Britain and Australia in the 19th century, blackface minstrelsy is offensive and perplexing to us today.
Professional British and American minstrel groups began touring Australia regularly from 1850 onwards. They presented shows of comic and sentimental songs, burlesques and instrumental pieces that drew large audiences. These performances were later emulated by homegrown Australian professional and amateur troupes.
GRAPHIC (RIGHT)
‘One of the Mascottes’
From Jamieson family album, Parramatta, c1895
CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION,
MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
GRAPHIC (ABOVE)
‘Lucy Neal’ by James Sanford, sung by the Ethiopian Serenaders
From James Sanford, Musical bouquet, no 82, 1846; in a volume of music belonging to a Miss Forrest, c1845–47
STEWART SYMONDS SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION, CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
Jim Crow
The ‘Jim Crow’ song became popular in the United States and England in the early 1830s. ‘Daddy’ Rice, a white American, blackened his face with burnt cork to perform the song and dance routine he claimed to have learnt from an African American stablehand in Virginia. This London edition of Rice’s song was acquired by the wealthy Sydney couple Lilias and Willoughby Dowling before 1840, showing how quickly it had travelled from the United States via England.
‘Jim Crow’ soon became a pejorative term to describe African Americans, and the statutes used to racially segregate and oppress African American and Native American populations in the United States between 1877 and 1965 were known as the Jim Crow laws. These attitudes of racism and segregation were also reflected in Australian popular culture.
​
In the wake of the minstrel craze, many colonial Australians took up one of the touring troupes’ most distinctive instruments, the banjo. Enslaved African people in the Caribbean created the banjo out of a mix of West African stringed instruments, and it was made commercially available by white American instrument makers in the 1830s. In Sydney, banjos were first advertised in fancy goods stores in 1850; these were probably Tunbridge ware instruments from England, decorated with inlaid woodwork. American banjos also arrived with travelling blackface minstrel troupes and goldminers from California.
GRAPHIC (LEFT)
‘Jim Crow!’ arranged with an accompaniment for the pianoforte by S Godbe, c1836
From the Dowling songbook, a volume of music bound in Sydney, c1840
MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW​
A Contemporary Perspective
Rhiannon Giddens is a classically trained singer, instrumentalist and songwriter born in North Carolina, United States of America. With a multiethnic ancestry, Rhiannon has used music to recast the understanding of African American contributions to folk and country genres, including in blackface minstrelsy traditions, over the past 200 years.
There are two important things to always remember about minstrelsy, as it was born in the United States. First, the music comes from an interaction of people from Europe and Africa thrown together into a new and ever-changing situation and is an enormous strand of American music. And secondly, it cannot be forgotten that it was hand in hand with a racial prejudice that has become baked into some of our most cherished traditions around the world. The first is to be celebrated; the second to be excoriated; but they are two sides of a very complicated coin.
RHIANNON GIDDENS
IMAGE (ABOVE)
Rhiannon Giddens
PHOTO © MICHAEL WEINTROB, 2015
VIDEO (LEFT)
Rhiannon Giddens interviewed by David Holt
The Evolution of Billy Barlow
Some time, you must know, I’ve been so out of luck,
That I’d my living to earn by dragging a truck;
But old aunt died and left me a thousand – ‘Oh, oh!
I’ll start on my travels,’ said Billy Barlow.
Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
A gentleman settler was Billy Barlow ….
Composer unknown, ‘Billy Barlow’s emigration to Australia …’, Davidson, London, c1850s
Newly arrived English comedian George Coppin introduced the London hit song ‘Billy Barlow’ to Sydney in 1843, and published the music, along with several new local verses, as ‘Billy Barlow’s visit to Sydney’. Within a few months, a copy had reached Maitland, north-west of Newcastle, where an amateur vocalist, Benjamin Pitt Griffin, wrote more words and sang them at a charity concert. The Maitland lyrics proved so popular that they were sent back to London, to be sung and republished with the illustrated cover displayed here.
GRAPHIC (BACKGROUND)
‘Billy Barlow: the newest and most popular verses ... to which is now added, Billy Barlow’s emigration to Australia, showing how he got there and how he got settled’
Composer unknown; published by Davidson, London, c1850s
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
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.