Hearing the Music
of Early New South Wales
In 1793, Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne, two Aboriginal men visiting London, sang a song about Parramatta. At the same time, British convicts and immigrants were crossing thousands of miles of ocean bound for NSW. They too sang of home.
The act of evoking a distant home through song is a universal one, transcending language or musical style. Despite the ephemeral nature of these intimate and often solo performances, they are rich with meaning. Laden with memory, a song communicates our language, way of learning, and family and community traditions, and binds us to our loved ones.
Convicts and immigrants brought to NSW the musical culture of Britain in the late 18th century. This reflected a society strictly divided by wealth and class. Industrialisation was transforming the economy and society, while revolution in nearby France would soon embroil Britain in war against a new emperor, Napoleon. At the heart of its own growing empire, Britain’s musical outputs were a product of influences both at home and abroad, and touched the lives of many who were subject to British rule.
Travelling with Home
to Distant Isles
Singing of Home
... when they Sang, it seem’d indispensable to them to have two sticks, one in each hand to beat time with the Tune; one end of the left hand stick rested on the ground, while the other in the right hand was used to beat against it, according to the time of the notes.
EDWARD JONES, MUSICAL CURIOSITIES, PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, LONDON, 1811
In the summer of 1793, passers-by might have heard a curious plaintive song wafting down from a townhouse window in London’s fashionable Mayfair. Two men of the Wangal clan, visitors from distant Sydney, were singing of life on the banks of the Parramatta River, accompanying themselves on clapsticks. For the first time, a song from Australia sounded in the home of their English host.
Bringing Bennelong (c1764–1813) and Yemmerrawanne (c1775–1794) to England was one of Arthur Phillip’s last acts as governor of NSW. Phillip hoped that their British experience would improve Aboriginal and European relations on the men’s return to Australia. But within months of their arrival in London, the men’s health deteriorated, and Yemmerrawanne died there on 18 May 1794, aged around 19. A saddened Bennelong expressed his desire to leave England and return home.
Silhouette of Yemmerrawanne
Attributed to George Charles Jenner or William Waterhouse, before 1806
MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
PURCHASED FROM J G G POWNALL, SEPTEMBER 1964
Portrait of Bennelong
Attributed to William Waterhouse, before 1806
MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
PURCHASED FROM J G G POWNALL, SEPTEMBER 1964
Music in Late Georgian Britain
From this general taste now prevailing for music arises an advantage, and not an inconsiderable one to the community at large – in the vast consumption of printed music and the sale of musical instruments.
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THE SOCIETY OF GENTLEMEN, ‘MUSIC’, THE COUNTY MAGAZINE FOR FEBRUARY 1788, B C COLLINS, SALISBURY, 1788
AN AUSTRALIAN SONG
Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne’s song was written down by Edward Jones (1752–1824), an eminent Welsh harpist who was bard to the Prince of Wales. Jones published the song almost two decades later in his Musical curiosities, under the title ‘A song of the natives of New South Wales’. Although this unfamiliar melodic and rhythmic style was difficult for Jones to notate, his transcription provides a useful record.
The original meaning of the words is lost. Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne told Jones that it was a song ‘in praise of their lovers’, but a transcriber of the same words in Sydney was told it was a song about ancestors.
AUDIO
Barabul-la clan song (sourced from ‘A song of the natives of New South Wales’)
Performed by Matthew Doyle (voice and clapsticks) and Clarence Slockee (voice 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
‘A song of the natives of New South Wales’
From Edward Jones, Musical curiosities; or, a selection of the most characteristic songs and airs, many of which were never before published, printed for the author, London, 1811
THE JEAN GRAY HARGROVE MUSIC LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
The ways in which people enjoyed music in late-18th-century Britain depended on their location, wealth and social class. The aristocracy could afford the finest musical instruments and extensive sheet music collections. They had access to the best music teachers and regularly attended concerts; some families even employed private orchestras.
People in the middle ranks benefited financially from a growing economy as industrialisation progressed into the 19th century. This enabled them to aspire to more genteel musical pursuits, including the cultural education of their children, while sheet music and instruments became cheaper.
Most of the population, however, continued to participate in deeply rooted local traditions passed down orally. New songs written to existing tunes were also sold in the form of cheaply printed broadside ballads, and included some of the earliest songs about the convict experience in NSW.
GRAPHIC
Berkeley Square, From John Buonarotti Papworth, Select views of London; with historical and descriptive sketches of some of the most interesting of its public buildings, Rudolph Ackermann, London, 1816, plate 17
STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
GRAPHIC
Self-portrait, aged 20
Georgiana Huntly McCrae, 1824
STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA. BEQUEST OF LADY COWPER, 1988
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VIDEO
‘Logie o’ Buchan’
Traditional, arranged by Jean Elouis
Performed by Lorna Anderson (voice) and Jean Kelly (harp), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON AND CONCERTO CALEDONIA
GEORGIANA HUNTLY MCCRAE
During her long life, artist and musician Georgiana McCrae (1804–1890) experienced both the musical culture of Britain’s elite and far more modest circumstances after emigrating to Australia in 1841 with her lawyer husband, Andrew McCrae. Born in London, the illegitimate daughter of the future Duke of Gordon lived for a time at Gordon Castle, Scotland, where she enjoyed playing the piano, singing and dancing. In her prized music books, five of which survive, Georgiana hand-copied hundreds of pieces in both Britain and Australia. ‘Logie o’ Buchan’ is a Scottish song she may have first heard at Gordon Castle.
Music, Money
and Fashion
This extraordinary painting depicts members of the music-loving Sharp family on their yacht Apollo. William Sharp, a doctor who reputedly treated King George III and was active in the campaign against slavery, regularly held concerts with his family on boats from their private flotilla, and even performed for the royal family on the River Thames. The Sharps are pictured with a rich variety of musical instruments, including a cello, French horns, harpsichord and clarinet, and some that are unfamiliar today, such as flageolets, a serpent (a bass wind instrument) and a lute (similar to a guitar). Some of these types of instruments came to Australia while others, like the lute, fell out of popular use.
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GRAPHIC
The Sharp family
Johan Joseph Zoffany, 1779–81
PRIVATE COLLECTION; ON LOAN TO THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
VIDEO
‘Nel cor più non mi sento’ from La molinara (1788)
Composed by Giovanni Paisiello; arranged by G G Ferrari
Performed by Lorna Anderson (voice) and David McGuinness (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON AND CONCERTO CALEDONIA
GRAPHIC (ABOVE)
‘Grand hallelujah chorus’ by George Frideric Handel, from Messiah arranged as a duet for two performers on one pianoforte
Printed by G Walker, London, c1813
STEWART SYMONDS SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION, CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
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GRAPHIC (RIGHT)
Margaret 'Peggy' Hazlitt
John Hazlitt, date unknown
MAIDSTONE MUESUM & BENTLIF ART GALLERY
PLAYING PIANO IN PAIRS
This copy of a chorus from Handel’s oratorio Messiah (left) originally belonged to Margaret ‘Peggy’ Hazlitt (1770–1841), sister of the famous English essayist William Hazlitt. Though Peggy (below) never came to Australia, her bound volume of sheet music was brought here in the 1850s by family friends. It shows that she was a competent musician who enjoyed a wide piano repertoire, ranging from traditional Irish and Scottish tunes to classics, many arranged as duets. Large‑scale works such as Messiah required orchestra, choir and soloists for public performances, but were frequently arranged as piano duets to enable families to enjoy them at home.
AUDIO
‘Grand hallelujah chorus’, from Messiah
Composed by G F Handel
Performed by Neal Peres Da Costa (piano) and Nathan Cox (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Of all the sounds I ever heard (and my soul has soared to heaven before now), Colonel Reed’s flute – well, it is amazing the powers of it. It thrills to your very heart … I can think of nothing but that flute…
Letter from Alison Cockburn to Miss Cummings, Edinburgh, about 1770, from Alison Cockburn,
Letters and memoir of her own life, David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1900
THE POPULARITY OF THE FLUTE
The transverse or ‘German’ flute was particularly popular among British men in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and many amateur players became increasingly virtuosic and keen to impress with their skills. Louis Drouët (1792–1873), the ‘first flute to the king of France’, performed his fiendishly difficult variations on the well-known tune ‘Rule Britannia’ in London and Dublin in 1817. These variations were later played at a concert in Sydney in 1836, by Australian‑born virtuoso Thomas Stubbs, a former military bandsman.
GRAPHIC (RIGHT)
'Rule Britannia', with variations for the flute with pianoforte accompaniment by Louis Drouët
Published by L Drouët, London, 1817
STEWART SYMONDS SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION, CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION, MUSEUMS OF HISTORY NSW
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GRAPHIC (BELOW)
'- A Little Music'- or - the delights of harmony
James Gillray, 1810
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
AUDIO
‘Rule Britannia’
Composed by Thomas Arne; arranged by Louis Drouët
Performed by Janet Rang (flute) and Neal Peres Da Costa (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
'Should All Be Sent Over to Botany Bay'
The hulks and the jails had some thousands in store,
But out of the jails are ten thousand times more,
Who live by fraud, cheating, vile tricks and foul play,
And should all be sent over to Botany Bay.
Author unknown, ‘Botany Bay, a new song’, c1790
From its establishment as a penal colony in 1788, NSW was a popular subject for new British songs and ballads. Several songs called ‘Botany Bay’ were published over the next half century, typically depicting NSW as a hellhole and transportation as a fate to dread. The engraving behind, dating from 1794, parodies a well-known text, ‘Black‑eyed Susan’. In the original, written by John Gay in 1719, Susan farewells her lover as he sails off to war. In this parody, weeping women see off convict partners sent to NSW.
AUDIO
‘All in the downs, or Sweet William’s farewell to black ey’d Susan’
Composed by Richard Leveridge; arranged by F Ireland
Performed by Jacqueline Ward and Joshua Knight (voices) and Neal Peres Da Costa (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
GRAPHIC (RIGHT)
‘All in the downs, or Sweet William’s farewell to black ey’d Susan’
Composed by Richard Leveridge; arranged by F Ireland
GRAPHIC (BACKGROUND)
Black-eyed Sue, and sweet Poll of Plymouth, taking leave of their lovers who are going to Botany Bay
Artist unknown; published by Laurie & Whittle, London, 1794
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM
Social
Satire
The musical mania … has diffused itself from the court to the cottage, from the orchestra of royal theatres, to the rustics in the gallery of a country church.
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Vicesimus Knox, Winter evenings: or, lucubrations on life and letters, Messrs Chamberlaine et al, London, 1788, vol 2.
Satirical illustrations illuminate late Georgian attitudes – in this case, a snobbish disdain for servants thought to be mimicking the musical activity of the aristocracy and gentry. Some caricatures depicted members of the lower orders, such as labourers, shopkeepers and chimneysweeps, neglecting their duties in favour of music making. This engraving of a ‘Yorkshire concert’ (below) shows a rustic band playing hurdy-gurdy, fiddle and tambourine at a provincial dinner, while a footman sings in a heavy Yorkshire accent that would have amused sophisticated London audiences. The classes mingled much more freely in Sydney’s fledgling music venues.
GRAPHIC (BACKGROUND)
Yorkshire concert, sung by Mr Emery at Covent Garden Theatre
Artist unknown; published by Laurie & Whittle, London, 1805
Jane Austen
She knew that when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself.
JANE AUSTEN, PERSUASION, JOHN MURRAY, LONDON, 1818
In the early 1790s, on opposite sides of the globe, author Jane Austen (1775–1817) and wool pioneer Elizabeth Macarthur (1766–1850) learnt the piano. Jane Austen became an adept musician, and made handwritten copies of her favourite pieces. Her acutely observant musical scenes in novels such as Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1815) draw our attention to the piano’s social role at this time.
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Read more about Jane Austen’s music making
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JANE AUSTEN’S MUSIC
Aunt Jane began her day with music – for which I conclude she had a natural taste; … she chose her practising time before breakfast – when she could have the room to herself – She practised regularly every morning – She played very pretty tunes … Much that she played from was manuscript, copied out by herself – and so neatly and correctly, that it was as easy to read as print …
Caroline Austen (1867), My aunt Jane Austen: a memoir, Jane Austen Society, Alton, Hampshire, 1952
Viewing Jane Austen’s handwritten scores allows us to share in some of her intimate musical moments. We can look over her shoulder as she painstakingly transcribes the popular song
‘The soldier’s adieu’ (1790) and then, perhaps thinking of her brothers in the navy, scratches out ‘soldier’ and writes ‘sailor’. Austen’s personal collection of manuscript and printed music also highlights how musical fashions have changed over the past 200 years. Few of the composers Austen sampled are familiar to us, but one piece that is well known today, ‘Non più andrai’, from Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro (1786), she knew only as an anonymous military band tune called ‘The Duke of York’s new march’.
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GRAPHIC (LEFT)
Jane Austen (based on the portrait by Cassandra Austen)
James Andrews, before 1870
National Song
Even among nations of equal refinement, there is to each appropriated a style in music, resulting from local circumstances, or from certain peculiarities of character...
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REVEREND JOHN ADAMS, CURIOUS THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF MAN …, P WOGAN ET AL, DUBLIN, 1790
From the 18th century onwards, there was a fascination in Britain for collecting and publishing music from home and abroad, known as ‘national song’. Tunes collected in Scotland, Ireland and Wales were celebrated as characteristic of these countries’ identities. Many such songs made their way to Australia in the hearts, minds and luggage of British settlers. One tune, ‘Thou bonnie wood of Craigie Lee’, is believed to be the musical inspiration for the song ‘Waltzing Matilda’ (written in 1895).
Tunes were also collected from European countries such as Denmark, Russia, Malta and Italy, as well as further afield – India, China and Native North America. Reflecting this craze, early British colonists in NSW collected Indigenous songs, which appeared in British collections by around 1810. These tunes were reshaped and harmonised in a musical language familiar to the British consumer.
'A New South Wales Song'
This is the earliest known published example of an Aboriginal song with both music and words. It was written down in the Sydney area by an unidentified ‘officer’, before being sent back to Britain, arranged for piano and published, probably sometime between 1805 and 1810. It was only recently discovered in a book of national songs in the National Library of Scotland.
‘A New South Wales song’
Composer unknown; transcribed by an ‘officer’ from NSW
published in an unidentified book, probably Edinburgh, c1805–10
Inglis collection of printed music, Ing 72(1-3)
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND
Tunes from Around the World
GRAPHIC (Left)
The Bardic museum, of primitive British literature … musical, poetical, and historical relicks of the Welsh bards and druids … by Edward Jones
Printed for the author, London, 1802
PRIVATE COLLECTION
AUDIO
‘All that’s bright must fade’
Composed by Sir John Stevenson; words by Thomas Moore from A selection of popular national airs with symphonies and accompaniments
Performed by Jacqueline Ward and Jessie Ginsborg-Newling (voices) and Luca Warburton (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
AUDIO
‘O let me hush thy tender fears’
Composed by Turlough O’Carolan from Twelve original Hibernian melodies…
Performed by Jacqueline Ward (voice) and Luca Warburton (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
AUDIO
‘Thou bonnie wood of Craigie Lee’
Composed by James Barr; words by Robert Tannahill from Miniature museum of Scotch songs and music
Performed by Amy Moore (voice) and Luca Warburton (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Bennelong Returns Home
In September 1795, after almost three years away in England and at sea, Bennelong returned home on the HMS Reliance. He vowed never to leave again. His travel companions on the return voyage were John Hunter, newly appointed governor of NSW, and Matthew Flinders, who went on to circumnavigate the continent with Bungaree, a Guringai man from Broken Bay on the Central Coast of NSW, and rename it ‘Australia’.
We know that Bennelong sang and played clapsticks, Hunter played the violin and Flinders the flute. It is tantalising to imagine the music these men might have shared during Bennelong’s six-month voyage home: sea shanties, fiddle and flute tunes, and Aboriginal song.
GRAPHIC
Portrait of Bennilong [ie Bennelong], 180?
MITCHELL LIBRARY, STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Bennelong's Letter
To the right is a contemporary copy of a letter dictated by Bennelong to an unknown scribe in 1796, evidence of the two worlds – Indigenous and European – that Bennelong continued to inhabit even after his return. One of the few documentary records of Bennelong’s actual words, it is an interesting companion to Edward Jones’s transcription of Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne’s song.
Letter from Bennelong, Sydney Cove, NSW, to Mr Phillips
29 August 1796
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION MS 4005 (NAN KIVELL COLLECTION NK 4048)
Contemporary First Peoples Composers
Troy J Russell
When I was young my mother let me explore the world by myself. That’s not a bad thing. I made my own mistakes and learnt by them. Sometimes I flew and sometimes I fell. Most of the time music was with me.
TROY J RUSSELL
Troy J Russell belongs to the Biripai people of the Mid North Coast, and the Gamillaroi of the North West Slopes, NSW. His music explores ideas of journey and homecoming. Troy began learning music aged 11, with lessons from a neighbour. After finding a photograph of his father playing a banjo, he discovered his own family’s musical stories, which still inspire him 40 years on. Troy has performed with and supported musicians such as Yothu Yindi, Troy Cassar-Daley, Dan Sultan, Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter. He plays guitar in the group Green Hand Band with Tim Gray, a fellow composer with the Ngarra-burria First Peoples Composers initiative.
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LEARN MORE
Contemporary First Peoples Composers, Museums of History NSW
AUDIO
‘Away & home: Bennelong’s voyage home with Governor Hunter’
COMMISSIONED EXCLUSIVELY FOR SONGS OF HOME
Composed by Troy J Russell
Performed by members of the Royal Australian Navy Band: Able Seaman Garran Hutchison-Menzer (clarinet and bell) and Able Seaman Samuel Sheppard (piano), 2019
RECORDED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ABC CLASSIC
GRAPHIC
PHOTO © ANDREW JAMES
JAMES HORAN PHOTOGRAPHY PTY LTD FOR MHNSW
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.