Australian Folk Music
More often than not, it is easier to explain what Australian folk music is not rather than what it is. It’s complicated, and its interpretation is coloured by far too many personal (and often irrelevant) experiences. Mention Australian folk songs to the average Joe or Jill Blow, and usually unpleasant encounters at primary school flood the memory. And, of course, in a multi-cultural population like ours, where so many people come from non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds, confusion and ignorance is understandable. Asked about Australian folk songs most people would nominate ‘Waltzing Matilda’ – although it prescribes to the model of a folk song, it isn’t one.
Another slice of the population views our folk song heritage as primarily English, Scottish and Irish music transplanted here by the early settlers. Obviously, there is some truth in this; however, it would be very wrong to be so flippant. It would be like saying our spoken-English language is simply the ‘mother tongue’ transplanted here – and we know that is far from the truth.
The Australian folk song treasury comprises thousands of songs and fragments of long-forgotten songs. They come in all shapes and sizes. Folk songs are created to express individual or community aspirations, and frustrations and also to document its history. Some songs are created and distributed for entertainment while others serve a higher master. A song written from the perspective of a disgruntled shearer is quite different from a nonsense song.
In the strict definition of folk song, the work needs to be passed on aurally from one person or group to another, and we know that certain songs in the Australian collection did receive wide circulation. Another attribute is they also should be anonymous. This definition is impractical in the Australian experience because our history as opposed, for example, that of Europe or even North America, is relatively short. The fact that by the 1870s, the majority of people living in Australia could read and write also had a major effect on what we now see as folk songs. It must be mentioned, of course, that indigenous Australians possess a vibrant tradition of song-making and song distribution and, in all cases, without written versions. Their song, creation and documentation are described as Dreaming or songs from the Dreamtime.
European Australians starting with the arrival of the first fleet, would have bought with them songs from their own family tradition, songs that they would have used in their everyday life associated with work, the military, especially the maritime tradition; and also those songs that were from their own family and community. We know many of the early settlers treasured these songs as a reminder of their youth and their families ‘back home in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales.
There was another type of song written at the time Europeans settled Australia. The broadside ballads. These were one-sided sheets with the words of a song. Often the sheet was decorated with a woodcut appropriate to the ballad storyline. Music notation was not included. The State Library of New South Wales and other local institutions hold copies of these fragile documents. The broadsides were mostly printed by known printing works around the Seven Dials district of London or in Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool or Dublin. These were songs often written by ‘professional songwriters’ employed by the printer. For example, the songwriter might have attended a court trial at the Old Bailey and taken down the facts of a crime where the person involved was to be transported to Botany Bay. They would then write some verses detailing the events and typically set them to a known tune. These broadside ballads were then taken out to the streets, where broadside sellers sold them. Many of these broadside sellers wore large greatcoats and pinned the songs on the coat. The sellers were also known to sing the latest ballad they were offering. Many thousands of these broadside ballads were printed, and we are indeed fortunate to have Australian institutions holding approximately 300 different broadsides.
The convict broadside ballads typically detail why the person had been arrested, sometimes where, and usually for what reason. They also admit guilt, shame and offer remorse. Many were written in the first person and open with a personal note such as “I was brought up in London Town” or ‘Come all you men of learning, and listen to my song.” Being in the first person creates immediacy and intimacy with the listener. it has to be noted that around the time of the first European settlement, there were over 200 offences that could lead to transportation to the penal colonies. Most of these were infringements of private property, including hunting for rabbits or deer on private property or even stealing lumps of coal from a coal deposit on that property. There were many crimes we now see as trivial, like stealing a handkerchief or a loaf of bread. The more serious crimes like being a highwayman or murder usually resulted in execution, not transportation. People were transported to Australia for 7 years, 14 years, and 20 years or life. If you had some family money, you could arrange a return trip, however, the average convict ended up being in Australia for life. They could of course, once they receive their ticket of leave, enter some gainful employment and save money for the return trip. Many people felt that life in Australia was preferable to Draconian England. The broadsides were seen as popular literature. Books were expensive and scarce, and certainly out of the reach of the average person. Here was a sheet of paper with words on them, to a tune that they could possibly recognise, and many people learnt to read, and by copying the words out, learned to write. They also rendered the songs to their memory. We have to remember that for the first 200 years of Australia’s history, people sang at home and at social gatherings. It was normal behaviour.
For many of the convicts being transported to Botany Bay or Van Diemen’s Land, broadside songs would have been meaningful to their own life. They could have heard somebody singing a particular ballad when incarcerated in one of the many prison hulks goals stationed on the Thames River, or even in one of the big goals such as the notorious Newgate Prison, or even the Bedlam Asylum. They would possibly take that song into their own memory and sing a version of the song on the dreadful journey from Southampton to Botany Bay. Half-remembered songs would be reconstructed to fill in the blanks. The song on the printed page had jumped into the repertoire of a convict, who had sung it to other convicts, who also absorbed what they could of the song. These ‘passed on’ versions could be quite different from the original printed broadside ballad yet related to the original storyline. Even the half-forgotten melodies were improvised. This anonymous creativity is a process well-known to the distribution of folk songs.
Free settlers also brought songs that they had from their family circle. These would have been chiefly rural songs, love songs, military songs, hymns and songs for the sheer joy of singing and entertainment. These too changed from half-remembered to create new songs. Sometimes even the setting of the story in the song was changed to a local place.
The gold rushes commencing in 1851 consumed Australian society for the next two decades. Over a million and a half people came to Australia to seek their fortune, either on the goldfields or because of the excitement of the gold economy. They too brought with them songs. Also, many songs were composed during these two decades, telling the story of gold and life on the goldfields. There are more songs about gold than any other Australian subject. Many were published in newspapers, magazines and songsters.
We also see the influence of popular entertainment influencing folk songs, especially the influence of minstrel show music which had attained popularity throughout the English-speaking world from the late 1840s onwards. These primarily black-face shows, where white entertainers ‘blackened their faces to resemble Afro-American folks, introduced musical instruments to Australia, including he banjo, washboard and musical bones or spoons. Several American minstrel troupes toured Australia and local groups were also established. Popular songs like ‘Oh Susannah’ and ‘Old Dan Tucker’ quickly became favourites. These songs were widely parodied and their tunes used as a parody vehicle for new songs.
After the goldrush, from the early 1870s onwards, Australia experienced major immigration programs with many young people and families travelling by emigrant ships to all the colonies. People wrote songs about their early experiences, including songs about their sea journey, their first impressions and the experience of going ‘up country’ to the bush.
Another group of songs that entered the Australian tradition were the songs often described as the ‘big ballads’. These older songs told of lost love, murder, incest, and the supernatural. The well-known ‘Barbara Alan’ is one such ballad. Although these ballads are very much the common property of the English-speaking world and considered by many to be exceptional literary works, because of Australia’s youth, many did not enter the tradition, or if they did, they were simplified versions of those ballads, in other words, they were ‘Australianised’. This process of ‘adoption and adaption’ is very much the Australian folk song story, so, in someways, it is true that many of our stock folksongs came to us from the Anglo-Celtic tradition, but most importantly, they usually were changed, either from memory loss or to reflect a new story based on the new environment. Australia’s harsh geographical environment most probably played a vital role in this process. A lyrical English folk song about ‘pleasant and delightful’ rural activities didn’t quite cut the mustard in the harsh, sun-bleached, dry environment of the bus. Likewise, the tunes used in these folk songs were often adapted to reflect the harsh environment. Musical ornamentation was probably seen as inappropriate for such a harsh environment. We certainly don’t have the musical ornamentation of most Anglo-Celtic, folk songs and tunes. That said, it is his very adaption that makes our bush songs unique. They certainly don’t sound like the original English or Irish folk songs. They sound like Australian folk songs. They also tend to take a more laconic attitude to storytelling.
Songs were also being composed in the young cities of Australia. They told of everyday life, including the introduction of the railway, the introduction of trams, sport, songs about politicians, and about emerging Australian nationalism. There are also ugly songs, racist songs aimed at belittling the indigenous population and also, in particular, the misunderstood Chinese. Songs were also written to commemorate mine disasters, the opening of new railways and to commemorate major events such as the grand International Exhibition staged in Sydney in 1879-80, in the Sydney Domain. Scratch most Australian history and you are likely to uncover a song, poem or ditty.
The shearing and droving industries with the farming of cattle and sheep produced a very large body of songs we would classify as ‘folk songs’. The majority are anonymous. These songs tell of everyday life on the road as a drover, or in the shearing sheds, and express the grievances that the men experienced in the two most important economic activities in the latter half of the 19th century. Many of these songs were boasting songs because Australia was justifiably proud of its economic success in exporting beef and wool.
A word about the anonymous attribution of folk song. Several of our most popular songs can be traced back to their composers. In a country where, in the second half of the 19th century, the majority of people could read and write, it was inevitable. Many of these songs were published in local newspapers, or in books or songsters, and in doing so, often included the name of the songwriter. This didn’t seem too much of a problem for folk songs. A song published in, for example, a regional newspaper in 1875 detailing the life of a shearer could quite possibly have been seen by shearers in a local shed, copied out into a shearer’s notebook and the original writer’s name immediately forgotten. All the better if a tune had been indicated in the printed original and, if not, the words could be styled to fit a tune the shearer already knew. Some verses often lent themselves to known tunes quite naturally. Often these songs were ‘localised’, including the addition of their fellow workers’ names or even the name of the station changed to the one the shearer was working at. Our shearer mate was known to sing at the drop of a hat – and, one evening as the exhausted shearers lounged on their bunks, he might have sung ‘his new song’. If his mates enjoyed the song, he’d be asked to sing it repeatedly. When he left the shed, the song was in his repertoire and he took it with him on the road, for these were mainly itinerant workers. In situations like this the songs received wide distribution.
One can look at most aspects of Australian history, be it mining, droving, shearing, cane-cutting, farming etc., and find songs to tell that very story. That’s what folk songs do.
After the Federation of Australia in 1901, and especially after WW1, society changed, and so to did our use of songs. The majority of the population now lived in the urban areas around the coast, particularly in the capital cities. Life was faster, entertainment more varied and fewer opportunities to share songs. Of course, certain aspects of our 20th-century history, like our wartime experience, produced new songs and parodies; however, post-WW1 witnessed an increase in the popularity of dancing as an entertainment. Singalongs around the piano persisted, but the very active publication of commercial piano sheet music resulted in a general disinterest in the old songs. Shearering and droving songs, bush ranging ballads and other bush songs were replaced with songs about ‘Red, Red Robins’ and ‘Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider.’ World War II saw new songs being created about the wartime experience but by then, the gramophone and radio had emerged as the nation’s favourite entertainments. In 1957 two journalists, Douglas Stewart and Nancy Keesing, published ‘Old Bush Songs & Rhymes of Colonial Times’, an updated version of A. B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s 1905 collection. They wanted to show that the old songs still had some currency. Combined with this important book was the 1953 success of a stage play based on the 1891 shearer’s strike called ‘Reedy River’. This musical play by Dick Diamond, presented by New Theatre in Sydney and Melbourne, ignited new interest in Australian folk songs. The bush music Club in New South Wales and the Victorian Folklore Society which became the Victorian Folk Music Club, were both born out of this 1950s revival of interest in bush songs.
The term ‘bush songs’ seems preferable to Australian ‘folk songs’. Bush song equates to songs ‘sung in the bush’ at a time when the majority of Australians lived there. It is obviously a generalisation and dismisses songs of the city – but it is useful in describing a large number of songs from rural history. Maybe we should call all folk-type songs ‘story songs’ for that is their chief defining feature.
At the end of the 1950s there was an international interest in folksongs and for a few years in the late fifties, it became the most popular genre. In 1963, one of its stars, Pete Seeger came to Australia and reminded Australians that their folk song heritage was valuable. American entertainer and film actor Burl Ives had toured in the fifties and had also reminded Australians that their tradition was worth protecting. He recorded an album of Australian folk songs, including ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Click Go The Shears’. The popularity of bush songs increased partly because of these two entertainers.
Collecting folk songs, bush songs, or whatever you choose to call them, was undertaken by a small band of dedicated folklore collectors. Armed with a tape recorder and camera, Pioneer fieldworkers recorded songs, poems and bush tunes from the early 1950s onwards. Most of these recordings were deposited in the National Library of Australia and the National Film & Sound Archive.
COLONIAL MUSIC
Australia’s European settlement history was as a penal settlement. A destination to dump Britain’s unwanted criminal class. From the arrival of the First Fleet and its cargo of transported convicts up to the last shipment in 1863 some 150,000 men and boys and around 25,000 women and girls were sent to the various colonial goals. The first was Botany Bay, the now site of the City of Sydney and others included Moreton Bay in Brisbane (then under the Colony of NSW governance) , Port Arthur in Tasmania or, as it was kn0wn, Van Diemen’s Land, Norfolk Island off the east coast and, later colonies in West Australia.
The convicts were sent to Australia to relieve the pressure being put on the British prison system. Transportation to America had ceased by the late 1700s and even old anchored harbour hulks had been transformed into floating prisons, and still there were major accommodation problems. Shipping the problem to far off Australia seemed the ideal solution.
The convicts were sentenced to transportation, usually seven, fourteen or twenty years, sometimes for the ‘term of their natural life’. The list of crimes appeared endless and included petty crimes such as picking pockets, breaking and entry, forgery, poaching and crimes against landlords. There were also many so-called ‘political crimes’ and especially any insolence from the Irish against English landlords in occupied Eire. The convicts were a mixed lot and of all ages and social background. In truth, many of them would have been far better off than staying in Newgate or any other British goal.
In Australia they had cleaner air, (usually) dryer climate, tolerable rations (sometimes) and hard labour to strengthen the body.
The term ‘Colonial Music’ is a generalisation used to designate any music from the First Fleet’s arrival through to the end of the nineteenth century. In truth, it makes more sense to contain it to the music of the convict period 1779-1863 because the goldrushes of the eighteen fifties and sixties resulted in a different sounding music reflecting social change and how settlers dealt with remoteness and the harsh environment of the bush. The music of the second half of the nineteenth century doesn’t sit comfortably as ‘colonial music’ and should, possibly, be referred to as bush music.
If you took a straw poll and asked which is the most commonly known colonial song – the answer would most probably be ‘Botany Bay’.
“Botany Bay“, however, is not a convict era song at all. It first appeared in the musical burlesque Little Jack Sheppard, staged at the Gaiety Theatre, London, England, in 1885 and in Melbourne the following year, in 1886. The show was written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley with musical credit for Wilhelm Lutz. The show’s programme credits “Botany Bay” as “Old Air arr. Lutz”. Sheet music from Allan & Co in Australia credits Florian Pascal, the pseudonym of Joseph Williams Jr. (1847–1923), a music publisher and composer who published the show’s music. The song does have some lines in common with a broadside Farewell to Judges and Juries which dates back to the 1820s, or earlier.
To categorise ‘colonial music’ I would suggest a mixed collection of all transportation ballads, adapted lyrical folk songs from the period, colonial military music, some theatrical musical offerings such as the early ‘Billy Barlow’ type settler experience, songs written by convicts (known or anonymous) from their Australian experience, and localised dance music.
THE ISOLATION OF COMMUNITIES –
Let me explain. The isolation of communities in the Australian outback resulted in our traditional music being ‘reduced’ to match the remoteness of the landscape. Songs that came over from Britain and Ireland tended to have their musical ornamentation knocked out of them so that grace notes and even choruses disappeared or were considerably debased. Longer songs were also shortened. These unconscious actions reflected the rough and tumble nature of pioneer life in the ‘outback’ where ‘prettiness’ seemed inappropriate. I suspect there is also a relationship here between the spoken word and the unaccompanied song, the last half of the nineteenth century was also the height of popularity of the bush poem and singing unaccompanied could be seen as an extension of this usually animated recitation performance style. I believe the dry Australian climate also had something to do with the performance of songs. It certainly had an effect on our language and our reputedly ‘dry’ sense of humour.
Many of the ‘song carriers’ were itinerant workers – shearers, dingo trappers, rabbiters and drovers and, firstly, these men usually did not have room for extra baggage such at a musical instrument (except possibly mouth organs and tin whistles and you can’t play these and sing at the same time!) and the usual place of their performance was the evening camp fire where it is difficult to play an instrument when seated without a back support, the usually noisy accommodation huts and, more often than not, if you were a drover or bullocky, on the job.
We have several accounts of drovers singing to quieten the cattle herds but none mention a musical instrument other than a mouth organ.
Two of the most popular of the old bush ballads were Click Go The Shears and The Dying Stockman.
Dying sailors, harlots, cowboys, sleeper-cutters and airmen are commonly found in British and American folksong traditions. This is one of a number of Australian variants of this widespread and popular theme. In a 1930s depression variation a ‘strapping young bagman’ (swagman) lay dying’ and asked his mates to:
Wrap me up in my old police blanket,
And bury me deep down below,
Where the coppers and the squatters can’t worry me,
In the shade where the old rattler (train) blows.
| THE DYING STOCKMAN A strapping young stockman lay dying, His saddle supporting his head; His two mates around him were crying, As he rose on his pillow and said: CHORUS “Wrap me up with my stockwhip and blanket, And bury me deep down below, Where the dingoes and crows can’t molest me, In the shade where the coolibahs grow. “Oh! had I the flight of the bronzewing, Far o’er the plains would I fly, Straight to the land of my childhood, And there would I lay down and die. Chorus: Wrap me up, etc. “Then cut down a couple of saplings, Place one at my head and my toe, Carve on them cross, stockwhip, and saddle, To show there’s a stockman below. Chorus: Wrap me up, etc. “Hark! there’s the wail of a dingo, Watchful and weird — I must go, For it tolls the death-knell of the stockman From the gloom of the scrub down below. Chorus: Wrap me up, etc. “There’s tea in the battered old billy; Place the pannikins out in a row, And we’ll drink to the next merry meeting, In the place where all good fellows go. Chorus: Wrap me up, etc. “And oft in the shades of the twilight, When the soft winds are whispering low, And the darkening· shadows are falling, Sometimes think of the stockman below.” Chorus: Wrap me up, etc. From Old Bush Songs. The lyrics of this song (to the tune of ‘The Old Stable Jacket’) are by Horace Flower, published in the Portland Mirror, July 8, 1885. |
There are many types of Australian folk songs. As a cultural historian, I use the songs as ‘signposts’ to Australian history – because songs can be found to illustrate most parts of our story. Here’s a partial list:
Transportation Ballads
Ballads written by convicts (or observers) in Australia
Songs written about the convict experience by the English (despite never having been to Australia)
Songs about settlement and pioneering
Political songs about governors and other early political figures
Songs about Aboriginal people
Songs about social events in the colonies
Theatrical songs
Goldrush songs
Songs of itinerant workforce – drovers, shearers, sheepwashers, etc
Songs about Transportation – bullockies, stage coaching etc
Songs about crime – bushranging and other wild colonials
Love songs (yes, there are a few!)
Disaster ballads – mine collapses etc
Union and labour history songs
Songs about ‘the bush’ and ‘outback’
Drinking songs
Mining songs
Children’s songs
and so on……
The central difference between ‘folk songs’ and popular music is that folk songs tell stories – usually complete story cycles (real or imaginary).
Common questions about Australian folk music.
Isn’t all Australian folk music just a version of British and Irish music?
The answer is a resounding “no!”.
All folk music is part of a continuing process of ‘adoption’ and adaptation’. Our folk songs and music certainly belongs to the same Anglo Celtic family but during the process of relocation to Australia and the environment that it found itself in, it developed its own characteristics, many of these characteristics were far removed from the original basic song or tune. The most significant change was the way the music and songs reflected the remote and often hostile physical environment of the new land.
Both Britain and Ireland claim the ballad tradition and large bodies of what we would describe as lyrical folk songs. Australia, being rough and remote, saw these songs changed to reflect our surroundings and our pioneering sensibilities. Ornamentation, an obvious feature of British and Celtic music diminished in the process of oral transmission in the ‘bush’. It simply didn’t fit our environment. We didn’t feel ‘pretty’. We were also subject to massive social changes including the fact that the 19th century saw literacy rates climb dramatically which, in turn, had an impact on how communities ‘used’ traditional music.
As far as ‘just being transplanted British and Celtic music’ the same question could be equally posed at our language for it too has travelled the same roads but, like its musical counterpart, has forged its own identity.
When I started my folk song journey in the early 1960s I was constantly asked whether Australia had produced any real folk songs. I no longer get this question which, hopefully, means that there is a better understanding of what Australian folk music is. Hopefully, it also means I haven’t spent all these years bashing my head against a brick wall.
What music would have been heard in the early part of our colonial history?
At the time of European settlement here were three main types of music: military, social and an unconscious music we call ‘folk music’ (although that term was never used).
The main music heard throughout the colony would have been that played by drum and fife bands associated with the colonial government. There was also a full Regimental Band which played at official functions, funerals and public performances in the Governor’s Domain. This music was played at ceremonial events and to accompany marching of both marines and convicts. The military bands also performed social music for functions staged at Government House and other upper class establishments. Pianoforte and harpsichord music was also popular however the instruments were expensive.
The music would have sounded similar to what would have been heard in Britain at similar establishments and events. Much of it was stock military music and standard accompaniment for dance.
So called ‘popular music’ of the day was rather turgid. ‘Street music’ was far more robust and included communal singing items and bawdy-type songs. Convicts usually had no musical instruments and, if any, would have fashioned primitive flutes, ocarinas or whistles out of bamboo or wood. Street musicians of early Sydney played hurdy gurdies, fiddles, harps etc.
As the colony developed and more free settlers arrived, so did musical instruments including some oddities such as the sewing board which also offered a pianoforte keyboard. Early advertisements promoted the availability of tambourines, snare drums, whistles etc.
The 1850s goldrush also coincided with the importation of the newly popularised concertina and, soon after, ‘minstrel’ instruments such as the banjo, tenor banjo, guitar and mandolin.
Why is the Australian folk song traditional unaccompanied.
Unaccompanied singing is the rendition of a song without the accompaniment of a musical instrument. The majority of traditional songs in Britain and Ireland were sung unaccompanied because this is the nature of story songs, especially in the ballad tradition. It is true that minstrels or troubadours of Britain accompanied themselves, however, this was not the usual folk expression. There is something very special about a story song sung unaccompanied – it allows the singer to concentrate and, to my mind, be more physically expressive in holding the story line to the listener.
What is a broadside ballad
Broadsides were one-sheet songs, sometimes with a drawing depicting the story, and sometimes noting ‘sung to the melody of…’ The various State libraries in Australia, particularly the State Library of New South Wales, hold copies of these rare sheets. The National Maritime Museum holds a collection pertaining to maritime. The main era of broadside publication spanned between 1750-1850. Information on convict transportation broadside ballads is available in the site’s section on convicts.
Did we have broadside printed in Australia
Not for songs, however, some early broadsides were printed here as public proclamations and also as commemorative sheets to raise money for victims of shipwrecks and mining disasters.
What were chapbooks and songsters?
Around the time of the 1850s goldrush community singing had become popular and songbooks were published in Australia. There were various types of songsters including songsters for children, sentimental collections etc. The most famous were the goldfield’s songsters of Thatcher, Small and others. Chapbooks were a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, they were commonly small, paper-covered booklets, usually printed on a single sheet folded into books of 8, 12, 16 or 24 pages. Like the broadside, they were often illustrated with crude woodcuts, which sometimes bore no relation to the text, and were often read aloud to an audience. By the 1880s, printing had improved and the cost of printing reduced, and songbooks replaced both the broadside and chapbooks.
What did bush dance music sound like?
With the wider availability of musical instruments (mostly via mail order from the big music houses in the capital cities), home music-making became more popular and this lined-up with increased availability of songbooks and, to some extent, the publishing of songs (sometimes including music notation) in newspapers and magazines. Social dancing by the masses became popular from the 1830s onwards.
by the 1820s, the Waltz and some of the new Quadrilles had been introduced. Dancing became a mixture of the older type of folk dances, and the new 19th century social dances, a merging of the two styles sometimes occurred, for example, in the Spanish Waltzes popular in the 1820s. These were dances done in various old formations, such as a circle or a set of two couples, with all the steps done in waltz time.
Later, the Galop, Polka, Mazurka, Schottische, and Varsoviana appeared during this period – the Galop first in 1829 and the others following during the next twenty-five years. The dances quickly became popular here – in most cases, the names of these dances appeared on Australian dance programmes only a year after their appearance in England.
The old Country Dances were seen less frequently by the 1840s, and dancing began to follow more closely overseas fashion. One of the most spectacular examples of a new dance craze spreading to many countries within a few years was the Polka. Originally introduced in Paris in its ballroom form in 1843, it became popular in England in 1844 and in Melbourne in 1846. The polka was also influenced by overseas trends including popularising the Jenny Lind Polka, named for the Swedish ‘Nightingale’ who could be described as the world’s first international star.
Bustling cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide offered large hotels with dance rooms. In the bush, a woodshed or community hall served the same purpose.
The bush dance was an opportunity for settlers and old chums to relax, have some fun, and, possibly, find a partner. They often danced until daybreak, doing such fast and energetic dances as the Polka and Galop, that feature prominently on the dance programmes of the time, but may also have had to walk or ride considerable distances to get to and from their night’s entertainment.
As far as what the music sounded like is guesswork – partly from dance music handed-down from musicians and recorded in the 1950s, partly from dance and dance tune lists contained in diaries etc, we get a picture that the music was ‘open to interpretation. There was no right or wrong way to play the music, although, for some dances the tempo was very important.
When did urban Australia discover Australian folk music?
The Dick Diamond stage musical ‘Reedy River’ introduced thousands of city-dwelling Australians to the stories and music of the bush. The play, presented by New Theatre in Sydney and Melbourne in the early 1950s, dealt with the life of outback workers, particularly shearers in the 1891 shearer’s strike. The musical introduced bush songs including ‘Travelling Down the Castlereagh’, ‘Widgegowera Joe, ‘Banks of the Condamine’, ‘Click Go the Shears’ and Four Little Jonny Cakes’ as well as specifically written songs like ‘The Ballad of 1891’. Chris Kempster, a member of the Bush Music Club and actor in the play, wrote a tune for Henry Lawson’s ‘Reedy River’ and it remains a classic. In the late 1950s, Wattle Records (Paddington, NSW), an independent label operated by Peter Hamilton, issued a series of films of some of the ballads, including this film of ‘reedy River’, performed by The Rambleers with lead vocals by Alex Hood and Sylvia Lysiak.
What instruments featured in a bush band?
Whatever was available and playable. The most popular combo appears to be piano, drum, violin, concertina and the old push-pull button accordion. These were augmented with spoons, musical bones and whatever….
What music would have been heard in the colonial cities?
The cities relied on piano as the main dance music accompaniment. Drums, brass instruments, whistles etc were added when available.
WHAT IS AUSTRALIAN FOLK MUSIC IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY?
This, of course, is a difficult question to ask for in the over two hundred years since the establishment of the European settlement, and over a hundred years since the golden era of ‘bush’ songs, the world has shifted and the world of entertainment has taken a quantum leap.
I have never liked the descriptive ‘Australian folk’ because folk music has connotations that do not sit comfortably with our young country and the types of music that have evolved. There’s an old adage that says; “line up ten folklorists and ask them for a description and you’ll get ten different descriptions.” – the same would apply to a description of our traditional music.
Readers should refer to my detailed article on the use of descriptive names in the Australian folk revival for at least some directions.
If we use the phrase ‘traditional music’ one direction would be that this music, or at least the story songs and ballads, tell us of our communal history, primarily our emotional history. Like the traditional music of any society these songs cover an extremely wide sweep of subjects. In our case we could pinpoint most areas of our history – he bush, Australians at war, Australia during the lean times, Australian sport, etc and find songs that were created around these events or people.
I have often said that these songs are keys to our national identity and without understanding the past we have little chance of understanding the future. There is also the reality of these songs being cultural landmarks, which help us define ourselves in an increasingly global environment. We are under continual attack by cultural imperialism, notably American cultural influences. And as a relatively small country (in population) and an English-speaking one at that – we simply can’t avoid it. What we can do is continually remind ourselves who we are and why we are a unique culture. Traditional songs can play a role in this process.
Useful sites on Australian folk music are:
Bush Dance Music
The music of Australia’s first one-hundred and twenty years was rooted in the bush where most Australians lived. It was a music that saluted our Anglo-Celtic heritage and took on board the trials of convict transportation, the enthusiasm of the mid-nineteenth century gold rushes, Australia’s pastoral boom times and, at the draw of the century, the optimism that came with the 1901 federation of the colonies. Old songs and tunes were valued as reminders of the old country however, it didn’t take too long for them to be adapted to suit our rough and tumble society and wide brown land. Half-remembered tunes were cobbled together to make new tunes, often losing their melodic ornamentation to better reflect our brash ‘newchum’ environment. There were waves of influences that added to the musical mix – visiting minstrel troupes introduced novelty music and instruments like the banjo, mandolin and bones; travelling German oom-pa-pa bands spiked our imagination, ‘professors’ of the ever-popular concertina toured our concert halls, and, fashions and fads in social dancing swept across the land.
We have danced down through the years with the hornpipe, waltz, schottische, and various set dances and, around the 1840s, joined the worldwide enthusiasm for the polka. We danced at colonial government houses, town halls and civic centres. Also, we made rough but accommodating dance floors out of hotel salons, woolsheds (particularly favoured because of the lanolin-greased floors), and just about any patch of bushland you can think of. Dancing was a rare opportunity for men and women to mix socially, albeit awkwardly.
The music for dancing was made with whatever was available – sometimes a professional dance band and, more often than not, old Joe Blow and his fiddle or accordion. Musicians pumped out the music until the early morning hours when the dancers crept off to start their day’s work. Cows and ploughs wait for no man! Dance tunes have a way of finding their own way in the world – local musicians, especially in rural areas, often had vast repertoires of tunes, some traditional, some popular, and more often than not changed musically and even in name. These are known as variants and, like the old songs, have no rules regarding how they should be played. They are indestructible.
Here is Dave Matthias (recorded in Forbes 1973 Warren Fahey Collection/NLA) with a typical bush dance tune – ‘The Sailor Lad & His Lovely Bride Polka’
The music publishing business documented some of our music making by publishing songsters and sheet music. These folios very often featured beautifully illustrated covers, and we are fortunate that many have been preserved, some as early as the 1840s.
Interpreting the music in the Australian bush music collections is not as straightforward as it might appear. This unpredictability, of course, is the very nature of folk or traditional music.
We are fortunate so much work has been done to collect and make the old dance tunes available.
I especially recommend the Bush Traditions database which offers history, music notation and midi audio tracks – it is a national treasure. https://www.bushtraditions.org
Oral history: Dave Moss interview in South Australia. Talks about his relationship with music and plays anglo german concertina.
Dad and Dave were characters out of the Steele Rudd stories about early bush life. The film segment shows Dave Rudd teaching himself a bush – dance in a paddock – much to the shock of the family. Dave de Hugard plays the polka tunes that accompany the film perfectly. The film is part of the NFSA Collection.
Early Published Songs About Australia
In the second half of the 19th century, music publishers issued thousands of songs about Australia. They were a curiosity for the British and a matter of pride for Australians. Many of the songs were patriotic nonsense, especially when Australians went off to fight in the Boer War. We were, of course, still trying to come to terms with who we were as a nation. There was considerable pressure to see ourselves as English and, at the same time, especially since the goldrush and the economic boom of our exports of beef, wool and wheat, as Australians. The music publishers were aware of working both sentiments. The songs were popularised by performances in singing rooms and on the variety stage. The most popular songs were then included in songsters and sheet music, primarily for piano, but also for mandolin, banjo and violin.
The artwork for the sheet music was often bright and colourful.
