Cultural collections grant helps conserve Victorian heritage concert programs
[ UniNews Vol. 15, No. 14
7 - 21 August 2006 ]
Conservation of a collection of historic Victorian concert programs is among University of Melbourne projects funded recently by grants from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office to help improve scholarly access to the University’s Cultural Collections, ensure their long-term preservation and enable their wider public display.
The concert programs are held in the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library’s Rare Collections along with thousands of other valuable items, including manuscripts, printed scores, books and related materials.
Improved storage arrangements were needed to preserve the concert program collection. The project was undertaken by Ms Peggy Lais, a Faculty of Music PhD student whose research looks at the history of 19th century Melbourne high-art chamber music.
Ms Lais’s conservation work on the programs included transferring them into archival quality sleeves and making an inventory of the collection.
The collection, ranging from 1860, contains programs from various musical institutions, including the Conservatorium of Music (now the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Music), symphony orchestras, choral institutions, chamber-music societies, schools and churches, as well as various public concerts, theatrical productions, operatic performances and ballets given by both resident and touring companies.
The uniqueness of the collection lies in its Victorian focus with approximately 80 per cent of the programs relating to musical life in Melbourne, with all periods of the city’s musical development covered.
Melbourne’s musical history as represented in this collection can be traced from the establishment of the Melbourne Philharmonic Society in 1853 and the Fitzroy Musical Union’s public concerts in 1860 through to the development of Melbourne’s first orchestras, the foundation of the Ormond Chair of Music, and later the Musica Viva Society, visits by renowned professional musicians such as Fritz Kreisler, Ignaz Friedman, and Artur Schnabel, the Viennese Boys’ Choir, the Ballets Russes, and the Olympic Games Music Festival of 1956.
A significant amount of interstate and international programs also form part of the collection and offer a useful comparison to local materials.
When completed, a list of the programs will be available from the website of the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library Rare Collections www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/music/rare/index.html
Programs will be accessible to researchers upon request from Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library Staff, who will arrange for their use in the Cultural Collections Reading Room on Level 3 of the Baillieu Library.
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