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Musical culture at your fingertips
By Susan Grigson
Music was the highlight of the launch of the new MusicAustralia website, an inspiring online cultural resource that makes a treasure trove of Australian music, photos, scripts and information accessible to the public.
At the website launch in the large marble foyer of the National Library of Australia, an appreciative audience was treated to some magical moments with an exciting concert showcasing Australian composers.
The concert started with a classical performance from the Australian Youth Orchestra String Quartet and the soprano Joanna Cole. This contrasted with the earthy, popular style of Col Joye, a pioneer rock-and-roll musician, and the music of the Stiff Gins, an Indigenous singer/songwriter duo.
The performers were there to illustrate the diversity and richness of Australian musical culture and to link a living musical experience to the MusicAustralia website.
‘MusicAustralia has forged a national music information strategy. It's creating a rich database resource of Australian music with enormous potential,' Senator Rod Kemp, Minister for the Arts and Sport said, when officially launching the website.
‘It really showcases the richness of Australia's musical culture, past and present, whilst providing a means for people to hear, see, borrow or buy the music.'
The National Library's director-general, Jan Fullerton, described the MusicAustralia project as ‘a magnificent integration of technology and the collections held at several institutions'.
‘Everything and anything that you wanted to know about Australia's musical culture is now available at your fingertips,' she said.
Robyn Archer, speaking on behalf of artists, urged Australian musicians to ensure their creative work was documented, preserved and made accessible through MusicAustralia and used her own archived website as an example.
At the launch, the first musical set had soprano Joanna Cole with pianist Michael Clark celebrating famous Australian female singers from Dame Nellie Melba to Dame Joan Sutherland. The Australian Youth Orchestra String Quartet, an ensemble of highly talented music students, played a movement from the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe's String Quartet No 11 Jabiru Dreaming.
Then Col Joye got the audience humming along and tapping their toes to Bye Bye Baby , the hit that established him as a star. It was the first hit by an Australian artist for Festival Records almost 50 years ago.
But it was the passion for their Indigenous heritage behind the songs of the Stiff Gins, who hail from Sydney's Redfern, which had the audience really enthralled.
The new MusicAustralia website is there to inform a wide audience about the musicians behind the launch performance and thousands more. Australia's musical culture is detailed—from Sculthorpe to silverchair, from Dame Nellie Melba to Midnight Oil, and includes the traditional music of Indigenous and other local communities.
It is a historical resource, covering contemporary artists and musicians who lived and worked in the 19 th century. It contains almost 145 000 items, that are available either online or with information about how to get them.
There are sound recordings, printed music, multimedia and audio-visual materials, artist websites, pictures, manuscripts and books, and information on thousands of composers, performers, researchers, music organisations and services.
The website has been developed by the National Library of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive, a division of the Australian Film Commission. Other cultural organisations around the nation, such as the Australian Music Centre, the Australia Council for the Arts, state libraries and universities are contributing content as well.
For more information vist the MusicAustralia website at www.musicaustralia.org
The National Library of Australia makes an important contribution to the vitality of Australia's culture and heritage, and its digitisation program continues to improve national access to important cultural collections.