The piano was not only an instrument of creation and performance, but also a marker of status and a symbol of colonisation and settler migration, themes explored in films such as Jane Campion’s The Piano. Having notated music to play on the piano was vital, and music sellers such as Begg’s, Dresden and Kelsey’s stocked sheet music and scores for home performance and practice, and over time, collectors of these music sheets had them professionally bound. Hocken Collections holds more than 40 owner-bound volumes, acquired through donation or purchase. The earliest in the collections date back to the 1880s, while the most recent hold material from the 1940s. Although most of the music sheets are written by Anglo-American composers, music sheets from New Zealand composers and publishers frequently appear.
The practice of binding music in New Zealand dates to 1858 when Alexander Neilson’s sheet music binding services were advertised in The New Zealander. Owner-bound volumes frequently illustrate the trend for predominantly piano or piano-and-vocal popular music, although some bound volumes only include music in the classical tradition.
Reasons for binding sheet music were varied: some were bound before marriage as a marker of adulthood, while others were bound to collate music in one place. Gilt lettering and leather binding suggested the owners’ social status, and the volumes displayed their music selections and subjective organisation through hand-written indexes.
These bound volumes provide data on a range of music activities including music dissemination, purchase and exchange (seen through dealers’ stamps on the front of the music sheets), and occasionally the names of the companies binding the volumes. We can also identify the owners of this material as hand-written information on the music sheets includes names and addresses, although some information was trimmed during the binding process. The majority of owner-bound volumes belonged to Pākehā women (so far none belonging to wāhine Māori have been located in public collections), and they offer a glimpse into the role of the piano (and music) in women’s domestic life during the late 1900s.
While owner-bound volumes at the Hocken hold interesting titles, some stand out more than others. One intriguing volume belonged to Lucy Maude Mary Bayley, born in 1869 to Frederick and Lucy Fisher Bayley, who ran Bayley’s Hotel in High St until 1879. Music was a part of Lucy Maude Mary Bayley’s life, and her bound volume contains 26 music sheets. Most are piano music — polkas, airs, mazurkas, melodies and studies predominate and date to the late 19th century (noted by hand-written dates on the covers).
Although most pieces in the volume are by overseas writers and publishers, four are by New Zealand composers: The Otago Daily Times Mazurka, by M.A. Jones; The Colonial Mazurka (no composer noted but published by G.R. West); and two rare pieces by American born, Dunedin-based teacher Charles H. Russell, Fern Leaves, and The Silvery Spray (published by Beggs in 1876). As well as fashionable songs of the time, Bayley’s volume also includes practice pieces (scales and arpeggios), annotated with ticks, crosses, dates and tutor’s directions, showing the music’s practical nature.
While these pieces date back to the 1880s, there are later dates written on some of the works, suggesting use long after the piece was bought, and possibly a much later date than the 1880s or 1890s for binding.
Bayley’s bound volume is a fascinating artefact for considering women’s musical education (and the expectations that went with it), and the volume highlights the early music industries of Dunedin, and the role that local composers, music sellers and binders played in the city’s budding music scene.
The volumes
• Lucy Bayley’s bound volume is available to view on Hocken Digital Collections here https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/67571.
• Owner-bound volumes and other items from the Hocken’s music collections can be viewed at Hocken Collections, Tuesdays-Saturdays 10am-5pm. Public stack tours are available on Thursday mornings at 11am. For further inquiries please call the Hocken on (03)479-8868 or visit the library’s website www.otago.ac.nz/library/hocken/.
Amanda Mills is a liaison librarian and curator music and AV at Hocken Collections.
