From the collection: Catherine Hayes illustration
Born in Ireland, Hayes escaped abject poverty through her talent to a life of stardom in the opera houses and concert halls of Europe, America, Asia, the Pacific and Australia.
‘Tis sad to say adieu’ is a sentimental ballad written by Richard Frederick Harvey, published in Dublin in 1850 as a companion to Hayes’s earlier hit ‘Home of my heart’, and suited her sense of Irish patriotism. The diva spent much of her career performing to rapturous audiences as she travelled the world, and she sometimes included new compositions, like this one, dedicated to her local audiences. Before her departure from Sydney in October 1854, Hayes performed ‘Fair land of Australia’, a song composed for her by her tour conductor, Lewis Lavenu (1818–1859), who then spent the rest of his life working in Australia.
Today, the only known full copy of ‘Tis sad to say adieu’ is an edition without the portrait in the British Library.
To find out more about Catherine Hayes and her impact on the Australian cultural scene, visit the Songs of Home exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, 10 August – 17 November.
About the author
Dr Matthew Stephens
Research Librarian
Dr Matthew Stephens is research librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection with a strong interest in the history of books and libraries in New South Wales. His recently completed PhD explored the early history of the Australian Museum Library.
Related stories
1960s psychedelia at Rouse Hill House
In a short experimental period of music making, the talented young John Terry combined radical musical ideas with abstract imagery and the soundscape of Rouse Hill House.
A musical tour back in time
Soprano Nyssa Milligan describes the experience of performing at Elizabeth Bay House in the recent collaboration between Sydney Living Museums and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
A paper jukebox: exploring our sheet music collections
Musicologist Dr Graeme Skinner reflects on the historical and cultural significance of the sheet music collections belonging to three of Sydney Living Museums’ historic properties.
An unassuming instrument
By delving into an old harmonium at Rouse Hill House & Farm we hope to learn when it came into the house, who played it, and how we can best look after it.
Colonial Caledonian: In Search of the Early Scottish Musical Experience
A new short film follows Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, on her exploration of early Scottish sheet music held in SLM’s collections.
Contemporary First Peoples Composers
Australia holds one of the oldest living cultures in the world, and First Nations music making is the oldest continuing form of music making. For the Songs of Home exhibition, Sydney Living Museums collaborated with five talented contemporary First Peoples composers.
From the collection: Catherine Hayes illustration
This sheet music cover is the only known copy of this illustration of the soprano Catherine Hayes (1818–1861), one of the world’s first international opera and concert stars.
Here and There: Music at Home in Sydney and London, 1830–1845
On 28 March 2017, concert goers at Elizabeth Bay House experienced a magical evening contrasting two different musical worlds.
If these walls could talk: Rouse Hill House & Farm
On the evening of 28 April 1899 the first act of a concert held at Rouse Hill House finished with a song performed by the jovial host, Edwin Stephen Rouse (1849–1931).
Jane Austen: at home with music
Jane Austen’s music albums, on display for the first time in Australia, provide a new understanding of the use of music in the author’s work and the importance of music making in the Regency home.
Listening to the past: rediscovering our musical heritage
The stories and collections of our properties contain compelling clues about the music played and enjoyed by earlier generations. Through exciting new initiatives and research we’re reviving these soundscapes for modern audiences.
Music Lessons
Within a tower of yellowed receipts on a spike file at Rouse Hill House & Farm are illuminating details of the musical education of sisters Nina and Kathleen Rouse.
Music Making in Historic Houses
A new short film, 'Sweet Noise: Making Music at Vaucluse House', documents preparations for a musical performance in one of Sydney Living Museums' historic houses.
New Research Partnership
Sydney Living Museums has announced a new partnership with the University of Southampton and the Royal College of Music as part of a three-year research project exploring domestic music and heritage in the Georgian home.
Songs and scandal uncovered: The Dowling Music Project
In an exciting collaboration between Sydney Living Museums and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, performers from the Historical Performance Unit are bringing to life a previously unknown collection of sheet music which belonged to a young Sydney couple in the 1830s.
Sound Heritage Sydney: Making Music in Historic Places
On the 28th of March 2017, an international forum of invited experts spent a day at Elizabeth Bay House sharing their knowledge about music making in historic houses.
The archaeology of music at Hyde Park Barracks
Hard as it is to imagine men and women in the government institutions at Hyde Park Barracks singing and dancing, archaeological evidence suggests that music may have been heard there from time to time.
The Art of Playing Polka
Sometimes good music takes a while to be appreciated. For the first time, on the 11th of October, a lively dance tune published in Sydney over 160 years ago will be performed at Vaucluse House as part of its centenary celebrations.
The eloquent silence of an old piano
One of Sydney Living Museums’ pianos is almost 200 years old and has not been played since at least the 1960s. We ask Bronwen Griffin, musical instrument conservator, and Professor Neal Peres Da Costa, historical keyboardist, for their thoughts on the piano’s future care.
The Oxley piano
An unusually well-preserved 19th-century piano is helping Sydney Living Museums to authentically re-create the sounds of the early colony.
The Rouse Hill ‘Allies in camp’ music roll
Rouse Hill house boasts a fine pianola which came into the house just a few years before the outbreak of World War I. It came with a Themodist attachment, a superior model which allowed the player of the pianola to control musical phrasing and thematic changes. This capacity would have been particularly desirable for one of the music rolls in the collection at Rouse Hill House & Farm
The Stewart Symonds sheet music collection
A recently acquired collection of printed sheet music provides valuable insights into Sydney’s music trade and concert scene in the 19th century and offers opportunities for musical interpretation of Sydney Living Museums’ places.
Uncovering the musical treasures of Rouse Hill House & Farm
Nicole Forsyth, a professional viola player and casual lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, is currently researching the Rouse Hill House & Farm sheet music collection for her PhD.
Uncovering the trail of a lost masterpiece
Sydney Living Museums volunteer, author and art historian Robert Holden has devoted his sleuthing skills to the search for a missing life-sized portrait of Irish-born prima donna Catherine Hayes last seen in a photograph from 1917. Can you help with this ongoing mystery?
‘I think of thee’: unlocking a colonial song
The reconstruction of a unique but incomplete copy of a colonial song has allowed us to hear it 170 years after it was composed.