Dr Matthew Stephens and Nicole Forsyth prepare to film the House Music at Your House webinar at the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection. Photograph by Holly Schulte for Sydney Living Museums.
Talking about Music at Your House
SLM donors and members were recently invited to join a webinar broadcast from the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, where they heard an animated discussion about SLM’s new online program ‘House Music at Your House’.
Created in response to COVID-19, SLM launched in August House Music at Your House with the support of The City of Sydney. Members of the public have been invited to join leading musicians online in their homes to create new performances of songs discovered at historic Rouse Hill Estate. Hundreds of music scores lie unknown and unplayed in the house and SLM has dusted off a selection of some of the post popular hits from the 19th century for a new hearing.
Watch violist Nicole Forsyth, creator of the project, with baritone Dr David Greco in discussion with Dr Matthew Stephens, curator of the recent Songs of Home exhibition. They talk about how the project was developed, what songs they have found and what it means for 21st century music makers exploring tunes that were enjoyed at home almost two centuries ago.
About the author
Dr Matthew Stephens
Research Librarian
Matthew Stephens is research librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection. He is particularly fascinated by early book, musical instrument and sheet music collections in NSW and the stories they tell.
Related Stories
A 'musical jolt' in early colonial Sydney
Imagine that moment when you first heard your favourite piece of music - something that excited, moved or surprised you. The early musical soundscape of Sydney was teeming with just such moments.
Bel Canto in the bush: opera and song in Sydney, 1835-1850
Guest of honour Maestro Richard Bonynge AC CBE joins a glittering crowd at Elizabeth Bay House for a concert of popular song from early nineteenth-century Sydney.
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.
House Music at Your House
We invite you to join us in a new musical experiment, bringing the music of the 19th century into the 21st century.
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.
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.
Sydney Children's Choir performs a forgotten song at Rouse Hill Estate
On a warm summer morning, long before any of us had heard of COVID-19, Lyn Williams, artistic director of the Sydney Children’s Choir, and associate artistic director Sam Allchurch sifted through some of the early 19th-century music scores at Sydney Living Museums, and now you can watch the result.
Talking about Music at Your House
SLM donors and members were recently invited to join a webinar broadcast where they heard an animated discussion about SLM’s new online program ‘House Music at Your House’.
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 Odyssey of an Early Australian Piano
Imagine for a moment if all the old pianos lying around Australia could speak. One can only guess at the stories they would tell and the emotional highs and lows they have shared with their owners through music over the years.
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 Rouses of Rouse Hill: a family of music consumers
The sheet music shared online for the House Music at Your House program comes from an extraordinary collection at Rouse Hill Estate.
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.
The surprising legacy of Miss Pye of Parramatta
Visitors to Richmond Villa, head office of the Society of Australian Genealogists in Kent Street, Sydney, may have met the steady gaze of a young woman dressed in the fashion of the early 1840s.
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.
‘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.