Books

A comprehensive study book with music examples, questions, activities and answers within the topic Australian Music.

This book AUSTRALIAN MUSIC is the FOURTH in a series of books that are topic based and are suitable for study in Preliminary and HSC courses of Music in the NSW BOSTES syllabi.
Each topic book explores the six concepts of music- pitch, duration, texture, tone colour, structure, dynamics and expressive techniques, as well as unity and contrast.

All the exercises and questions throughout AUSTRALIAN MUSIC are designed to be analysed at the student’s pace and not under examination conditions. They can be used to enhance practise in writing graphic notation and aural analysis. Each listening example has a main question on which to focus, as well as the inclusion of other activities which will provide a variety of ways to approach aural analysis.

At the conclusion of each listening example is a summary of the unity and contrast found within the music.

We have given our own interpretation of how each question can be approached and this can be used as a guide to the analysis of the musical themes.
Written 2017. 

Download samples

• Australian Music - samples
• Listening Guide and Resources

For school orders please send purchase order to the following email for immediate processing keats@wirripang.com.au

ISBN 9781876829612
OR $30.00 for instant PDF download:

Comprehensive guide to the cor anglais and oboe and and extensive repertoire list and valuable program notes.

Welcome to the wonderful world of musical wind instruments! The cor anglais and oboe belong to the class of wind instrument called the double reed. The bassoon and contra-bassoon are the other members of the double-reed family. The purpose of this book is to give you access to the cor anglais and oboe; how to play them, what to play on them and the techniques that will help you play them well.

It is also a vital guide for the music lover as it will inform you as to the repertoire of these instruments and will help promote your listening pleasure. Very little is written about the cor anglais so this book seeks to promote it along with the oboe, both often heard but rarely recognised.

Hard copy includes a CD of cor anglais works performed by Rachel Tolmie. 
Also available online is Rachel's CD - Simply, Cor Anglais (Wirr007)

ISBN1876829 12 5

$50.00 for instant download of the book:

Apart from the humour experienced in daily living, there are lots of things in life that, though seemingly innocuous or inconsequential at the time, leave an enduring imprint.  So, whilst Patrick's earlier collections of poetry have revolved almost entirely around his life’s passion, music, this one is different and embraces subjects such as flora, fauna - especially two personal favourites of the author viz., owls and dogs - as well as many other day-to-day topics, both humorous and serious. 
CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT but can be downloaded as PDF for $15.00:

 ISBN 978 1 876829 24 7

The publication of this diary introduces a new perspective on several aspects of musical and social history. We learn through the eyes and ears of a budding young colonial composer about musical life in Leipzig in a Golden Age of musical history when the city was host to a steady stream of names who are now enshrined as the greatest of the greats from the Romantic era. We are treated to first-hand accounts of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Bruch, Reinecke, Sarasate, Joachim, Strauss and Sitt, to mention but a few.

Compiled and edited by Donald Maurice.

CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT but can be downloaded as a PDF  $40.00   
ISBN 978 876829 14 8

The Life of Composer Mirrie Hill

The names of Alfred Hill and Mirrie Hill have been often coupled in reference material on
music and a comparison of their work as composers has sometimes been posited. Mirrie Hill was gifted and able musician and composer.

One of Alfred Hill’s first students in Sydney was Mirrie Solomon. She had already studied with two other teachers of musical composition and was an accomplished pianist before becoming one of his pupils. Though they later would marry, there is no evidence that Alfred Hill influenced her composing style. Mirrie Hill was to be recognised as one of the few notable women composers of the twentieth century in Australia. During her lifetime she was best known for her contribution to music for young students of the pianoforte, but a later assessment might give her more credit for her music that was based on, and thereby honoured, the primitive music of some of Australia’s aboriginal people.

 ISBN: 978 1 876829 53 7
$20.00 for PDF instant download:

Investigating the concepts/elements of music. 
A resource book for secondary students

This book is the first in a series of books that explores the concepts/elements of music, which are suitable for study in all JUNIOR, INTERMEDIATE and SENIOR Secondary Music Courses in New South Wales Higher School Certificate, Queensland Certificate of Education, The Western Australian Certificate of Education, Victorian Certificate of Education, South Australian Certificate of Education, Northern Territory Certificate of Education Training, the Tasmanian Certificate of Education and New Zealand Education System. 

BOOK ONE will explore the music concept/element PITCH, which has been broken down into 14 individual chapter components: tonality, definite and indefinite pitch, intervals (contour), melodic dictation, melodic ostinato, melodic unison, harmony, harmonic rhythm, harmonic ostinato, key change, melodic phrasing, melodic range, contour and dissonance. 

Each chapter has been designed to provide the educator and student accurate listening examples that will assist in the delivery, reinforcement and study of each component of Pitch. All questions and activities are included at the end of each chapter to enhance skills in aural practice and musicianship. 
A CD also accompanies the book, which includes music excerpts from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic Eras. This will be used to assist in the melodic dictation activities outlined in chapter four.

Download samples

• Pitch - samples
• Listening Guide and Resources

For school orders please send purchase order to the following email for immediate processing keats@wirripang.com.au

ISBN: 9781876829544

OR $30.00 for instant PDF book download:

$1.00 audio download:

Investigating the concepts/elements of music. 
A resource book for secondary students

 

This is the second in a series of books that explores the concepts/elements of music, which are suitable for study in all JUNIOR, INTERMEDIATE and SENIOR Secondary Music Courses in New South Wales Higher School Certificate, Queensland Certificate of Education, The Western Australian Certificate of Education, Victorian Certificate of Education, South Australian Certificate of Education, Northern Territory Certificate of Education Training, the Tasmanian Certificate of Education and New Zealand Education System.

BOOK TWO will explore the music concept/element DURATION, which has been broken down into 10 individual chapter components: Beat, Time Signatures, Note Values and Rests, Tempo, Rhythm Part One – Rhythm tree, Note groupings, Rhythm Part Two – Cross-rhythm, Polyrhythm, Polymetre, Rhythm Part Three – Syncopation, Rhythmic Patterns, Rhythmic Sequence, Rhythmic Ostinato, Harmonic Rhythm, Rhythmic Unison, Phrase Lengths, Playing Techniques, Rhythmic Dictation.        

Each chapter has been designed to provide the educator and student accurate listening examples that will assist in the delivery, reinforcement and study of each component of Duration. All questions and activities are included at the end of each chapter to enhance skills in aural practice and musicianship.

Over 150 artists/bands/composers are featured in the book, covering music from the 1700s to the 2000s in a wide variety of genres and styles such as: Avant Garde, Baroque, Blues, Classical, Contemporary, Country, Disco, Folk, Funk, Hip-Hop, Impressionism, Indie, Jazz, Metal, Pop, Rap, Rock, Romantic, RnB and Soul. 

There are also music transcriptions of melodic themes, motifs, riffs, bass lines and chord progressions are transcribed from the original music recordings of the artists/bands/composers in the book.

We have also included one chapter of material, which is based on Harmonic Rhythm, taken directly from Pitch Book 1.

Download samples

• Duration - samples
• Listening Guide and Resources

                                 NOTE:   Available 29 January 2019

For school orders please send purchase order to the following email for immediate processing keats@wirripang.com.au

ISBN: 9781876829575

OR $30.00 for instant PDF book download (from 29 January 2019)

Personal pieces of a large jigsaw.

Recollections of the author's early years in Brisbane and the music scene post WWII.

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Brisbane's wider music scene have contributed significantly to Australia's cultural development and many noteworthy and progressive things happened over the years with several early innovations that were well ahead of their time. Among these were Queensland Government's establishment of two professional String Quartets; the State Opera Scheme; and its contribution to the new QSO which, when born in 1947, was only the second such fulltime Australian Orchestra of symphonic strength.  These and many more cultural achievements are discussed in this book.

ISNB9781876829278

Some musical vignettes, thoughts and profiles.

This collection of poems is typical of Patrick's personality, professionalism, depth of feeling, and his dry sense of humour which really can tickle ... some quirky insights into the "magic of music. Gerard Willems.  

ISBN 978 1 876829 15 5

The piano music composed in New South Wales during the nineteenth-century is a much neglected repertoire. Since the average pianist does not know much about it, the aim of this book is to bring to light some of the charming colonial piano pieces of yesteryear and show how this repertoire provides a valuable backdrop to life in colonial New South Wales and its importance for our Australian heritage. 

The covers of many of the pieces are beautifully illustrated with pictures created by talented artists.  When communication was not so instant and vast as today, colonial piano music was yet another means of broadcasting news. The reporting of what was happening in the colony belongs not only to the century in which the pieces were written but through time to the centuries beyond.  To people living in this day and age, colonial piano pieces provides a commentary of the historical, political, economic, social and cultural scene of nineteenth-century New South Wales.  They also show the origins of the Australian character in their narrative about settlers in the colony finding an identity in their new land and developing a sense of nationhood.

ISBN 978 1 876829 28 5
HARD COPY OUT OF STOCK
$22.00 for instant PDF download:  

Panorama - People, Places and Perspectives. 
A collection of original verse covering subjects - topical, philosophical, humorous - and a selection of portraits of some eminent Australians.

ISBN 978 1 876829 36 0

The biography of Horace Keats 1895-1945 and the connection with some of his associate artists, such as, Peter Dawson, Barbara Russell and the poets, Kenneth Mackenzie, Hugh McCrae, Christopher Brennan and many others. 

The book is illustrated with drawings by Hugh McCrae and includes many photographs of personalities of the period.

Includes double disc of songs by Horace Keats performed by:  Jane Parkin (soprano), Gaven Lockley (baritone), Alexa Still (flute), Clemens Leske (piano).
http://youtu.be/LcuGKG4WdgE

ISBN: 978 1 8768292023
$35.00 for instant download book only, (275 pages)