Books
Mirrie
By Olive Lawson
Regular price
$25.00
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
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Music in Brisbane and the QSO
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
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
Music Lover's Anthology, A
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
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
On Keys and Covers
By Christina Whiteley
Regular price
$28.00
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
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Panorama
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
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
Poet's Composer, A
By Brennan Keats
Regular price
$45.00
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)
Poet's Potpourri, A
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
When, some years ago, conducting became impracticable, due to muscular weakness in limbs and hands, I sought to keep trickling whatever creative juices remained, by writing books, articles and radio scripts. The first of numerous sets of verse also began arriving – most, simple narratives in rhyming couplets. As the confirmed Nostalgic mentioned above, I have included in this book, sketches of the Brisbane I once knew, and verses about flowers, birds and animals, hoping these and others provide readers with some relaxed reading. Foreword by Anthony Steel AM.
ISBN 978 1 876829 44 5
Poetry of the Preludes, The
By Phillip Wilcher
Regular price
$25.00
Chopin's Preludes as poems ... and other occasional writings.
The premise for this volume was to present Chopin’s Preludes as something other than what they are, without forsaking their genre of expression, a literary work in the form of poetry as equally evocative of the inner voice and measured workings of the music as the music might itself be suggestive; to intimate by way of analogy something of a guide towards their interpretation without intruding upon inclination.
Considering all that has been written about Chopin’s Preludes, it would seem there is little room for anything else to be said, save perhaps for the notion that within the motion of the music awaits a feeling for metrical form yet to be realized by way of the written word.
ISBN 9781876829438
Quiet Waters
By Brennan Keats
Regular price
$35.00
This is the story of a brother, Russell, who rests in HMAS Canberra in the deep quiet waters of Iron Bottom Sound. Russell, a flautist and the son of the composer Horace Keats did not live to see his 21st birthday. The book is an account from aboard Canberra, as well as three USS cruisers and their men during the war in the Pacific.
It includes a CD of works by Horace Keats, poignant songs of the time sung by Harold Williams and Peter Dawson (baritones) with Horace Keats (piano); Jane Parkin (soprano), Gavin Lockley (baritone) with Clemens Leske (piano); Emma Knott (flute) with David Miller (piano).
Brennan Keats Australian War Memorial Talk and Music, August 18th 2012:
The closing ceremony at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra - a tribute to Russell by his brother, Brennan and niece, Suzanne Crow, on 9th August 2014:
Jane Parkin, soprano and Clemens Leske, piano:
ISBN 9781876829162
$30.00 for PDF instant download:
Ship's Company
By Brennan Keats
Regular price
$35.00
A concise history of the Royal Australian Navy during World War I and many of the untold stores.
It includes a CD of works by Horace Keats, poignant songs of the time sung by Peter Dawson (baritone) with Horace Keats (piano); Jane Parkin (soprano), Gavin Lockley (baritone) with Clemens Leske (piano); Emma Knott (flute) with David Miller (piano).
ISBN 9781876829353
$30.00 for PDF instant download:
Smorgasbord
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
Smorgasbord - Plates for mixed tastes.
A farewell collection of Poems. This collection of 80 sets of verse includes twenty poems that comprise a calendar of great composers, born in respective months of the year. Other verses include biographical, historical, philosophical, and also, occasional tongue-in-cheek material. And, whilst a few of the last-mentioned are suggestive, mostly through a play on words, double entendre, etc., surely not all poetry needs be straight-laced and serious?
Foreword of Smorgasbord has been graciously supplied by one of Australia’s most gifted classical and cross-over musicians, the multi award-winning pianist, Simon Tedeschi.
ISBN 978 1 876829 340 7
Some Fine Music Composers
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
This book of poetic profiles of various composers should appeal to music-lovers, as it has been written by someone whose lengthy career and contribution to Australia's national music scene has ensured a revered place in its arts annals. Through his profiles, Conductor, Patrick Thomas, reminds us of some great composers whose music he found personally inspiring and that continues to uplift so many of us today; and how many of them created their masterpieces midst social and living conditions that we, in modern society, would find daunting. (2013)ISBN 978 1 876829 30 8