General
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: 
Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ships-Company-concise-history-Australian-ebook/dp/B07X9WVCGT/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Ship%27s+Company&qid=1570937156&s=books&sr=1-5
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
Symphony of Limericks
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
 Patrick Thomas' latest collection of poetry, "SYMPHONY OF LIMERICKS", contains 80 sets of verse. In the main, these sketch some of the many fine musicians who influenced him during his career. Also there are verses that dare to comment on some of Music's less serious aspects, as foreshadowed by the clever cover drawing of Sydney artist, Bunty Morrison. Symphony of Limericks is the tribute, that one hopes will spark people's recollections of some outstanding performers and contributors from earlier years.
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Tête-à-tête (Book)
By Phillip Wilcher
Regular price
$20.00
An idealised conversation between the spirit of
composer Frederic Chopin and the Ballade No. 4 in F
minor, Op. 52
Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op.52 (Chopin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfUaRqj6C_8&feature=youtu.be
ISBN 9781876829681
They Beat Time
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
Pioneers of Australia's Orchestras.
The poetic sketches in this booklet mainly portray conductors who, through their vision and initiative, pioneered today's excellence in performance. Few know that evolving scene more intimately than conductor, Patrick Thomas. (2014)
ISBN 978 1 876829 33 9
Thinking Allowed
By Phillip Wilcher
Regular price
$50.00
A life in conversation with itself
Within the learnedness of this most discerning and singularly profound truth dwells a humanness so vast in liberty and limitation, that it denies us any false face we might choose to show to the world in order to shun our truth, favouring more the integrity of our most integrated selves, the common presence present that is of a oneness inherent to all.
Only through the realization of our finest virtues, can we divine a way to endure with courage and compassion, the fullness of our humanity and all its frailties.
Through writing music I composed who I was becoming;
through composing words I now write of who I am.
If I am the sum total of my contradictions,
this is my truth.
ISBN 9781876829452
Thoughts and Reflections
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$20.00
Within the covers of Thoughts and Reflections - Poems for Pleasure are more than 90 sets of verse on wide-rianging topics. Very few deal with music, the themes include Life and our environment; the fine arts; medical and dental situations; auctions, IT and computers; cities, aviation and various means of travel; flowers, birds, dogs, cats; ... plus lots more. ISBN 978 1 876829 29 2
Upbeats and Downbeats
By Patrick Thomas
Regular price
$40.00
A Conductor's Life. An autobiography. A story about a career in music from flautist in the ABC's Queensland Symphony Orchestra to a world of Australian and International orchestral conducting.
Patrick Thomas was not the product of a Conservatorium (there was none in Brisbane at the time) nor did he join the various young hopefuls who sought advanced training or conducting apprenticeships in famous overseas centres. When he jettisoned a burgeoning career as a flautist in the ABC’s Queensland Symphony Orchestra, this could have been the kiss of death in terms of achieving his ultimate ambition but, miraculously, eight years later, he was catapulted overnight into the world he'd always sought. To maintain favour in one’s country with its comparatively small music community can be more difficult than roaming the world where orchestras are plentiful and offer itinerant conductors an immense range of opportunities and alternatives. Sustaining a successful career in music for over 60 years takes more than luck but, in the end, it will be for others to judge the extent of his contribution and the conditions under which it was made.
ISBN: 978 1 87682920 9
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Wirripang - from the beginnning
By Brennan Keats
Regular price
$25.00
The dedications below encapsulate the contents of this book about the origins and formation of the publishing house Wirripang that can now claim to be the largest publisher of Australian sheet music in the world.
To my darling wife Anne (Annie), the driving force behind the not inconsiderable achievements of Wirripang.
To Wirripang, born of blood, tears and sweat; you rise, soar and glide on the rich winds of dedication, passion and love of all things cultural, high in a rarified atmosphere above an abused, tired and war-torn planet.
Both Anne and Brennan Keats were raised with a strong sense of the value of Australian culture. Anne, the product of country parents who later embraced the richness of city living yet retained a strong sense of country values, that included a great pride of Australia and all things Australian.
Brennan whose parents were both professional musicians had instilled in him from an early age the value of music from a deeply cultural viewpoint, yet at the same time it was made clear to him that music would not be his profession.
Both parents left their respective children a legacy; in the case of Anne a strong work ethic and as stated love of country; in the case of Brennan a considerable collection of music, some being unpublished because the publishers of the day looked not to its cultural value but rather to the money it would generate them.
Over the years both offspring, albeit unconsciously, gradually worked to combining their respective legacies to form an enterprise that would publish music of cultural value with a view to bringing it before a discerning public, as well as ensuring that it would not be lost to future generations. This is their story. There were tears spilt by them; there were many late nights and early mornings; there were ghosts; there are examples of dedication to their art by some who have become the strongest of friends and remain with Wirripang to the present day, and above all and in us all a passion for Australian culture.
ISBN 9781876829568
Woman Who Stands Alone, A
By Brennan Keats
Regular price
$50.00
The biography of Janet Keats 1900-1985. A lifetime dedicated to the furtherance of the contribution made to Australian musical culture by her husband Horace Keats, despite the parlous circumstances that befell her upon his early death.Born to a privileged country life and raised in the best of Victorian tradition by three maiden aunts, her early education instilled a love of matters intellectual, cultural and an attraction to those who pursue it. Her experience of war and its horror was both indirect and direct. Towards the end of WWI she performed as a volunteer singer and pianist in the ‘rest rooms’ provided for the soldiers, and saw the impact upon their young lives. During WWII her contact with war was devastated by the loss of her eldest son. Her choices of husbands were men of exceptional artistic ability. Her first longest and happiest marriage was to a gifted musician and composer, her second to a man of words, both men leaving a lasting cultural legacy that exists to the present day. Her third marriage was to a man whose cultural and intellectual abilities were inhibited by his Norfolk Island upbringing and WWII.
Through her strength and strong belief she raised her youngest son passing on her beliefs so setting the course for the evolution of the Australian music publishing house, Wirripang.
ISBN: 9781876829384
$40.00 for PDF instant download: