Lady amateurs and women musicians: parlour music composers in 1890s Australia

Abstract

Australian women in the late nineteenth century wrote a surprisingly large amount of music, accounting for one-third of local composers of sheet music published during the 1890s by W.H. Paling, the main music publisher of the era. Written in the parlour music genre mainly for domestic enjoyment and social events, and principally waltzes, their music was popular with the public but received only faint praise from music critics. Most were ‘lady amateurs’ who published one or two pieces, were proficient pianists who performed at charity concerts and taught some music pupils. A few determined ‘New Women’, enabled by a good musical education and pushed by financial need, freed themselves from restrictive societal norms and forged careers as professional musicians and composers of popular and patriotic music for the nascent nation.