THE TINGALING AND COMMUNITY MUSIC IN SUBIACO BEFORE AND AFTER WORLD WAR TWO

Now and then some information on community music making pops up in archives. This quote is from the collection of oral history in the Subiaco Museum, WA,  including information on an interesting home-made instrument. The speaker is Mrs Eulie Broome, interviewed by Donna Moore on 11 November 1983:

We had some people going to our church called Foot. Mr Foot was a shopwalker in Bon Marche, which was burnt down later, that was a terrific evening, you could see the fire, even from here. Anyway, his wife was very musical, and she had a band. For a long time, the eldest daughter Esme was our church organist, and she also played the violin. Mr Foot played the violin. Arthur played the violin. Maud didn't play anything; I suppose she got the supper or something. And Norman was the one, he was my age group. He played cello. But he also played a violin, and he also made up a few instruments. One he made, played, was a single [string?] violin on a cigar box. It made quite a different tone from a violin, and he also made one using a kerosene tin for the sound box. He called that his ‘kerosene tingaling’, and he also sang and you know, they were a very great asset to a party, or to a church ...(indistinct – possibly ‘party’ or similar function)

 

Norman’s ‘tingaling’ sounds like the ‘rumpumscrumpum’, a Shropshire, England, instrument consisting of a single string attached to both ends of a board and strung across a tin can as a sounding box and bridge. A ‘kerosene tin dulcimer’ of similar construction has been documented in NSW and no doubt many others knocked up comparable devices to provide some basic melody and rhythm when required.

Unfortunately, the Subiaco Museum doesn’t have a ‘tingaling’, but it does have some instruments used for music in the area around the early-mid 20th century, including a zither, autoharp and an accordion, pictured and described below, complete with a family snap of the accordion in action and a recent commemorative mural by noted artist and author, Shaun Tan, a local resident.

Subiaco seems to have been a bit of a music hot spot. The suburb - and nearby Jolimont - became the home of JMG instruments after World War 2. Les O’Connell and Jack Maskiell  were POWs in Changi, when they returned home they set up a factory making ukeleles for an earlier uke-fad era, as well as other stringed instruments. Les had built homemade instruments for the famous concerts that were such important morale boosters in Changi and Jack made instruments in Adelaide before the war. When he and Jack came home, they just kept going.

 

1985.1241 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT: 'THE AUSTRAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC' MANDOLIN-GUITAR 

 Wooden Zither painted black. Strings fixed to flat horizontal base. One side straight, other side curved, curves back to narrower top along the edge of which project at right angles sixty-two square-faced string adjustment keys. Strings are a mixture of narrow gauge wire and spring type. They are strung parallel to each other across the front surface of the zither over a circular hole cut into this surface. The zither is decorated with multi-coloured floral design transfers around the front surface border, around the circular hole and bordering the note scale director which runs across the zither at right angles to the zither strings. 

Inside the zither and visible through the hole is the manufacturer's label. ' The Austral Academy/ MANDOLIN GUITAR/of/Music'.

Label on reverse: 'Made in Germany'. Also known as a Zither and Autoharp

1986.154 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT: 'MULLER'S' MONOPOL AUTO-HARP AND PLECTRUM 

a) Flat lacquered wood box, with twenty-five steel strings. Across the centre of these strings is a wooden box containing felt dampers operated by six brass stops. When the stops are pressed, the tone of the strings is altered by pressure of dampers. Strings are attached to metal pegs, strung across the sounding board and looped over small metal pins at the other end. Surface of instrument below the strings is elaborately inlaid in different coloured woods in a picture of flowers, leaves and a butterfly. The box supporting the stops is inlaid with brass design of a lyre encircled by a wreath. Also inlaid on this box is "Muller's Auto-Harp" "Monopol". Six brass buttons are attached. The lower part of the base has a celluloid plaque beneath the strings giving string number, string note and a staff with the note on. At one end of the upper box is a paper label. On opposite edge of base is a metal plate, oval. The base has four brass studs to raise it from the table. 

b) Plectrum for above. Curved brass plectrum for plucking strings.

1985.714a-b MUSICAL INSTRUMENT: 'HOHNER'S ACCORDEON' (ACCORDION) AND BOX 

a) M Hohner accordion with 10 keys which has mother of pearl at the end (buttons) on extension piece. At opposite front part next to the 10 fold bellows, one finds 4 bass keys (also buttons in mother of pearl). Underneath this at the right (width of accordion) a stop button (mother of pearl). At 8 corners of bellow folds chrome plates marked 'M HOHNER ACCORDEON* BEST MADE - TRADE IN GERMANY'. Facing keyboard in gauze (green) covered by intricate wood carving design, small chrome plate and screw attach it to the frame. Two hooks at upper part and two metal hooks at lower part of each side of bellows to protect them. 

b) Wooden Box with leather strap and metal knocker handle. (Not shown) * Please note spelling. English version is 'accordion' – OWNED BY HANCOCK FAMILY!

PHOTOGRAPH: HANCOCK FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND ACCORDIAN - Front: 

The photograph was taken out of doors and features Hancock family members and friends, with several children. Three men and three women stand in the back row, and several women and children kneel on the ground in the front. One woman has her right arm against the mudguard of the vehicle on the right shading her face from the sun. All are dressed in casual clothing. 

Tom Hancock stands holding the accordion, which was donated to the Subiaco Historical Society. The man standing next to him holds a small dog. The group is arranged between a motor vehicle at the right of the image and a lorry at the left. The word 'Carrier' can be seen running along the side of the lorry. There are several large trees in the background. 

MURAL: 'THE 100 YEAR PICNIC', SHAUN TAN

Image: Four large panels making up one large work. Mixed media on canvas panels. 

The image is a colourful interpretation of a photograph of a Hancock Family picnic taken around 1925. In both the original photograph and the artwork, the central figure Tom Hancock plays the accordian. The museum holds this very Hancock family accordian in its collection.

Frame: Unframed.

Transcript and photographs courtesy Kylie Seal-Pollard (she/her) | Museum Officer

City of Subiaco | PO Box 270 | Subiaco WA 6904

92379222 | kylies@subiaco.wa.gov.au | www.subiaco.wa.gov.au

HOW TO SING LIKE A SHEARER

The board at Burrawang shed, near Forbes

An informative article in The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser of 5 August 1899 gives a detailed description of the culture of the shearing shed towards the end of the nineteenth century. As well as describing work practices, attitudes and shearing history (all of it, no doubt true), the author (‘Milroy’) gives an insight into the shearers’ varied song repertoire, and their performance style. He says that in all the sheds:

‘there was sure to be a goodly sprinkling of singers or alleged singers. There were singers of "comic" songs, singers of songs relating doughty deeds performed by an intrepid party known to all and sundry as " the wild colonial boy," singers of songs composed in the days of the convict system by men who suffered under it, singers of the pleasures of a sailors life, singers of songs that touched upon cattle-hunting and shearing, singers of songs about Ireland's wrongs, and singers of pathetic ballads, such as the "Sailor's Grave" or "The Anchor's Weighed." Hard as the comic song is to bear, it is joy itself when compared with "The Sailor's Grave," sung by a strong, rough-throated person, who first looks at the roof and then shuts his eyes, places his light [right]hand on his stomach, his left thumb in his left pocket, and sings, finishing every line with an unctuous sort of grunt, which is considered the best form in every shearing shed from Wentworth to Welltown.

Milroy also noted that ‘The late Ned Kelly is regarded as a great hero by eight-tenths of shearers, and anybody that knew that mailed marauder could always command the respect of the greater majority in any shed’.

The full article is here https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163688205/16785244#

RW and GS

TEX MORTON BIOGRAPHY

Tex c 1940 Photo by photographer Lyle Fowler (1891-1969) Sourced via Wikipedia from State Library Victoria (CC)

Andrew K Smith has just published the first full-length biography of Tex Morton (University of Tennessee Press), Tex Morton: From Australian Yodeler to International Showman by Andrew K Smith.

 

An important contribution to music history scholarship, this volume not only establishes Morton’s significance in the history of Australian country music, but it also draws deep connections between Morton’s Australasian influence and country music in the United States, exploring Morton’s legacy in the wider context of the genre worldwide. Complete with a comprehensive discography of Tex Morton’s works, Smith’s in-depth biography claims for Morton his rightful place as a major founding figure in the history of Australian country music.

 

https://utpress.org/title/tex-morton/  Also available on Amazon.

VERANDAH MUSIC – NORTH AMERICAN STYLE

Monumental set of field recordings released by The Field Recorders’ Collective – A Survey of Traditional Music from the North American Traditions Collection. Complete with track lisitngs, full notes – and more:

 

Over a span of nearly four decades, a small group of friends, the North American Traditions Group, traveled over large swaths of the Appalachians, the Canadian Maritimes, the Ozarks, and the American West, recording many hundreds of hours of traditional music. Styles heard in the NAT collection range from unaccompanied ballads to vocal quartets; virtuoso fiddle solos to string bands; blues to gospel to topical songs. This is the first box set of three and includes the first five CDs of this monumental collection: From British Tradition, A Musical Melting Pot, Songs of Melancholy and Sorrow, The Anglo-African Exchange, and Grown on American Soil. 

 

https://fieldrecorder.org/product/natset1/

ACCORDION PICNIC, 1887

 

What fun they must have had to the tune of that accordion! This is one of the oldest photos in the Box Hill Historical Society collection, depicting an Easter picnic at Sandringham in 1887.

REMEMBERING BOB BOLTON

Bob Bolton

Sadly, Bob Bolton died recently. He was best known for his extensive photographic work at folk festivals, concerts and anywhere else folksong, music and dance were performed. He was the receiver of a National Folk Festival Lifetime Achiever Award and had a strong interest in all aspects of the bush and its people., lifestyle and history.

Obituaries will no doubt be appearing soon, but in the meantime here is the citation from his NFF award, courtesy of Sandra Nixon. You can also access some of Bob’s work on the Sydney Bush Music Club site and on Facebook through Graham McDonald’s digitisation of some of Bob’s very large archive of photographs.

 
https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmudcat.org%2Fthread.cfm%3Fthreadid%3D157506%26messages%3D9&data=05%7C01%7CG.Seal%40curtin.edu.au%7Cffc7db125bbf4c3e4ef708db3cc20607%7C5a740cd757684d09ae13f706b09fa22c%7C0%7C0%7C638170576248355584%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=HYOznkSZjwW8LqTh9vAwKLd98bARPvmUhQBs2qwoc%2BM%3D&reserved=0  

VERANDAH MUSIC AT NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL - THE MELTING POT

 Some snaps from the Melting Pot gig in the Trocadero, Sunday 9 April:

L-R Fred Pribac, Ruth Hazleton, Clarita Derwent, Gemma Turner, Chistina Mimmocchi, Graham Seal, Rob Willis, Olya Willis

Art by Fred Pribac

THE MELTING POT AT THE NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL 2023

 

FAMILY FOLKLORE AT THE NATIONAL FOLK FESTIV

THE FAMILY FOLKLORE SHOW

What is ‘a wig-wam for a goose’s bridle’?

 

Come and find out at the National Folk Festival in Canberra this easter. Join us for an interactive journey through the rich traditions of family life and children’s lore. Presented by:

 

Olya Willis, Christina Mimmocchi, Judy McKinty, Maureen Seal, Rob Willis and Graham Seal.

 

 

Saturday 8 April, 3.50-4.50pm, Trocadero

IRISH FIDDLE MUSIC IN NULLA NULLA CREEK

 Henry Kyle and Mary Ann with Eva Norman and George 1905

Historian Noelene Kyle has published an excellent article on Irish fiddle traditions in Nulla Nulla Creek, NSW. The musical melting pot of this area eventually produced the early brew of country music typified by Slim Dusty, among others, himself a son of the region.

 

Read all about it on Tinteán Magazine