Music education in Victoria

Music has been an important element in the education of Victorian children. With the establishment of the colonial education system, it was recognised that proficiency in music and language skills were the accomplishments required for cultivated individuals and important skills for an educated population.

To teach music requires trained teachers, but this training took time to be formalised in the colonies, eventually offering two routes to competency and recognition. While opportunities for a music education for students also developed twin streams—through school music programs or through private instrumental or voice lessons.

In Australia, education has been the responsibility of the states, with systems developing differently in each jurisdiction. Although music was judged an important skill, initially it was not a core curriculum area, although some schools offered classroom singing. School singing lessons were favoured educationally, as they not only nurtured a social skill, but also promoted discipline and spirituality. Singing was also thought to be a refining and civilising influence, especially when the lyrics included patriotic or moral sentiments. [1] By 1862, it has been estimated that one third of Victorian school students were being taught singing, by itinerant teachers. [2] At various stages changes in educational policy saw the importance of music education and its funding wax and wane, sometimes delivered at an extra cost to students, and sometimes considered as a core curriculum area. In the nineteenth-century, those teaching music and singing were rarely specialists, rather they were either classroom teachers who had obtained extra certificates in music (and paid slightly more in compensation) or students were taught by itinerant music teachers. These itinerant teachers moved from school to school seeking students or were appointed to cover specific geographic or population centres.

Teacher training

Prior to the 1880s, and the introduction of a standardised music examination system, there were no formal training or qualifications in music or music education in Victoria, so that a music teacher’s education and credentials varied considerably from one teacher to another. From the late nineteenth-century, the teaching of music developed a structured approach, with examinations introduced to test students’ proficiencies. This formalised approach imported a particularly British system and methodology to music education. As is still the case, students undertaking formal musical studies passed through a series of graded exams designed to test technical and artistic practice. Initiated in Melbourne in 1883, the first Music examinations were held by Trinity College, London and over the next decade spread across the continent to major cities and towns. [3] Trinity College of Music was established in 1872 as the Church Choral Society and College of Church Music and incorporated as Trinity College London three years later, finally rebranding as Trinity College of Music in 1904. By 1900 music teachers had a choice of at least three examination programs, Trinity College, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music founded in 1889 (a coming together of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music) and the London College of Music. Students passed through a graded system of musical examination, leading to what were considered the professional qualifications of an Associate in Music or the more senior Licentiate in Music. Almost concurrently with the development of the British Music examination system, Australian Universities began to establish academic music programs.

Prior to the introduction of compulsory education in Victoria in 1872, most teachers lacked formal education qualifications, trained through a variety of methods, with many simply moving through the pupil-teacher system. Following the introduction of compulsory education, it was recognised that formal teacher training was required in Victoria. The first tertiary course for teachers was offered through the Training Institution (Training College) established 1870 although in 1893 the depression forced its closure, before reopening in 1901. This institution was administered by the Education Department to train teachers for Education Department schools. It taught a core list of subjects for a certificate of Competency, while Special Certificates could be obtained in vocal music, drawing, military drill and gymnastics. [4] Training opportunities increased with the introduction of an Education Faculty at the University of Melbourne in 1903. In Victoria, formal education grew rapidly in the first decades of the twentieth-century, with the first state high school opened in 1905, and expanding to twenty-two by 1914.

In the twentieth-century technical innovations allowed greater democratisation of music appreciation. The gramophone provided access to music which could be recorded by orchestras and musicians across the world, while the introduction of radio in the 1920s permitted a dissemination of cultural and current affairs programming to all who could afford the cost of the hardware. While the expansion of school music programs allowed for the hosting of numerous public concerts.

The first university music department in Australia was at the University of Melbourne and occurred in 1887 as a result of a gift of £20,000 by a wealthy philanthropist Francis Ormond for a Chair in Music. Four years later, the University established the first tertiary music program in Australia, with the appointment of George William Louis Marshall-Hall (1862-1915) as the Ormond Professor of Music. This was followed in 1897 with the opening of the Elder Conservatorium at the University of Adelaide, also funded through a similar bequest from Thomas Elder. [5] In Melbourne, the initial syllabus was a theoretical academic program, without practical musical instruction and as a result the course did not prove attractive to students. To compensate for this, in 1895 Marshall-Hall argued for the establishment of a Conservatorium in Victoria. He was met with some opposition by the University Council who were loath to invest the funds, insisting that it be ‘entirely self supporting and shall in no way became a charge on the University’. [6] As a result, this new venture was established away from the University campus, initially in Carlton and later in East Melbourne, where it became known as the Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, but with a lease in Marshall-Hall’s own name. After a scandal involving Marshall-Hall, the University chose not to renegotiate his contract, but with the lease for the Conservatorium was in his name, Marshall-Hall maintained it as a separate entity to the University, eventually becoming the Melba Conservatorium in 1956. The University subsequently established its own practical teaching institution, expanding this to form the Faculty of Music in 1927. Thus, Melbourne music students had two institutions providing formal conservatorium tuition.

The Universities of Melbourne and Adelaide established not only the first conservatoriums in Australia, but also the first Australian music examination boards, joining together in 1907 as the Public Music Examination Board, which by 1914 had expanded to include the Universities of Tasmania, Western Australia and Queensland, and uniting with the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music two years later, as the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB). [7]

In 1925 the education department received funding through the Gillies Bequest to support amongst other things ‘the encouragement of instrumental music (school bands and orchestras) in State schools, leading, it is hoped, to an increase in the number of village bands and orchestras, and most important of all, family orchestras.’ This funding led to a marked increase in the number of both school orchestras and brass bands, which by 1933 had risen to 11 school orchestras, 38 brass bands, 22 fife and drum bands (an extension of military drill) and two infant school percussion bands. [8] Concurrently, to improve music education, summer schools for teachers were established at the University of Melbourne’s Conservatorium, with the purpose of both reinvigorating teachers and in encouraging new techniques through the networking of ideas. Here, the emphasis was on the importance of orchestral instruments rather than teaching the piano, as it was believed that instrumental music would encourage more collaborative values and to teach students to ‘listen’. [9] While there continued to be the recognition that music education could play an important role in broader educational outcomes, this was hampered by the reality that many teachers were still amateur, requiring training and assistance. [10]

The growth in secondary education saw an increased demand for teachers and teacher training in the post-war period, including music teachers. Schools at this time began to introduce bands and other group music activities. The Council for Music in Schools (Victoria) declared that ‘Musical education has two aims, both of which need to be developed in every school - the cultivation of the ability to enjoy and the cultivation of the ability to do.’ [11] While the conductor and Ormond Chair of Music Bernard Heinze emphasised the value of music to train minds, commenting that music education was one of ‘the most potent factors in the general development of a child’s character and finer instincts’. [12] The greater appreciation of music lead to increased participation in music in schools. Not only was singing a part of the curriculum, but the development of instrumental music programs in schools and intra-school choral and later instrumental competitions were introduced into Victorian Schools. For the less musically adept or for those who did not have private lessons, a range of recorder and Rhythm Bands were available as group music options. The emphasis on music education continued and in the decade from 1961, the number of school recorder bands increased from 45 to 250 and brass groups from 16 to 44. [13]

Inspectors of Music

By the beginning of the twentieth-century, as has been noted, the vast number of teachers in Victorian schools still lacked formal training. Inspectors were introduced to advise and assist teachers, assess students and direct curriculum. With the professionalisation and growth of teaching, the number of inspectors expanded, although female inspectors remained a rarity. [14]

In Victoria the Education Department appointed its first Supervisor of Music in 1923, and under this scheme itinerant music teachers were employed by the Department to teach in state primary and secondary schools. In 1940 this area was renamed the Music Branch and in December 1943 Doris M Irwin was appointed Supervisor of Music. She recognised the importance of well-trained teachers, and in her first year succeeded in securing funding for the first four teachers to enrol in a Bachelor of Music. To assist with music education the Education Department utilised its internal publication The School Paper, including songs and music for students, and considerable care was made in negotiating copyright and permissions from publishers internationally. In 1966, Alexandra Cameron was appointed Victoria’s first Secondary School Music Inspector of Music.

The increased participation in orchestral music required greater support than just teachers volunteering their time. Sheet music was also a requirement for students and their teachers. In 1974 to support this expansion of music education, two string teachers, Christine Vincent and Judith Anderson suggested the formation of a Victorian String Music Library to provide scores for string teachers, school orchestras and students. Assisted by a committee of music educators, they successfully received a grant of $13,000 from the Federal government for its establishment of a library whose aim was for a comprehensive music library to cater for all instrumentalists. Initially the library was located at Camberwell High School, and Alexandra Cameron was responsible for the recruitment of the first librarian, musician, music teacher and librarian Margaret McCarthy. [15]

Others in Music education also sought opportunities for gifted musicians. In 1948 American born Ruth Alexander pianist and South Australian born conductor and music educator John Bishop established the first Australian Music Camps, auspiced by the National Fitness Council and the Victorian School Music Association. The concept for these camps originated from those experienced by Ruth Alexander in her childhood in America. Three years later saw the formation of the National Music Camps Association. The successful engagement of young musicians in Australia led to the forming of the Youth Orchestra in 1957. Other music camps developed at state and local levels providing opportunities for generations of young Australian instrumental musicians.

DR SUE SILBERBERG

Bibliography

Andrews, John, and Deborah Towns. 'A Secondary Education for All'?: A History of State Secondary Schooling in Victoria. North Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Scholarly, 2017.

Bebbington, Warren. The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Blake, L. J., ed. Vision and Realisation, a Centenary History of State Education in Victoria Vol. 1. 56 Melbourne: Education Department of Victoria, 1973.

Bridges, Doreen M. 'The Role of Universities in the Development of Music Education in Australia 1885- 1970', Doctor of Philosophy, University of Sydney, 1970.

Comte, Martin. 'Alexandra E. Cameron Awarded a Doctorate in Education, Honoris Causa', Victorian Journal of music Education 2 (1996): 3-5.

Dumont, Faye. Interview by Sue Silberberg. 21 February 2019.

Gilmore, K.R. 'An Historical Perspective of the Development of the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music', Master of Education, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 2000.

McCarthy, Margaret. 'The Victorian Educational String Music Library: A Report by Margaret Mccarthy', Australian Journal of Music Education, no. 18 (April 1976 1975): 60.

McCarthy, Neville. Eulogy for Margaret Patricia Mccarthy, 27 September 1928- 17 December 2014. Personal Collection.

Scott-Maxwell, Aline, John Whiteoak, and Currency House Inc. Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia. Sydney: Currency House, 2003.

Sweetman, Edward, Charles R. Long, and John Smyth. State Education in Victoria. Melbourne: The Education Department of Victoria, 1922.

Worland, Bruce. Interview by Sue Silberberg. 14 February 2019.

Notes

1. Aline Scott-Maxwell, John Whiteoak, and Currency House Inc., Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia (Sydney: Currency House, 2003), 59. Return to text
2. Warren Bebbington, The Oxford Companion to Australian Music (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997), 397. Return to text
3. Doreen M Bridges, ‘The Role of Universities in the Development of Music Education in Australia 1885- 1970’ (Doctor of Philosophy University of Sydney, 1970), 53. Return to text
4. Edward Sweetman, Charles R. Long, and John Smyth, State Education in Victoria (Melbourne: The Education Department of Victoria, 1922), 96. Return to text
5. Scott-Maxwell, Whiteoak, and Currency House Inc., Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia, 502. Return to text
6. K.R Gilmore, ‘An Historical perspective of the Development of the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music’ (Master of Education Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 2000), 20. Return to text
7. Currently administered jointly by the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne Western Australia and the Ministries of Education in NSW, Queensland and Tasmania. Return to text
8. The Argus, 1 September 1933, 8. Bebbington, The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, 398. Return to text
9. The Age, 30 January 1930, 6. Return to text
10. The Argus, 2 June 1934, 17 and The Age, 2 April 1938, 15. Return to text
11. L. J. Blake, ed., Vision and Realisation, A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, vol. 1 (Melbourne: Education Department of Victoria, 1973), 383. Return to text
12. Herald, 20 December 1935, 8. Return to text
13. Blake, Vision and Realisation, A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, 1078. Return to text
14. John Andrews and Deborah Towns, ’A Secondary Education For All’?: A History of State Secondary Schooling in Victoria (North Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Scholarly, 2017). Return to text
15. Margaret McCarthy, ‘The Victorian Educational String Music Library: A Report by Margaret McCarthy’, Australian Journal of Music Education, no. 18 (April 1976), 60. Return to text