Wirripang - Home of Australian Composers

On Keys and Covers
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.