Heritage et AL

It is a unique opportunity to be able to explore and have access to the complete output of a composer’s life work. Being able to see the creative working and reworkings of their manuscript from initial inspiration through to the finished work provides a deeper understanding of them as a musician – and you can gain an appreciation of their musical life as their influence and outreach in the community becomes evident. Not to mention discovering beautiful music! In 2023, a collection was donated to Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections of the life work of composer Margaret Wegener. While she is not a widely known composer, being British born, she has an amazing story of a life filled with music which continued to enjoy even after her move to Auckland in 2005 aged 85. Margaret Wegener was born in north-west London in 1920 and began composing as a child, continuing composition into her late 80s. After studying at Maria Grey College she qualified as a teacher, eventually holding posts as D...

Ngako: The Collections Talk is a documentary film and podcast series showcasing taonga in Auckland Libraries’ heritage and research collections.  Explore the whole series in our current exhibition , on until 2 March 2024 at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero, the Central City Library. This audio playlist contains all the episodes from Ngako: The Collections Podcast, where we explore items and stories from Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections. Wanderlust - the war years In this episode we find meaning and history in the Auckland Tramping Club’s newsletter Wanderlust.  Archivist Sharon Smith shares insights gleaned from reading the Wanderlust magazine in the period of publication during the Second World War.  We are also joined by current Auckland Tramping Club members, Ian, Anna and Dennis, on the Club’s programme of tramps and their preparation for the upcoming Club centenary celebrations. Listen to the track here . Ava, kava, kawa In this episode we explore the world of ava...

One never knows when a treasure will come to light, and I am delighted to share this treasure with you. Not only because it is a first edition, but also because we can receive a fascinating glimpse into how it was used and its provenance. In June 2022, I discovered a Nägeli first edition of Bach’s Das wohltemperirte Clavier, oder, Präludien und Fugen durch alle Töne. 1er [2er] amongst a donation of orchestral and chamber music. This is perhaps Bach's best-loved keyboard work. Known in English as 'the 48' or The   Well-Tempered Clavier it was composed "for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study" and used as a valuable teaching tool for his students. Image: Cover of Das wohltemperirte Clavier, oder, Präludien und Fugen durch alle Töne. 1er [2er], 1808. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections. Neither book of the Well-Tempered Clavier was published in Bach's lifetime. The f...

When Sarah Mathew, wife of the surveyor Felton Mathew, arrived on the shores of the Waitematā Harbour in 1840, it was to assist her husband in selecting a site for the capital of Aotearoa. Later that year, the couple moved into a tent above the beach of the area we now call Britomart. In a box beside the tent was what Sarah refers to in her diary as “my devoted piano”. Once their house was finished, the piano moved in with her. Image: Page 22 from Sarah Mathew’s ‘Journal of voyage to New Zealand, March 2nd 1840 – February 21st 1844’ including her reference to “my devoted piano”. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, NZMS 79. Middle-class English gentlewomen of the nineteenth-century were expected to learn the piano and this was adhered to even in the context of their unusual lives in early Auckland. Live music continued to play a large part in the lives of these men and women and the piano was indispensable as an entertainment in the home. More than that, playing the piano well was ...

For many years, Auckland Libraries has engaged with the music loving community by providing opportunities for musicians to perform at our Thursday Heritage Concerts series. At these concerts, our local musicians, and even some from overseas, have showcased their prodigious talent and highlighted a wonderful and varied musical repertoire – the vast majority of which the Library holds in our extensive music collection. We have had the joy of hearing beautiful interpretations of well loved works and had the privilege to hear lesser known works we would not have heard otherwise. One example being Purcell’s Harpsichord Master which was wonderfully presented by Peter and Katharine Watts in our concert series in 2019. Auckland Libraries holds the only extant copy of this work, first published in 1697. It was so exciting to hear it brought to life by such experts. I thought that this time in lockdown would be the perfect opportunity to reflect and take a look back on another special performanc...

In this final blog for New Zealand Music Month we continue our celebration of the vinyl in our Heritage Collections, where you'll find LPs and 45s of every musical genre, from the 1950s to the present day. Today we land in the 80s, as Andrew reviews LPs from The Gordons and the Tall Dwarfs.  THE GORDONS S/T LP Image: The Gordons. 1988. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections . Getting reissued any day now, here’s the 1980s noise rock debut album that trainspotters get all wound up about in the NZ stakes of early angular art punk. The Gordons, renowned practitioners of the loud and battering, augmenting live shows and venues’ PAs, with their own hot rodded, customised PA stacks, to present spectacles of sonics not usually encountered in the NewZild landscape. This album carves, scratches, scrapes, and bubbles away, riding busy grooves, droning tones, rubbery bass, hiccupping drums, and drawling, wafting, sometimes softly mumbling vocals. Could be called, that the album is a more nua...

This year for New Zealand Music month we’re focusing on our vinyl collection at Auckland Libraries’ Heritage Collections. This collection of NZ LPs and 45s  (also known as 7-inch records) covers the gamut of musical genres and time periods from the 1950s right up to current releases. That’s right – we buy new release vinyl for our Heritage Collections! To celebrate this cool collection we asked a couple of our Central Library colleagues to review some of their favourites. Here's Dedee's review of Non Compos Mentis  by i.e. crazy . Image; Album cover photo by Sean Kelly & Frances Libeau, 2017. At the time of writing, this album had just turned four.  Non Compos Mentis by  i.e. crazy was released on Muzai Records on April 21, 2017. Hard to believe only four years has passed. Feels like much longer, so much has happened since then. But it also seems quite timely to revisit this dark masterpiece, as it turns out i.e. crazy (Frances Libeau) is gearing up to release so...

It is the fascinating, and sometimes humorous stories behind some of the donations that we receive at Auckland Libraries that adds intrinsic value and interest to our collections. Recently, I had great joy in discovering the back story to a small donation of 45rpm (also known as 7-inch) records donated by drummer Bruce Fuller. The donation of these early New Zealand recordings was accompanied by letters describing his memories of playing in covers bands in the 1960s Auckland music scene. I have incorporated Bruce’s memories into this blog post. A young and bright-eyed Bruce Fuller stepped in to a vibrant Auckland music scene after he started taking lessons from legendry drummer Frank Gibson (Senior). Fuller was fortunate to meet Rudy and Hugo Spemann - the Spemann brothers often played for Bill Sevisi. Friends Jason Hiko (guitar), Neil Johnson (bass), and Brian Prout (second guitarist) also joined the trio and 'Rudy & the Crystals' was born. This was in 1960-1961 when rock ...