Professor Edward Harold Davies
Papers 1887-1947
MSS 0059
Biographical Note l Contents Listing
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Biographical Note
Edward Harold Davies was born in England on 18 July 1867 and
studied music under Joseph Bridge at Chester Cathedral while
apprenticed to an architect. Following his brother Charles to
South Australia in January 1887 he immediately became organist and
choirmaster at Christ Church Kapunda and conducted musical
societies there and in Gawler. He went back to England
in 
1890
to qualify as an Associate of the Royal College of Organists and on
his return was appointed to St Peter’s Glenelg, then to St Paul’s
Adelaide. From 1897 until 1919 he was organist and choirmaster at
Kent Town Methodist Church. During these early years he
undertook formal study at the University of Adelaide, graduating
Mus.Bac. in 1896 and D.Mus in 1902, the first music doctorate to be
conferred by an Australian university. At the same time he
taught piano, organ, singing and composition privately and, later,
class singing at Methodist Ladies College, before his appointment
as Professor of Music at the University in succession to J.M. Ennis
in 1919.
During his long service as Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Music, Davies was generous in his support of students and professional musicians, especially teachers, and tirelessly promoted serious music and the development of public taste and appreciation. In addition to his directorship of the Elder Conservatorium and formal teaching of degree students he communicated with the general public through newspaper articles, lectures and many broadcast talks on music and on more general cultural and philosophical matters.
His leadership in many music activities was widely recognized. In 1902 he had founded the Adelaide Bach Society, of which he was conductor for thirty years, and he was the driving force behind the foundation of the South Australian Orchestra, the first performance of which he conducted in 1921. He also played a major role in establishing the Australian Music Examinations Board and its university antecedents. He was a member of four expeditions to Central Australia undertaken by the University Board for Anthropological Research between 1926 and 1930, and was the first person in Australia to record, transcribe and write about aboriginal tribal and ceremonial songs and singing.
Davies was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, London, in 1931, becoming, with Bernard Heinze and W. Arundel Orchard, the first musicians to be accorded that honour. In 1934 the University of Western Australia awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. He was still occupying the Chair when he died on 1 July 1947. He had married Ina Jane Deland in 1893 and had three sons and two daughters.
Most of these papers were received in September 2003 from Mrs
C.M. Cheesman, the younger daughter of E.Harold Davies. The
notebook on acoustics, the six notebooks relating to Davies’
recordings of aboriginal songs and music on expeditions in 1927,
1928 and 1929 and a few other items indicated by an asterisk (*) were
originally deposited in the University Archives with other papers
of the Elder Conservatorium in the 1980s, [Series 309], and were
transferred to this collection in October 2003.
Additional papers of E. Harold Davies on Aboriginal music, and his baton, are held in the papers of Alison Holder MSS 0062, Series 8-11
Contents Listing
And I saw a new heaven: anthem for S.A.T.B. undated, ms
Pater noster. August 1897, ms
Untitled [Setting of Psalm 145 – Davies’ exercise for the degree of Mus.Bac.] c1896, ms
Te deum laudamus/To thee all angels/The glorious company/Thou art the King//Thou sittest at the right hand of God//Day by day/Vouchsafe, O Lord/O Lord, in Thee have I trusted. 1901, ms. [c.f Davies’ Mus.Doc exercise of 1902]
A musical service for the ceremony of initiation [separate books for 1st and 2nd tenor and 1st and 2nd bass parts] 1905, ms
Five songs of childhood (London, Novello, ©1912)
O Praise God in his holiness (London, Novello, undated)
The white peace. undated, ms
Melodies in various keys and rhythms. undated, ms
National songs. undated, ms. 2 v
The sandman. 1943, ms
Arrangements and songs [to words by others] c1887-1902 [most undated]: Only wait, Be strong, Let your light, Music incidental to ‘The Bells’, Break, break#, The nights, Friendship, The flowers of the forest, Humpty Dumpty#, Over the hills, I think of thee, The Merman (ms and printed copy). [# denotes works written for the S.A.T.B.]
[Sketches for ‘Songs of childhood’]?
See also Series 4 for notes on recordings of aboriginal music
2. Commencement addresses
1922-47. 5 cm
Rhythm 1922
Backward Glances in Musical History 1926
Life and work 1928
The Ways of Study 1931
The Challenge of the Machine 1932
The Faculty of Music1933
Poetry and Music 1934
[My twentieth Year at the University] 1938
Values 1939
Teachers and Students 1940
John Sebastian Bach 1941
Taking Stock 1944
Musicianship - The One Thing Needful 1945
Things that Matter 1947
3. Broadcasts, lectures
and addresses 1903, 1926-47. 20 cm
[3.1 Public broadcasts on 5CL, 1930-32, 1934, 1936, 1940-45
and undated.
Various series of talks on music generally, on sound, taste,
genius, composers, early music in South Australia; also a 1934
series on Public Examinations in Music; introduction to the
A.M.E.B. broadcasts of 1940; war-time talks on Freedom, The
standard of living, The what and the why of art, and Character;
contribution to National Forum of the Air 1945; St. David’s Day
talk on the music of Wales; Glimpses of musical life in the 18th
century; etc.]
3.2 School broadcasts 1938-39, 1942.
The 'what’ and the 'why’ of music, undated [after 1937]; The
meaning of scales May and June [no year]; In the composer’s
workshop/Melody/Tune-building [series of 8 broadcasts] 1942
3.3 Lectures and addresses [some possibly also
broadcasts, though not identified as such], 1903, 1924-47 [most
undated].
These have been grouped into files Nature of Music, History of
Music, Music (general), Music education, Broadcastings and music
reproduction, Sounds and words, Life matters, philosophy and
education, and Miscellaneous, based on an earlier arrangement by
Davies’ biographer, Dr Doreen Bridges. Titles within each
file as reconstituted and a complete listing of all lecture and broadcast titles and
commemoration addresses as originally compiled and classified by Dr
Bridges is filed with the series.
3.4 Address in response to the Honorary degree conferred by the University of Western Australia, 28 April 1934]
4. Notebooks and articles
on aboriginal music and on recordings made on expeditions to
Central Australia. 1927-47
[4.1 Notebooks 1927-29. 6 v*
General notes on the expeditions to Alice Springs/Macdonald
Downs and Hermannsburg/Central Australia and the songs and music
recorded [2 v.], and more detailed notes on songs recorded on each
of the expeditions to Hermannsburg (1929), Macumba and Alice
Springs (1927), and Koonibba, Penong and Yardea (1929). Volume 1 of
the notebooks contains at the back a draft of the article on
Palaeolithic music published in 1927 and v. 2 has brief comments on
the Coniston killings of October 1928]
4.2 Articles on aboriginal songs and music 1927-47. 4 items
‘Palaeolithic music’ The Musical times 1927; ‘Aboriginal
songs of central and southern Australia’ Oceania 1932;
‘Music in primitive society’ The Anthropological Society of South
Australia Campbell address, 1940 (typescript) and Music in
primitive society (The Anthropological Society of South
Australia Occasional publications no.2, 1947), with attached note
from T.G.H. Strehlow 2 October 1946 referring to the paper.
4.3 Letter to Davies from E.M. v Hornbostel 1931 thanking him for discs of Arunta songs*
4.4 Copies of notes by Tindale on songs recorded at Adelaide, 1932 (Clarence Long series*)
4.5 Ewangelia Lukaka (Gospel of St Luke in
Aranda), British and Foreign Bible Society, 1925*]
See also paers of Alison Holder MSS 0066, Series 8-11
5. Notebooks and notes. 1894,
1923 and undated. 6 v
School notes on acoustics (1894)*; notes for talk on Bach
(undated); notes for Extension Lecture series on The structure and
growth of music (1923); notes and published articles on the history
of music and theatre in colonial South Australia; notes on the art
of singing; notes and extracts from other writers on beauty and
expression in music. Vol. 1 includes loose notes written on the
back of printed advertisement for Davies’ private teaching
6. Newspaper cuttings book
1910-45. 1 v
Comprising cuttings of articles by Davies c1910-13 and about him
1924 (in Brisbane) and 1947 (obituary). Volume also includes
loose cuttings re Walford Davies (mainly on his death in 1941) and
award to Mrs Davies for service to the Red Cross Society; a copy of
The Listener, January 1943, with an article on ‘The New Guinea
scene’ by Evelyn Cheesman; and program of shipboard entertainments
on R.M.S. Orvieto 1920, with reference to Miss Cheadle.
7. Letters 1911, 1928 and
undated. 4 items
Letter by Davies to Miss Gibb 28 December 1911, postcard from
Bryceson Treharne, and letters to Davies by B. Wendlandt 14 March
1928 and (undated) from ‘Margaret’.
[these items were originally in the newspaper cuttings
book]
8. ‘Rough log of my time England
& the Continent Dec 24 [1927] - Mar 16 [1928]. 34 leaves, ms
Contains comments on concerts and lectures attended, his first
impressions of broadcast music, meeting with Erich von Hornbostel,
Karl Straube, Max Pauer, etc
9. Programs of concerts
c1903-49
Farewell concert to Stanley Newman 6 December 19__ [Davies was
accompanist to Newman]
Adelaide Bach Society performance of Hiawatha’s Wedding
feast 12 November [1903?], together with a suite of 13 humorous
drawings by [Stanley Newman]?
Elder Conservatorium social 12 April 1924 [program given to Molly
Cheesman by Stroma Buttrose in 1982]
E. Harold Davies memorial concert 26 November 1949
10. How to write harmony: a
guide for students [by E.H. Davies]
typescript of work compiled c.19.. [photocopy of original held by
…..
