Guide to the Papers of the Alpen Family
MS 5710
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Alpen Family
- Title
- Papers of the Alpen Family
- Date Range
- 1864-1971
- Collection Number
- MS 5710
- Extent
- 1.38 metres (1 box + 3 folio boxes)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- National Library of Australia
Introduction
Scope and Contents
The collection includes music scores of Hugo Alpen's compositions, song books and text books containing Alpen's work, letters of Alpen's wife Sarah to her daughter (Ida Crisp), photographs, cuttings and a cutting album. Attached to many items are typescript notes of explanation written by Paul Alpen in 1971. Also included is Paul Alpen's translation, in 1957 for the Cabinet Secretariat of the Prime Minister's Department, of a theoretical study of the European Economic Community written in Dutch by P. J. Verdoorn and entitled 'An economic integration of Europe: a study of its background and consequences' (The Hague, 1952).
Conditions Governing Access
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2626718).
Conditions Governing Use
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred Citation
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of the Alpen Family, National Library of Australia, MS 5710, [box number and series and/or file number]'.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was donated to the Library by Mr C. Paul Alpen (Hugo Alpen's grandson) in 1971. Further material was received from Mrs Olive Mulholland in 1980.
Biographical Note
Hugo Alpen was born in Kellinghusen, Germany on 26 October 1842. He came to Australia in c. 1858 and settled in Melbourne. In 1869 he married Sarah Brown in Albury and they had 13 children.
Alpen studied music with Jacques Schmidt in Germany and Charles Horsley in Australia. He was a choral conductor, pianist and public school singing master in rural New South Wales, before succeeding James Fisher as singing master at teacher training colleges in Sydney. Alpen was superintendent of music in the New South Wales Department of Public Instruction between 1884 and 1908.
He composed several school cantatas, including 'Arbor day' in 1891. Alpen also wrote patriotic songs and sacred works and published school songbooks.
Alpen died in Sydney on 20 June 1917.
Item Descriptions
Series 1. Music scores
Songbooks and textbooks (Item 15)
Including: The Commonwealth School Paper, Feb. 1906. 'The New Year' by H. Alphen; Australian Song book, 1926. Weber's 'Evening meditation' arranged by H. Alphen; Practical Hints for the Teaching of Vocal Music by H. Alpen. Collins Bros., 1897; A New Books of Songs for Schools and Singing Classes, Ed. By H. Alpen. Angus & Robertson, 1901