Guide to the Papers of Dulcie Holland
MS 6853, MS Acc03.113
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Dulcie Holland
- Title
- Papers of Dulcie Holland
- Date Range
- 1931-2000
- Collection Number
- MS 6853, MS Acc03.113
- Extent
- 3.9 metres (2 boxes, 7 folio boxes)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- National Library of Australia
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Holland's original scores date from the 1930s to the 1990s and comprise chamber music, orchestral music, early compositions, piano music, solo works and songs. The series includes 146 titles. The scores are signed, or initialled, and dated by Holland.
Many include dedications, the name of the lyricist or poet for whose works Holland wrote the melodies or the name of the choir or occasion that a composition was arranged for. Holland has also annotated the scores with the duration of the performance, details of broadcasts or performances, the name of the person who first performed the piece and other details of the first performance. In the cases where a piece won an award, Holland has noted this on the score. Some of the scores are photocopies.
Conditions Governing Access
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn701225).
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Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 Dulcie Holland, National Library of Australia, [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.
Provenance
The first two consignments of papers were donated by Dulcie Holland to the National Library in 1982 and 1984. Two further donations were received from Holland in 1996 and 1997. In October 2000 Holland's granddaughter, Julie Ihle, also made a donation.
Related Materials
An original score for 'Trio for piano, violin and cello', written by Holland in 1944, is held at MS 1128.
The Library also holds an interview with Holland recorded by Hazel de Berg in 1975 at ORAL DeB 824.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in three categories. A small series of personal documents includes a diary and associated papers covering the period 11 September 1937 to November 1939 when Holland left Australia to study music in London.
The Library has organised the scores according to the groups identified in a list prepared by Holland. Two additional groups, Orchestral and instrumental music and Single instrument music, have been used in order to assist in the identification of Holland's works.
The final series contains nine cuttings books that contain newspaper cuttings, articles, reviews of recordings and photographs that document Holland's career in music between 1931 and 2000.
Finding Aid Source(s)
Please note: This finding aid may comprise or contain descriptive information provided by donors, researchers and/or volunteers.
Collection Retrieval Advice
Please note: each consignment in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there may be multiple Box 1s). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.
Biographical Note
Dulcie Sybil Holland was born in Sydney in January 1913, and trained at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, where she studied piano with Frank Hutchens, cello with Gladstone Bell, and composition with Alfred Hill. She graduated with her Teacher's Diploma in 1933 and, on leaving the Conservatorium, began to teach piano. She also undertook further study, with the composer Roy Agnew.
Travelling to London, Holland studied at the Royal College of Music where she held the Blumenthal Scholarship for Composition. She was also awarded the Cobbett Prize for Chamber Composition in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II the following year, however, she returned to Sydney to work as a freelance composer. During a brief return to England in 1951, Holland studied with the serialist composer Matyas Seiber.
Holland wrote music in many forms and for many media, including orchestral pieces, chamber music, songs, solo works and music for film. Her compositions won her many prizes, including the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) ABC Award in 1933, 1944, 1951 and 1955; the General Motors Theatre Award in 1963; and the Henry Lawson Award in 1965. She received many commissions, including those from Balmain Teachers College, the Commonwealth Department of the Interior, Shell Oil Company, North Sydney Council, Barbara Stackpole and Ravenswood Choir. Between 1967 and 1984 Holland was an examiner for the Australian Music Education Board. In 1977 she was awarded membership of the Order of Australia, and in 1993 she was presented with an honorary doctorate in music from Macquarie University.
Holland had a distinguished career as a pianist, organist, composer and choir director, and was also the author of many publications that made her name synonymous with music theory in Australia.
Holland married Dr Alan R. Bellhouse (1914-1980), a musician and mathematics teacher, in 1940, and had two children. Holland died in May 2000.
Sources:
Australian Music Centre Internet site: http://www.amcoz.com.au/home.htm
Biographical directory of Australian composers by Nicole Saintilan, Andrew Schultz and Paul Stanhope (The Rocks, N.S.W.: Australian Music Centre, 1996)
Brunsdon, Jyoti, 'Maestro of delicate airs', The Australian, 7 June 2000, p. 14.
Item Descriptions
Class MS 6853. Original Consignment
Comprises four series. The first series, of personal documents, includes a diary and associated papers covering the period when Dulcie Holland left Australia to study music in London. Holland's original scores date from the 1930s to the 1990s and comprise the second series. They include chamber music, orchestral music, early compositions, piano music, solo works and songs. This series includes 146 titles. The scores are signed, or initialled, and dated by Holland. She also annotated many of the scores with the name of the lyricist for whose works she wrote the melodies, the name of the choir or occasion that a composition was arranged for, or the name of the person who first performed the piece.
Contained in 1 box, 7 fol. boxes.
Series 1. Personal documents, 1937-97
Beginning with the sea voyage from Melbourne to London aboard the Otranto, Holland's handwritten diary documents the period she spent studying in London at the Royal College of Music, and travelling in Europe.
The diary contained several loose documents which have been removed and filed separately. Among these items are two letters (1939) and three concert programmes. One of the programmes is for a concert, held on 17 November 1938, in which an award-winning piece by Holland was performed. There are some typewritten notes, signed by Holland, describing her experience of studying music in London. Other typewritten notes are entitled 'Composers in London - As I saw them' (n.d.) and 'An August without Proms' (n.d.)
There is also a Certificate of Appreciation awarded to Holland by the Music Teachers' Association of Queensland Inc., Gold Coast Branch, for the Composition Competition held in July 1997.
Series 2. Original musical scores, 1931-97
This series comprises the original manuscripts of 146 of Holland's compositions. It includes instrumental music, songs, piano music and music for single instruments. The scores have been grouped under headings that are self-explanatory. Where there are two scores for a composition, this has been indicated. In some cases the second score is a photocopy.
The scores are signed and dated. Many of them have been annotated by Holland with the name of the choir or occasion that a composition was arranged for, together with details of the first performance.
The earliest composition in the collection, 'The falling of the leaves', was written in 1931 (Item 93). One of the scores is represented in both manuscript and published form (Item 14). There are scores for the music Holland set to four poems by Mary Gilmore (Item 81). The new doll in the piano composition 'Three dances for a new doll', was Holland's daughter Holly, born in 1941 (Item 134). The latest compositions, for organ, were written in 1997 (Items 139 and 144).
Orchestral and instrumental music: Aria for alto saxophone with string orchestra, 1954 (File 1) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: Cradle song for a special child, 1995 (photocopy) (File 5) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: Divertimento for violin and piano in four movements, 1952 (2 scores) (File 7) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: Fantasy trio for violin, cello and piano, 1938 (File 10) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: Follow me for violin, viola and piano, 1987 (File 13) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: Greeting for three recorders, 1980, with Music forum, No. 4 (Oct. 1, 1981) (File 14) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: In tribute to, H. Brewster Jones: fantasy for violin and piano (n.d.) (File 16) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: Kambala parade, 1937, rescored by the composer for the Kambala School Orchestra, 1993 (File 17) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: Scots College centenary fanfare for six B flat trumpets, 1993 (File 22) - FolioBox 1
Orchestral and instrumental music: Sonata for E flat alto saxophone and piano, 1954 (2 scores) (File 26) - FolioBox 2
Orchestral and instrumental music: Sonata for violin and piano, 1937 (2 scores) (File 27) - FolioBox 2
Orchestral and instrumental music: Trio diversion for flute violin and viola, 1953 (2 scores) (File 35) - FolioBox 2
Orchestral and instrumental music: This White Shell standing score and words by Joyce Trickett, handwritten manuscript of 'Poem in dimension' dedicated to Holland by Trickett, program of performance of 'This White Shell standing' as part of the 1973 Opening Festival for the Sydney Opera House, 1963-93 (File 36a) - FolioBox 2
Single instrument music: D.S.H. self portrait for clarinet unaccompanied, 1992 (File 38) - FolioBox 3
Single instrument music: Three signatures for oboe unaccompanied, 1982 (2 scores, one photocopy) (File 41) - FolioBox 3
Anthems and carols: He bearing the human likeness, 1977 (2 scores, one photocopy) (File 50) - FolioBox 3
Songs: Mary Gilmore songs, 1960 (3 scores, two photocopies) 4 songs entitled: Whom shall I praise?; Spring; The loving heart; Rittle-rattle-rittle (File 81) - FolioBox 4
Series 3. Cuttings books, 1931-2000
The cutting books in this series were compiled by Holland and contain original material in the form of newspaper cuttings, articles, reviews of recordings, photographs, concert and recital programmes and biographical information. Each cutting book was numbered and labelled by Holland.
Books 5 and 6 contain articles about the conferral of the honorary doctorate in music on Holland by Macquarie University in October 1993.