Music

Abstract

This chapter does not set out to be a comprehensive history of music in the New England area. Nor will it attempt to deal with the music of the Indigenous people before European settlement - a task best left to others with the skills and knowledge to deal with it. Rather, it will sketch an outline of some of the important developments that have shaped the musical culture of the region since the 1830s. Note, however, that traditional music was performed long after the arrival of the Europeans. In 1888, for instance, the 'Glen Innes Examiner' reported on 'a corroboree held by the blacks of the [nearby] Oban tribe'. As for more recent types of music, Aboriginal bands performed regularly through most of the twentieth century, but a detailed examination of that topic awaits an Indigenous scholar.