The VFG Music library is located at the Monash University Matheson Library (Clayton Campus).
The collection was generously donated by the Guild in mid January 2010, under the supervision of Annette Sloan. It has an extensive range of mostly ensemble music from duets to flute choir works, with and without piano. There are also a number of solo works which are part of the Leslie Barklamb Collection.
VFG members are able to borrow music for up to 3 months, with a fully refundable bond of $30.00 being asked for safe return of music borrowed. You will need to show your VFG membership card at the check out desk.
Library opening hours:
Mon – Fri: 8.00am – 5:45pm
Sat: 1.00pm – 5.00pm
Sun: (CLOSED)
Please check the Matheson Library (Clayton Campus) website for specific hours of operation
Matheson Library Loan Desk: 03 9905 5054
Matheson Library Directions: http://monash.edu.au/campuses/clayton.html
Monash University Clayton campus, Wellington Road, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, AUSTRALIA
Please feel free to come by and browse through this varied collection of flute music.
Victorian Flute Guild Scores at Monash University Library
Jackie Waylen, Monash University
Have you been looking for repertoire for your ensemble or chamber group? If you play a musical instrument, and have been seeking repertoire that is both excellent and perhaps a little less familiar, be it solo instrumental music, or music for your ensemble or chamber group, then you may wish to delve into the collection of over 1500 scores that were gifted to Monash University’s Sir Louis Matheson Library by the Victorian Flute Guild in 2010. Over 300 of these scores have so far been catalogued, including solos, duets, trios, quartets and quintets. Flute music includes studies and exercises for improving technique, music for chamber groups with flute, and music for flute choir. The Library has commenced a project to digitise much of this collection, with the first batch of scores now available for viewing in Monash Collections Online (https://repository.monash.edu/).
Most of the works in the collection were composed in the 19th and 20th centuries. With these works now out of copyright, a flautist and pianist can now access the fifth of Andersen’s “Five easy pieces,” as it was published in 1894, as part of the Library’s digitised collection.
Some of the concert repertoire and pedagogical works were composed in the 18th century, but they appear in the collection as later editions. Many of the works are related to teaching. A survey of prominent flute teachers in North America and Europe, undertaken by Molly Barth, and published in The Flutist Quarterly in 2016, revealed that etudes were an “integral component of their teaching regimen”. Of the 26 composers of etudes cited by these teachers, the Victorian Flute Guild’s scores, which have so far been sorted, contain études by 17 of these composers.
The Victorian Flute Guild Collection includes many virtuosic concert pieces for flute and piano, and miniatures that would be suitable for encores. The range of European composers and publishers from the late 19th century is extraordinary, and so a finding aid for all the works is underway. Once the whole collection has been catalogued, performance students and others will certainly have an interesting collection to browse.
The earliest works in the collection belonged originally to Leslie Barklamb (1905 1993) who, in 1969, founded the Victorian Flute Guild in order “to promote and encourage the learning of the flute, flute playing in all idioms, and to support all forms of music education”. To attain this goal, a main aim was “to establish, build up and maintain a library of music of all types”. Barklamb’s personal library constituted a who’s who of composers who both wrote for and played the flute, such as Andersen (1847-1909), Buchner (1825-1912), Doppler (1821-1883), Gariboldi (1833-1905) and Kuhalu (1786-1832). His library also included composers whose works or melodies have since been arranged for flute and piano.
ln her centenary tribute to Leslie Barklamb, the current President of the Guild Mary Sheargold, refers to him as the “father of the flute in Australia.” Over a teaching career of more than 65 years he taught many flautists who went on to become professional players (including some who had success overseas). Barklamb studied for two years (1917-1919) with John Amadio, an internationally renowned flautist, before learning from Alfred Weston-Pett. After obtaining a Diploma of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium in 1925, Leslie Barklamb taught flute there (from 1929 to 1974), and he also played in Bemhard Heinze’s University Orchestra and Alberto Zelman’s Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. From 1958 onward he devoted his career to teaching, following hand problems and his retirement from the MSO. His pupils remember him as being a wonderfully enthusiastic teacher always happy to lend out his flutes and music.
Amongst the countries represented in the Victorian Flute Guild Collection are Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Ada Booth benefaction has enabled the cataloguing of over 150 of the scores relating to Slavic countries. Australian composers represented range from John Lemmoné (1861-1949, born in Vic.) to, Geoffrey Allen (b.1927, living in WA., and soon to add a woodwind CD to his existing Iridescent Flute).
Scores added to the collection since the 1970s tend to include works that have a particular focus on ensemble music, from flute duets to flute choir works; for instance, Kummer’s flute trios have been added from Annette Sloan’s personal library.
Not all of the music is for flute. Students seeking repertoire for other instruments may be interested to browse the whole range. On the one hand you might retrieve a ricercare from a canon originally composed by Palestrina (1525-1565), but arranged in the 1950s for oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn; or you might instead find violin music such as the Schubert lied, “Standchen”, arranged for violin and piano by Mischa Elman in 1910.
Much of the earliest repertoire is in a fragile condition and needs to be consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room. ln the spirit of continuing Leslie Barklamb’s and the Victorian Flute Guild’s legacy, Monash University Library has digitised the repertoire that is not readily accessible elsewhere, so that performers, teachers and students can enjoy a wider range of solo and chamber music. Researchers will also be able to look at those rarer works from the 19th century that reveal fascinating insights into the publishing and dissemination of printed music, especially of sheet music for flute. The Library is also digitising the back covers of these scores. The covers often contain useful information, such as advertisements for other music that would have been available at the time of the publication.
For further information about this collection, please contact Jackie Waylen, Subject Librarian: Music, Theatre and Performance ([email protected])