Biography

Booklets

Music

Tributes

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Subject listing

AIAS Connections

AIAS Sound Archive

Alice Moyle Recordings

Computer Projects

Copyright

Dance Interest

Didjeridu

Early Recordings of Aboriginal Music

Early Recordings of Pacific Music

Early Recordings of Torres Strait Islander Music

Ethnomusicological Research

Ethnomusicology - Discipline and Early Development in Australia

Fanny Cochrane Smith

Field Trips

Personal Letters

Honours, Fellowships and Boards

Pacific Music research

Preservation and Recording Advice

Professional Organisations

Sacred Literature Trust

Sound Archiving and Archivists

Sound Heritage Project

Unesco

In 1980 the Curriculum Development Centre in Canberra approached Alice about creating an audiovisual kit on Australian Aboriginal music. The publication, which took eleven years to complete, was issued by Monash University in 1991 as a resource kit, Music and dance in traditional Aboriginal culture. These letters trace the lengthy process of publication.

AIAS Connections

Alice held research positions with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) for over 30 years. When she began her affiliation with the Institute, it was known as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS), but when its new Act was passed in 1989, its title included reference to Torres Strait Islanders. These letters give some background information on her first involvement with the Institute and contain examples of her administrative work.

As the guiding spirit of the AIAS Recorded Sound Archive, Alice set principles and procedures for the cataloguing and preservation of its holdings. Her own field tapes had been edited onto a series of 5 inch reels with each song separated by audio pips for easy retrieval. This method of arrangement made it easy for her to edit her first set of published field recordings, the five-volume set, Songs from the Northern Territory. These letters specify how she wanted her collection to be handled and give guidelines for the arrangement and description of other field tapes. 

These two letters give some idea as to Alice’s prodigious output of published recordings and show some of her hopes for increasing ethnomusicological work in Australia and the Pacific.

Alice explored computerised applications for music analysis and for cataloguing purposes. These letters refer to two major projects; one with the New York based Griphos scheme for classifying music styles and the other for creating a database of Aboriginal song words from early sources.

Alice always respected the rights of Australian Aboriginal people to their own cultural property, and ensured that they receive proper attribution. These letters state her views on the topic.

Aboriginal dance and music are inextricably linked and Alice made her first forays into filming because of this. These letters describe her experiences filming with synchronised sound at Groote Eylandt in 1969.

Alice’s dissertation contained much information on Australian Aboriginal instruments. These two examples of her letters about the didjeridu give valuable information based upon earlier articles she had written.     

Alice made a great contribution to the AIAS Recorded Sound Archive by locating early recordings and securing copies. This series of letters illustrates her successful attempts to get copies from many distinguished scholars and organisations.

Early in her career, Alice had considered studying the music of Papua New Guinea. Although she never lost her interest in the area, her research focus moved to Australian Aboriginal music. These letters provide much information about Pacific song styles.

The first ethnographic recordings made in Australia were the wax cylinders of the Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait in 1898 led by A.C. Haddon. These letters show part of the saga of Alice’s search for the cylinders in London and arranging for copies.

Alice maintained a large network of contacts, both nationally and internationally, amongst ethnomusicologists and researchers in related disciplines. This series of letters gives an insight into some of her methods of research.

Alice was at the forefront of the new discipline of ethnomusicology in Australia. These letters show some of her plans to further the growth of the discipline in Australia.

Alice’s time at Monash University involved components of teaching and research, both as a PhD student and as a Research Fellow at the AIAS. These letters describe some of her projects and research plans, also mentioning the appointment of Jill Stubington as her Research Assistant. 

Although the earliest ethnographic sound recordings in Australia were made by the Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait in 1898, the earliest known Aboriginal sound recordings in Australia were produced in 1899 by Mrs. Fanny Cochrane Smith, who had been born at Flinders Island in the Bass Strait. Alice valued these recordings highly and arranged for them to be transferred from the original wax cylinders to disc. These letters trace some of the steps along the way to the publication of the recording by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart.

These letters give fascinating glimpses into the complications of fieldwork and some of Alice’s personal experiences. Alice made field trips off and on between 1959 and the mid 1980s.

Alice received many fellowships and honours during her long career. She gave most generously of her time to a number of organisations and boards, both nationally and internationally. These few letters contain responses to invitations and thanks for funding that she received.

In addition to her work on Australian Aboriginal music, Alice did considerable research on the music of the Pacific. She amassed a varied collection of sound recordings from Australia and the Pacific and had a deep interest in Papua New Guinea, as is shown by these letters.

Although these letters gives information about Alice’s research they also convey her warm feelings for her friends. This is only a small part of Alice’s personal correspondence held in the AIATSIS Library (MS3501).

Alice had a broad knowledge of archival principles and recording techniques. As Ethnomusicology Research Officer at the AIAS, she received many requests to help researchers produce the best possible recordings and to give advice on proper documentation. Many of the collectors mentioned in these letters lodged their tapes with the AIAS Recorded Sound Archive.

 Because her research bordered on several academic disciplines, such as anthropology and linguistics, Alice held memberships and offices in several professional societies. This section shows her correspondence with members and officers of the International Council of Traditional Music (ICTM), the Australian Recorded Sound Association (ASRA), the International Association of Sound Archives (IASA), the Musicological Society of Australia (MSA) and the Australia New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS).

In 1990, Alice was approached about providing texts of the Warlpiri ‘Honey Ant’ song series to the International Sacred Literature Trust, a non-profit organisation that publishes significant sacred texts that are not usually available to the public. These letters give specific details on the ‘Honey Ant’ recordings. Although the ‘Honey Ant’ texts did not appear, a volume of Warlpiri women’s stories were published in the series.

Alice stated that others may make different findings about her musicological analyses but that her sound recordings would become more precious as time went on. With this in mind, sound archiving, the process whereby recordings are preserved and documented, became one of Alice’s great passions. These letters, mostly to archivists and scholars in archives overseas, show Alice’s ability to converse as an equal with some of the top technical experts in the field and emphasise her love of recordings. 

One of Alice’s last ventures involved convening the mammoth project, ‘Australia’s Heritage in Sound,’ a series of recordings with examples of Australian musical compositions, radio broadcasts, speeches, and other genres of Australian audio materials. These letters outline some of the aims of the project, which was later taken over by the University of Melbourne under the title, ‘Soundabout Australia.’

Alice served on various committees and working groups of Unesco as well as publishing a disc in their Music Sources series. These letters deal with rights of the traditional owners of cultural material, aspects of issuing recordings, her interest in the history of musical instruments, and thanks for funding a Colloquium which she had convened in Townsville in 1988.

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