Special Collections

Southbank Library Special Collections

The Southbank Library has an extensive range of Special Collections to support your research. They are one part of the larger group of the University of Melbourne  Cultural Collections, which Include the Rare Books collection, the Print collection and the Rare Music collection. Items in these collections are housed in special conditions by reason of their age, value, or uniqueness in order to ensure their care and preservation for current and future generations of scholars and researchers and as a record of our cultural history.

To access the collections: check the catalogue, note call number and request at the service desk at the Southbank Library in The Hub Building (Building 863) or request via email. Please check the Southbank library hours to avoid disappointment.

General Collections

  • Theses / Dissertations

    Graduate Diploma, Masters and PhD research theses.

    Theses are listed on the library catalogue and can be searched by the usual author, title, subject or keyword options.

    Some may only be available to read in the Special Collections Reading Room, Baillieu Library. Please note catalogue location when searching.

    A comprehensive list of music theses can be found via a KEYWORD search using "music AND thesis AND university AND Melbourne".

    Note: recent theses are available online in the Institutional Repository

    See also:
    Finding theses libguide

    Victorian College of the Arts - Theses Collection: https://hdl.handle.net/11343/335

  • Consists of books, artist books, exhibition catalogues relating to music, visual and performing arts.

  • Consists of handbooks, prospectus, programs and ephemera relating to the Victorian College of the Arts.

  • Th collection consists of the surviving books from the NGS Library which were transferred to the Victorian College of the Arts Library when it was founded in 1975.

    National Gallery Art School archive

  • Here you will find the open access research outputs of staff and students, including journal articles, books and chapters, and theses.

    Fine Arts and Music  community
    https://hdl.handle.net/11343/317

    Victorian College of the Arts - Theses Collection:
    https://hdl.handle.net/11343/335

    Victorian College of the Arts - Research Publications
    https://hdl.handle.net/11343/334

Music special Collections

Research Collections

  • Margaret Lasica was a pioneering contemporary dance choreographer and educator in Melbourne. The collection was donated by the Lasica Family. These collections provide a cohesive reflection of the influences behind the artistic creativity of Margaret Lasica’s career in dance.

    The collection consists of approximately 1,200 books and journals relating mainly to dance, but including drama, costume, theatre production, psychology, art, literature and cultural studies, as supporting material.

    Margaret Lasica Collection

    The Margaret Lasica Collection Library Guide

  • This is a collection of 15th to 19th century music imprints, first editions and music manuscripts. The items were acquired between 1929 and 1931 by Louise Hanson-Dyer, 1884-1962, who went on to found the music press, Editions de l'Oiseau-Lyre, in 1932. They were transferred to Melbourne in 2005, and in 2006 the Lyrebird Press was established to continue this work.

    Access the Collection

    Search the catalogue for the complete Louise Hanson-Dyer Gift Collection.

    1. Catalogue of the collection :
      UniM Music REF 016.78026099451 HERL
      Herlin, Denis.
      Catalogue de la Collection musicale Hanson-Dyer, Université de Melbourne = Catalogue of the Hanson-Dyer music collection, The University of Melbourne / Denis Herlin.
      Australia [Parkville, Vic.] : Lyrebird Press, c2006.
    2. Catalogue of the 2006 exhibition :
      UniM Music F 780.749451 UNIV
      University of Melbourne. Hanson-Dyer music collection.
      Bowerbird to lyrebird : the Louise Hanson-Dyer music collection : a Baillieu Library exhibition, 3 August to 24 September 2006 / curators, Richard Excell and Jennifer Hill.
      [Parkville, Vic.] : University of Melbourne, c2006.

    View the Collection

    Twenty-four hours notice must be given prior to viewing and items are viewed in the Reading Room located on the third floor of the Baillieu Library.

  • Ernest John Moeran was an English composer (1894-1950). His compositions reflect his English and Irish heritage and are based strongly on folk tunes from the counties in which he lived and dwelt.

    The collection of music by E J Moeran at the Southbank Library was bequeathed to the Victorian College of the Arts by Peers Coetmore (1905-1976), cellist and wife of E J Moeran. Peers Coetmore was a cello lecturer at the VCA in the 1970s.  The collection contains 107 items in all. Forty-one of these are original manuscripts and the other 65 are early-published editions.

    Access: The collection has been digitised and is freely available.

    To view the physical items, see the library catalogue listing. Each title is also catalogued individually. The collection is available for consultation in the Southbank Library on consultation with the Fine Arts and Music Librarian. It is not for loan.

  • In 2008, the Ian Potter Foundation made a generous grant to the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Collection for the acquisition, cataloguing and preservation of the Barry Tuckwell Collection. Barry Tuckwell is widely recognised as the foremost French horn player of his generation.

    Contained in the Collection are: printed (some pre-publication proofs) and manuscript scores, including works written for, dedicated to and edited or annotated by Tuckwell; sound recordings in various formats, commercial and non-commercial; correspondence with composers, conductors, other performers, instrument makers, administrators and others; diaries; documents related to the London Symphony Orchestra, in particular for the period when Tuckwell was its Chairman; concert programmes; posters (not in boxes, some framed); press clippings; photographs; inventories and trade catalogues.The concert programs in the collection span Tuckwell’s career from the mid 1940s until his retirement as a performer. A large proportion feature performing groups with which Tuckwell was associated, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Tuckwell Wind Quintet and the Jones, Tuckwell and Langbein Trio. Tuckwell’s international solo career is also fully documented. A program listing is currently underway.

    The Barry Tuckwell Collection is a significant and comprehensive resource for anyone researching any aspect of Tuckwell’s professional career and for those interested more generally in twentieth-century horn repertoire or performance practice.

    Please see the The Barry Tuckwell Collection subject research guide for further information on the scores, recordings, correspondence and other materials of the Barry Tuckwell Collection.

    Catalogue record: Barry Tuckwell Collection

    Library Guide:  The Barry Tuckwell Collection is an aid to the scores, recordings, correspondence and other materials of the Barry Tuckwell Collection.

  • By the time of his appointment as first Ormond Professor of Music at the University of Melbourne in 1891 the English composer G.W.L. Marshall-Hall (1862–1915) had composed three operas, orchestral works and numerous songs. In 1901 a well-known English critic ranked him as a greater composer than Delius, Elgar, Granville Bantock and Hamish MacCunn, calling him “by far the most impressive personality.” By then Australian musicians had discovered that he was also one of the finest conductors of his time. In Melbourne he conducted the Marshall-Hall Orchestra for the twenty years of its existence, from 1892 to 1912, established two conservatoriums and composed another two operas, numerous picturesque orchestral works including two symphonies, as well as string quartets and other chamber works, and incidental music to local dramatic productions.

    G. W. L. Marshall-Hall - Catalogue of Works

  • ART150 was a celebration throughout 2017 of the distinguished history of the Victorian College of the Art’s School of Art, its genesis in the National Gallery Art School in the 19th century, its rich 20th-century history and its 21st-century present and future.

    ART150

  • John Hopkins Collection of Orchestral Scores copies stamped "John Hopkins Collection" in black ink on cover and "Australian National Academy of Music" in green ink.
    From the estate of John Hopkins.

    Catalogue Listing

    John Hopkins' Collection


Select Digitised Collections

External Collections