"The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, a major addition to the range of Oxford music reference books, will be of great interest to music lovers, as well as to musicians, scholars, and students. To date no volume has combined biographical information about key musicians, an interpretative account of Australia's musical heritage, a critical guide to compositions and recordings, and a guide to the burgeoning scholarly literature in the field." "The Companion, with more than two thousand entries, written by 180 contributors, ranges across a wide spectrum, from ancient Aboriginal traditions and European-derived orchestral, operatic and concert music, to Australian folk, jazz, country, popular, rock, electronic, and experimental music. It covers the music not only of mainstream audiences but also of Australia's religious denominations and recent immigrant communities." "Famous subjects include Nellie Melba, Peter Dawson, Percy Grainger, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Gladys Moncrieff, Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge, Barry Tuckwell, Charles Mackerras, Yvonne Kenny, Peter Allen, Olivia Newton-John, Robyn Archer, Reg Livermore, Stuart Challender, and John Farnham. Also represented are key orchestras and organisations like the ABC, Musica Viva, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Many well-known groups are included, such as the Seekers, the Bee Gees, AC/DC, and Midnight Oil. There are numerous entries on Aboriginal subjects and on key musical organisations and companies. The Companion devotes considerable space to a series of longer entries covering musical works, institutions, genres, instruments, terms, and some of the historical and cultural contexts of Australian music."--BOOK JACKET.
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