Guide to the Papers of Dulcie Holland, 1931-2000

Summary

Collection number:

MS 6853, MS Acc03.113

Creator:

Dulcie Holland

Extent:

3.9 metres and (2 boxes, 7 folio boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Dulcie Holland, National Library of Australia, [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

Holland's original scores date from the 1930s to the 1990s and comprise chamber music, orchestral music, early compositions, piano music, solo works and songs. The series includes 146 titles. The scores are signed, or initialled, and dated by Holland.

Many include dedications, the name of the lyricist or poet for whose works Holland wrote the melodies or the name of the choir or occasion that a composition was arranged for. Holland has also annotated the scores with the duration of the performance, details of broadcasts or performances, the name of the person who first performed the piece and other details of the first performance. In the cases where a piece won an award, Holland has noted this on the score. Some of the scores are photocopies.

Biographical Note:

Dulcie Sybil Holland was born in Sydney in January 1913, and trained at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, where she studied piano with Frank Hutchens, cello with Gladstone Bell, and composition with Alfred Hill. She graduated with her Teacher's Diploma in 1933 and, on leaving the Conservatorium, began to teach piano. She also undertook further study, with the composer Roy Agnew.

Travelling to London, Holland studied at the Royal College of Music where she held the Blumenthal Scholarship for Composition. She was also awarded the Cobbett Prize for Chamber Composition in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II the following year, however, she returned to Sydney to work as a freelance composer. During a brief return to England in 1951, Holland studied with the serialist composer Matyas Seiber.

Holland wrote music in many forms and for many media, including orchestral pieces, chamber music, songs, solo works and music for film. Her compositions won her many prizes, including the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) ABC Award in 1933, 1944, 1951 and 1955; the General Motors Theatre Award in 1963; and the Henry Lawson Award in 1965. She received many commissions, including those from Balmain Teachers College, the Commonwealth Department of the Interior, Shell Oil Company, North Sydney Council, Barbara Stackpole and Ravenswood Choir. Between 1967 and 1984 Holland was an examiner for the Australian Music Education Board. In 1977 she was awarded membership of the Order of Australia, and in 1993 she was presented with an honorary doctorate in music from Macquarie University.

Holland had a distinguished career as a pianist, organist, composer and choir director, and was also the author of many publications that made her name synonymous with music theory in Australia.

Holland married Dr Alan R. Bellhouse (1914-1980), a musician and mathematics teacher, in 1940, and had two children. Holland died in May 2000.

Sources:

Australian Music Centre Internet site: http://www.amcoz.com.au/home.htm

Biographical directory of Australian composers by Nicole Saintilan, Andrew Schultz and Paul Stanhope (The Rocks, N.S.W.: Australian Music Centre, 1996)

Brunsdon, Jyoti, 'Maestro of delicate airs', The Australian, 7 June 2000, p. 14.

Collection Retrieval Advice:

Please note: each consignment in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there may be multiple Box 1s). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.

Provenance:

The first two consignments of papers were donated by Dulcie Holland to the National Library in 1982 and 1984. Two further donations were received from Holland in 1996 and 1997. In October 2000 Holland's granddaughter, Julie Ihle, also made a donation.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in three categories. A small series of personal documents includes a diary and associated papers covering the period 11 September 1937 to November 1939 when Holland left Australia to study music in London.

The Library has organised the scores according to the groups identified in a list prepared by Holland. Two additional groups, Orchestral and instrumental music and Single instrument music, have been used in order to assist in the identification of Holland's works.

The final series contains nine cuttings books that contain newspaper cuttings, articles, reviews of recordings and photographs that document Holland's career in music between 1931 and 2000.

Indexed terms

Names:

Dulcie Holland

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn701225).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Dulcie Holland, National Library of Australia, [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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