Australian Traditional Dance Tunes
Dancing, singing and music have been essential to the party spirit as long as we can remember and the European settlers of Australia were no exception.
Dancing, singing, reciting and music for the white settlers became an integral part of the lives, whether it was in a grand Colonial Ball in the city, a celebratory end of sheep shearing season Woolshed Dance or simply a gathering of friends and family for an evening's entertainment in a kitchen or round a campfire.
The songs, dances, poems and music reflect the hopes, humour, disappointments and the perseverance of these pioneers in a distinctive and characteristic Australian manner.
Here's some Australian dance tunes to whet your appetite. They are tunes collected from Australian dance musicians and well worth keeping alive.
David De Santi
FREE SHEET MUSIC
from Australian Traditional Dance Tunes, Volume 1
Click here for 32 TUNES IN ACROBAT PDF FORMAT (486kB)
Click here to purchase a Double CD copy of Australian Traditional Dance Tunes, Volume 1 for $35 performed by Wongawilli.
Click here to purchase a copy of the Australian Traditional Dance Tunes, Volume 1, for $30 sheet music book. The tunebook includes 180 jigs, reels, polkas, varsovianas, schottisches, waltzes and set dance tunes.
FREE SHEET MUSIC
from Australian Traditional Dance Tunes, Volume 2
Click here for 14 TUNES IN ACROBAT PDF FORMAT (250kB)
These are tunes sourced and transcibed from the National Library of Australia by Jane Brownlee and David De Santi as part of their 2004 National Library of Australia Folk Festival Fellwoship.These tunes form part of a larger collection, Australian Traditional Dance Tunes Volume 2. The book has over 150 tunes.
51 of these tunes have been recorded as A Swag of Treasures, Australian Dance Tunes, Volume 2.
The tunes are arranged into 14 sets. In general they are played 8 times and are 32 bars in length each time. There is music included for reels, jigs, polka, mazurka, schottische, varsoviana and waltz folk dances.
Click here to purchase a CD copy of A Swag of Treasures, Australian Traditional Dance Tunes, Volume 2 for $25.
Click here to purchase a copy of the Australian Traditional Dance Tunes, Volume 2, for $30 sheet music book.
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