It had to be there. What history of Australian sheet music could not have the Aeroplane jelly song? Not something as extensive and comprehensive as the collection of digitised sheet music recently released as an iPad app called Forte by the National Library of Australia (NLA), that’s for sure.
By extensive we mean more than 13,000 individual scores starting from the early 1800s right through to the 1950s. By comprehensive we mean it comes with a social history to put the tunes in context of their times through the artwork and advertisements featured on the sheet music. All right, so you know “I like Aeroplane jelly” but how about It’s Hot in Brisbane but It’s Coolangatta or the tune to the Gold Fish Waltz? Time to touch the Forte discovery tool to browse the NLA’s collection of sheet music by decade or composer and then learn more about the music through the library’s catalogue.
