PDF file created from a TIFF image by tiff2pdf

Copyright of Full Text rests with the origmal
copyright owner and, except as pennitted under the
Copyright Act 1968, copying this copyright material
is prohibited without the permission of the owner or
its exclusive licensee or agent or by way of a licence
from Copyright Agency Umited. For information
about such licences contact Copyright Agency
limited on (02) 93947600 (ph) or (02) 93947601
(fox)
Music Printing and Publishing in Australia Between the Wars.
The Kynoch Stock Book 1921-1939
FAYEPATION
By the start of the twentieth century Allan & Co., the music warehouse established by George Leavis Allan (1827-1897) in Melbourne in 1875, had become
the largest music retailing business in Australia.' In the 1890s, building on its
reputation ·as an occasional publisher of Australian compositions, Allan's
launched a series of house titles The Australian Music Book (1892), AI/an's Anthems (1897), AI/an's Edition (1898, renamed AI/an's Imperial Edition in 1995),
and AI/an's Part Songs (1899). The fIrm was granted exclusive rights in 1906 to
publish teaching material for the Australian Music Examinations Board
(AMEB).' These publications, along with Allan's 'sixpenny' editions, albums
and annuals, supplied piano and vocal music for home and amateur entertainment, music teachers and students. Allan's had ventured into contemporary music markets-importing, re-publishing and retailing silent fIlm, Tin Pan Alley
and dance music albums under copyright licensing agreements with international
publishers.' By the early 1920s Australia was the world's leading importer of silent fIlms: and there was a growing demand for a supply of affordable popular
sheet music. Allan & Co. also enjoyed vital links within the entertainment trade
through John and Nevin Tait, concert managers for the Australian theatrical
fIrm ofJ.C. WilIiamson.'
In 1921, on the threshold of new and lucrative markets, Allan & Co.
formed a business arrangement with Alexander Smith Kynoch (1872-1950), a
lithographic printer and musician, to print its music.' Kynoch had printed music
under contract to Allan & Co. in 1920.' With a 51% shareholding, Allan & Co.
administered copyright, contracts, orders, marketing and distribution from its
head office at 276-278 Collins Street, Melbourne. A. Kynoch & Co., Music
Engravers and Printers, located at 5 Balston Street Balaclava, Victoria, held the
remaining 49% share. From 1921 to 1988, when the printing fIrm was sold to
1.
Australian Dictionary
of Biography,
Volume3: 18S1-1890A-C, Carlton: Melbourne Univer-
sity Press, 1969, p.22. George AlIan's sons, Fred and George AlIan managed AlIan & Co. during
the early decades of the twentieth century.
2.
Peter Game, The Music Sellas, Melbourne: The Hawthorn Press, 1976, p.184.
3.
Game, p.153.
4.
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (ed.) Tb, Oxford Hi!tory of World Cin,ma, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, p.59.
.
5.
John and Nevin Tait were shareholders in both Allan & Co. and ].C. Williamson OCW).
Their brother Charles was at this time a Managing Director for AlIan and Co.-Game, p.154.
6.
Alexander Kynoch qualified in Aberdeen, Scotland. In the early 1920s he played the clarinet
as a theatre musician in Melbourne cinemas.-Interview with William (Bill) Morris Kynoch,
Alexander Kynoch's son, May 2001. I am grateful for his generous and invaluable assistance.
7.
A partnership with his brother in law Percy Wilson lasted for a few months in 1920.
BSANZ Bulletin 25,3
& 4,2001, 83-99
84
. Bibliographical Society ofAustralia & New Zealand Bulletin
Jenkin Buxton Printers, A. Kynoch & Co. printed and bound sheet music and
albums for Allan & Co. Alexander Lawrence Kynoch (1911-1988) was apprenticed to his father's firm in 1928, and was joined by his brother William Morris
Kynoch (b.1914) in 1930. The brothers remained as joint managers to 1988.
•The Kynoch stock book was one of four printer's records of music printed
for Allan & Co. The first, a yellow card index, held original order date and
number, copyright clearance details, printed job number, print-run quantity and
dates of subsequent alterations and reprints. The second, a collection of factory
'job sheets', was a complete printing history for each printed job and held order
number and date, job number, print run quantity, the printing press used for the
job, and a record of subsequent alterations and reprints. Both records have been
lost or destroyed. The third record, a printer's history, comprised original manuscripts, corrected and edited proofs of engraved plates, photographic negatives,
artwork and two printed copies for each job. This archive, kept in manila folders
known as 'job bags', was sold as a single holding to a private buyer after A.
Kynoch & Co. ceased trading in 1988.' The fourth and only surviving complete
printer's record is the Kynoch stock book, which lists all sheet music and job
numbers printed for Allan & Co. This register is now the property of Allan's
Publishing Pty Ltd, Richmond Victoria.'
This paper is a preliminary investigation of the Kynoch stock book, confined to the period between the first entries of 1921 and those at the beginning
of the Second World War. Some printing and stock control procedures are explained in relation to the stock book's principal function as a factory inventory,
and, using stock book pages as samples, an overview is given of the stock book's
contents in relation to Allan's publishing output during this period.
The Business of Printing and Publishing Allan's Music, 1921-193?
The creation of an exclusive printing arm with the capability of lithographic
printing--the method of producing and transferring a negative film of music
notation to machine printing plates-incurred a high initial cost. It was however
cheaper to reprint music by photolithography under copyright agreements than
to retail fully imported sheet music. Music engraving--the 'intaglio' method of
engraving metal plates with steel punches from manuscript or copy-was labour
intensive but superior to cumbersome block printing or typesetting processes
that generally produced only single print runs.' Of significant long-term benefit
was the capability of ordering reprints from stored printing plates. During the
Kynoch adapted offfirst months of his business arrangement with Allan's,
8.
According to Bill Kynoch, this archive was later sold on as separate lots. The National Li-
brary of Australia (hereafter NLA)-MUS Kynoch Music Archives-and the State Library of
Victoria (hereafter SLV)-Australian Manuscripts Collections, MS 13419, Kynoch Archive collections of printed music include material from the Kynoch 'job bags'.
9.
I thank Allan's Publishing for allowing unlimited time to scrutinise the stock book and for
permission to include two facsimiles.
10. A small amount oflithostone printing was done at this time in Melbourne-Bill Kynoch.
The Kynoch Stock Book
85
·set machines to hold light-sensitive zinc or aluminium printing plates processed
from both photographic negatives of music copy and engraved pewter plates; he
also imported lead alloy plates (comprising 95% pewter and 3% lead, and a
shortener of 2% antimony which ensured a 'cleaner cut''') and engraving tools
from Britain. English-trained Bert Price was employed as the fIrm's fIrst music
engravet. Printing ink, a mixture of ink and beeswax, was made on the premises
at Balaclava. A bindery was established to assemble hand-sewn and folded sheet
music and albums."
Music Engraving"
Kynoch's music engravers were, like their counterparts in Europe and Britain,
craftsmen of a trade that, apart from the use of pewter rather than copper plate,
had changed little in three centuries.
Music engraving was elegant, offered· flexibility in page layout, produced
high quality printed copies, and was suited to all genres and styles." Each engraved pewter plate represented a page of printed music and typically required
four to six hours to complete. Skill and precision were foremost at every stage.
The engraver scaled the music on to a pewter plate as a mirror image of the
manuscript, using a divider to measure the bars and a scriber to mark off the barlines. Notation, symbols and· text were punched in on staves made with a fIvetoothed cutter (known as a stave scorer). Stems, ties and leger lines were
punched in, slurs cut freehand with a graver while the pewter plate was turned
on a leather 'punch-bag'. Tbe inked impression ofthe black and white proof (a
'black pull' made from a corrected green proof of engraved pewterflate) was.
transferred to a sensitised zinc or aluminium machine printing plate.' Kynoch's
Crown Plate, Double Crown and Q!iad Crown offset printing presses held
printing plates capable of holding multiple pages of close score (15"x 20"), standard (20"x30") and quad crown (30"x40"). Print runs varied between 500 and
10,000 copies. Three-colour sheet music and album covers were produced on an
American Vertical MiehIe machine. Printing and cover plates were chemically
cleaned off after each print-run and stored in a gum arabic solution. Warehoused machine plates could last up to thirty years. With lead a valuable com-
,m
11. Bill Kynoch.
12. Kynoch's acquired an automatic stapling and folding machine during the 1930s-Bill
Kynoch.
13. For detailed descriptions of music engraving see Edmund Poole, 'Engraving', in n.w.
Krummel & Stanley Sadie, eds., Music Printing and Publishing. Basingstokc:: 11.acmillan, 1990, pp.
40-54, and Sranley Booman, 'Printing and Publishing: Engraving techniques and later history', 1,4
(ii) in Stanley Sadie & J. Tyrell, eds., The Ntw GrO'Ue
of Mw;c and Musicians, 2nd cd.,
London: Macmillan, 2001, v.lS, pp.341-46. For an account of music engraving at the Kynoch
printing works see Game, pp. I?4-192.
14. Boorman, p.346.
,
15. The process of physically transferring the black and white proof to the prinring,plate
labour intensive. In the early 1930s Kynoch's had the technology to transfer lithographIc film dIrectly onto machine printing plates-Bill Kynoch.
86
Bibliographical Society ofAustralia CS New Zealand Bulletin
moelity, completed engraved pewter flates and 'dross' (shop-floor lead-alloy
shavings) were sold for scrap metal.' The vast majority of Kynoch engraved
plates have been lost. Three fully engraved pewter plates survive in a collection of
engraving equipment placed by Bill Kynoch in the Museum Victoria collection
in 1993, one of a few collections worldwide to have survived into the twenty first
..
11
cenrury.
With its printing arm established, Allan & Co. was able to re-publish music imported under copyright, to reprint its own publications, including its sheet
music and albums published before 1921, and to engrave and publish original
works from manuscript. More importantly, it was possible to reprint selected
sheet music from stored printing plates. The dual processes of photolithography.
and music engraving enabled the firm to reprint albums with replacements produced from engraved plates, and to publish albums comprising a mixture of imported copy, reprints, and music engraved from manuscript or copy.
Reading the Kynoch Stock Book
The Kynoch stock book (also koown by employees as the job number book or
'the bible' '8) is a cloth bound hard-covered register ·measuring 32.5cm by
lS.Scm. There are 34 entries on each page. Sheet music and album entries are
listed on the left and corresponding stock or job numbers in a right hand column
(Facsimile One). The Kynoch stock book number (hereafter KSBN) was the
original Allan & Co. order number. This became the plate number, with a B
prefix (which identified the printer's location at Balaclava) imprinted on the bottom right hand corner of the published sheet music (Table One)."
The first thirteen stock book entries had been printed for Allan's by Kynoch
and Wilson in 1920. Music printed under the Allan's-Kynoch alliance in 1921
begins at no.14. Kynoch employee Jim Chadwick maintained the stock book at
this time." Some title entries have faded, leaving only stock numbers readable.
Some entries are unreadable (Facsimile Two, no.3SS4), and there has beensome
water damage to the right hand outer edge of the stock book (Facsimile Two,
nos.3S44-S6). While each 'job'-title and stock number-was entered into the
stock book chronologically and numbered sequentially, precise dating is not fea,
sible, as there is no accurate method of determining exactly where one year finishes and the next starts. Yearly dates from 1921 to 1928 and from 1931 to 1936
were written in, commonly at the top of the page (Facsimile Two) 'but there are
16. The Kynoch collection of engraving equipment at Museum Victoria, Spotswood, includes a
litho stone (sandstone block), three boxes of engraving punches, a leather punch pad, .three engraved pewter plates, and published sheet music copy. A proof press operated by Kynoch Music
Engrayers and Printers and sold to ]enkin Buxton in 1988 has been recently added to this collection.
17. Pool., p.5l.
18. . Bill Kynoch.
19.
Despite later moves, the B prefix was retained as Kynoch's imprint.
20.
Bill Kynoch.
The Kynoch Stock Book
87
no written-in dates for 1929, 1930 and 1937. It is unlikely that the start of each
calendar year coincided precisely with a new page. Copyright dates only were
printed on published music. Dates of printing were not imprinted on the published copy so that, if reprints were required, the machine printing plate would
not hav,e to be altered. The only accurate source for dates of printing and
reprinting were the now lost Kynoch card index and job sheets.
Annotations by several hands throughout the stock book are a reminder of
its original function. Most relate to stock control and management, are in red
and lead pencil, and later, biro, and appear to date from 1939. Jobs withdrawn
from circulation were 'marked off with a line drawn from left to right across title
entry and number, often accompanied by an upper or lower case 'off indicating
that the printing plates processed for that job had been cleaned off. Most machine plates were re-grained for re-use. Facsimiles 1 and 2 provide evidence of
the quantity of publications successively withdrawn from circulation. Because
only a few marked-off entries are dated, it is not possible to determine how long
each work remained in print. Two recurring written-in dates-2/6/44 and
8/6/49-suggest that stock clearances took place in the 1940s. It seems unlikely
however that all jobs had remained in print to 1939. There is only one markedoff and dated stock book entry for this period. Stock book no 35, 'Piano Grade
No.3' has a written-in '1932', this edition replaced by AMEB album 'Piano
Grade Three', entered into the stock book as no.2175, in 1932. Written-in
notes occasionally identifY series numbers re-allocated as a result of catalogue
revision (Facsimile One, no.641) and amended printing orders (Facsimile Two,
nos.3554-5). Re-published imported popular sheet music was routinely
cated short print runs and reprinted according to counter sales. Most popular
title entries were marked off, none are dated.
Allan's Imperial Edition is the most frequently entered album series
this period, followed by Allan's Australian Music Book, which comprised albums
of nineteenth century songs, sacred songs, 'Negro Spirituals', children's piano
pieces and songs and dances, arranged for violin and piano. These are abbreviated to 'Imp. Ed.' and 'A.M. Book', with series numbers only (nos.616, 628,.630
and 640-1, Facsimile One)." By the 1930s individual titles and sometimes
names of composers are included in title entries. Series numbers of first printed
editions were retained regardless of whether a title entry was a reprint of an earlier Allan's edition, a re-published imported title, a newly engraved (and probably Australian) work, or a number re-allocated from a withdrawn publication
(Facsimile One, no 641). Part songs and anthems have both title and series
number entered. Numbering of all series is generally sequential from the mid1930s, a product of Allan's catalogue revision (Facsimile Two). Popular songs
are entered consistently by title only, thus there is nothing to distinguish the
21.
Similarly titled albums published in Australia at this time included Cole's Commonwealth
Music Book (E.W. Cole, Melbourne) and Paling's Royal Edition (W.H.Paling, Sydney). Allan's
published reprints of its RoyalAlbum series throughout the 19205.
88
Bibliographical Society ofAustralia & New Zealand Bulletin
Australian song Mexican Serenade (KSBN 1676) from American import Kitty
.from Kansas City (KSBN 2034).
Numbers written in beside title entries identity tl,e number of pages per
printing plate, and can also denote the offset press used to print the job (Facsimile 9ne, nos.639-41). The Voirin Crown Plate offset press (sometimes annotated as 'V2') held one printing plate which printed two pages of standard size
paper (Facsimile One, 'Little Town in me Ould County Down'; no.639). The
Crown Plate also held four pages of close score, and printed part songs, anthems,
hymn books, some instrumental tutors and dance band charts. A written-in '2'
designated the Voirin Double Crown ('V3') with a layout of four pages per plate,
which printed for example, smaller Imperial Edition albums (Facsimile One,
no.641, and Facsimile Two, no.3525). A written-in '4' specified the Voirin
OYad Crown press ('VS') which held eight pages of standard size copy or sixteen
pages of close score per plate, and printed albums such as the Australian Music
Book No.16, a standard 32 pages (Facsimile One, no.640), and larger albums
such as Swanee River Album (Facsimile Two, no.3528), and large-volume choral
works. A tick beside a job number indicated an inventory check of stock book
numbers against stored machine plates (Facsimile One, nos.612, 614, etc.).
Stock book entries do not distinguish among reprints of Allan's earlier publications, newly imported and re-published sheet music and albums, and music
printed from original engraved plates. In me early 1920s many catalogue items
were engraved from the original published copy and re-published with reallocated plate numbers. After 1921 all sheet music was imprinted with copyright acknowledgements, publisher and printer's by-lines (Allan & Co. Pty.Ltd.
and A. Kynoch & Co.), plate number and B prefix. There is no way of telling
from me published copy whemer it is a reprint or engraved from manuscript or
copy. It is possible to identify Allan's pre-1921 sheet music by me
imprints, usually 'A. and Co.' or 'Allan and Co.', and by me plate number, which
appears without a B prefix. Some popular and classical albums of me 1930s included re-published imported titles and newly engraved music. For example,
AI/an's Hawaiian Folio (KSBN 3259) combined Sweet Hawaiian Isle, Sweet Hawaiian Sands, and rd Like to Steal Away to Hawaii and You, all by Australian
composers and published previously by Allan's, wim nine imprints of American
songs.
Each stock book page offers a cross section of type--sheet music, albums,
larger folios or occasional editions-style and genre, a sample of Allan's publications for any given period. Where annual dates are successive (for example, the
years 1923-27 and 1931-36) it is possible to estimate annual'printing volumes.
The First Decade
Allan & Co. entered the music publishing trade with clearly defined publishing
areas, which excluded opera and orchestral music (both placed heavy demands
on photolithography, engraving, and merchandising). Driven by guaranteed re-
· The Kynoch Stock Book
89
tail markets, Allan's began an extensive reprinting program in 1921. A total of
527 Jobs' were printed during the first two years of the Kynoch printery's operation, the majority reprints of Allan's previously published choral and teaching
tides. Photolithographic reprinting offered a return on the substantial investment in modern printing operations. Reprinted sheet music incurred factory labour anct paper costs only and profits were returned on the first reprint of a tide.
It is difficult to gain perspective on the volume of music engraved from manuscript or music copy at this time. It is probable that some reprinted sheet music
was engraved from music copy in order to achieve printing consistency and quality. Popular song hits and dance numbers were generally single print runs, commonly 500 copies per job.
By 1923 the firm employed a staff of 23, which included one music engraver. 2l According to written-in dates, the Kynoch stock book records an annual total of 135' tide entries for the year. Facsimile One, taken from one stock
page in 1923, shows 33 tide entries and their stock numbers (the last is obscured) which amounted to approximately one quarter of printed jobs for 1923.
As standard teaching material and choral series and tides underwent consolidation, popular music had begun to.occupy a larger share of stock book entries.
The bulk of sheet music and albums listed in Facsimile One above were
reprints of Allan's earlier publications. The 33 entries amounted to a printed volume of approximately 260 pages. Print-run quantities and length of time each
tide entry remained in print are not known. Most of the part songs, anthems,
piano albums and solos were reprints selected from Allan's Australian choral
repertoire. These retained their original series numbers: 'In Absence', no.613
(Dudley Buck), 'Birdie's Message', no.614, 'The Bells', no.618, 'Home Boys',
no.621, 'Morning March', no.622, 'Children of the Cross', no.624 (Alfred'
Wheeler), and 'Sun of My Soul' no.625 (Arthur T. Crook), and six reprinted
and re-published part songs and anthems (nos.612, 617, 620, 623, 626 and 627).
All were subject to successive catalogue revision.
Imperial Editions nos.334 and 233 (nos.616 and 630) were piano cycles
('Tone Poems' and 'Fogs and Fens') by Allan's house music editor Frederick
Hall (Table One). 23 'Imperial Edition No.153' was a reprint of Isabel Knox's .
Little Tunes for Little People, Book 1. Imperial Edition No.3A was a re-published
revised edition of Burgmuller Studies (op. 100, Book 1). Piano solos 'Rusde of
Spring', no.642 (Leon Dore), and 'Starry Evening', no.643 (Paul Loraine) were
reprints of Australian works, and 'Longing' and 'On the Way to School', nos.629
and 634, reprints of previously published imported sheet music. 'Australian Music Book No 16' ('Favousite Piano Pieces', no.640) was a revised edition which
22.
Game, p.175.
23.
Frederick Hall (d. 1953) signed his popular songs as Fred Hall and arranged and edited clas-
sical and choral works under several pseudonyms, including 'Charles Surrey', 'Adele Gerard',
'George Brand', 'Evelyn Wales' and 'Hubert Wynn'. This has been deduced by comparing surviving manuscripts of the composer's works with edited proofs and published sheet music.
90
Bibliographical Society ofAustralia & New Zealand Bulletin
included a replacement piece engraved from manuscript." It is possible that
other part songs, anthems and piano albums listed in Facsimile One included
some engraved material.
.
Nine popular songs and dance music title entries show the extent to which
was able to secure publishing rights within the entertainment trade.
'Smilin' Through' (no.615) a nineteenth-century theatre song, and 'Listen to
Me' (no.634) from the JCW pantomime 'Jack and Jill', were familiar to local au. diences and commercially viable as reprints. 'Little Town in the Ould County
Down' (no.639), sung by John McCormack during his Australian tour of 1920,
guaranteed the publisher immediate profits, and is listed in the stock book in
various editions and arrangements." 'Isle of Tangerine' (no.631) and 'She Was
Very Dear to Me' (no.633) from the Hugh J. Ward musical Tangerine (Table
One) were published after local performances. 'Araby Vocal Waltz' (no.632),
published as Araby Oriental Vocal Waltz, was one of a repertory inspired bl the
silent film The Sheik, screened throughout Australia in 1919 (Table One).' The
foxtrot, one-step and two-step, were synonymous with Jazz (a style not fullr,
formed or understood in the 1920s), or any syncopated music for dancing. '
Allan's marketed Winning Fight' (no.638) as 'a March and two-step arranged
as a foxtrot', 'Honeymoon' (no.644) as a 'Vocal Valse' (Table One)," and 'Dance
Folio No.3' (no.635) with a standard by-line (Table One).
Allan's marketed its sheet music through its stores in Victoria, South Aus. tralia and Brisbane, where its markets and distribution were secure. A 'gentleman's agreement' precluded the firm encroaching in particular, on the. Srsdney
markets of Australian music publishers J.Albert & Sons and W.H. Paling. 9 Table One shows Allan's marketing of selected sheet music from Facsimile One.
Artists under contract to Allan's designed sheet music and album covers with
simple but arresting three-colour illustrations. Frederick Hall's piano cycle
'Omar' carried a· vivid dark blue, light blue and orange oasis scene. EaCh piece
was prefaced with a quotation from the Omar Khayyam." Allan's foolscap sized
Australian MUsic Book series known for its distinctive etched copperplate cover
design-a view of Princes Bridge, Melbourne from the south bank of the Yarra
24. SLVMS13419,Box9.
25. McCormack's Australian tour was widely reported. The Melbourne Age considered
McCormack's 'folk songs' his 'finest and most poetic numbers'-Katharine Brisbane, Entertaining
Australia: An Illustrated History, Sydney: Currency Press, 1991, p.186.
26. Jack O'Hagan's In Dreamy Araby (1919) had the caption 'Founded on the Paramount super
fIlm The Sheik'. J. Albert and Son published That Night in Araby in the early 1920s. The sheet
music had the byline 'Sung by Walter Kingsley in the prologue to The Son of the Sheik at the Crystal Palace, Sydney'.
27. Gunther Schuller, The Swing Era: The Development ofJazz 1930-1945, New York: Oxford
University Press, 1989, p.3.
28.
29.
30.
SLVMS13419,Box9.
Bill Kynoch.
SLVMS13419,Box9.
The Kynoch Stock Book
91
River, framed by fern fronds. The Birdie's Message sold for three pence and Australian Music Book No.16 for three shillings.
The Kynoch stock book shows 169 title entries in 1924, an increase of 31
from the previous year. In 1925, there were 230 printed jobs, of which 43% were
popular, sheet music. The increase in popular sheet music production can be
largely attributed to radio broadcasting. Allan's took full advantage of the new
commercial opportunity: Charles, John and Nevin Tait were all strongly affiliated with Allan & Co., and together owned a third share in the Melbourne licensed radio station 3LO." Variety song contests broadcast by 3LO were restricted to Allan's publications, with performance fees refused on the grounds
that broadcasts were a means of promotion for the artists." Allan's supplemented
its sheet music sales by publishing popular and classical songs, dances and some
instrumental numbers from imported player piano rolls and phonograph recordings. New repertoires and performance practices, in turn, increased the demand for sheet music. The creation of the Australian Performing Rights Association (APRA) in 1929 guaranteed the music publisher rights paid on the publication and performance of its printed music." By the end of the decade Allan's
was delivering a huge volume of affordable popular sheet music to its customers.
Australian song hits such as Jack O'Hagan's Along the Road to Gundagai (KSBN
558)", Hustling Hinkler (KSBN 1506), Kingsford Smith (KSBN 1573), and other
topical local numbers were as familiar to Australian audiences as imports Kentucky Babe (KSBN 589), Little Jessie James (KSBN 932), Give a Mail a Horse He .
Can Ride (KSBN 944) and My Ohio Home (KSBN 1552).
With the rapid diversification of its markets, Allan's imprinted its popular
sheet music with the by-line 'You can't go wrong with an Allan's song', employed in-store 'song pluggers' and, to gauge the popularity of its latest dance
hits, distributed plain-covered, free, 'Professional copies' of dance band .arrangements through orchestral clubs. Specimen copies of part songs and anthems were sent to conductors, and samples of sheet music published in the
journal The Australian Musical News." The 1920s had also seen a selective reprinting program applied to Allan's classical and teaching catalogues, part songs
and anthems. Its Imperial Edition series, a standard for decades, published with
the inscription 'All the Leading Teachers use and endorse the Imperial Edition
because it is the Best Edition', was under constant revision." The Australian
Music Book series numbered 100 editions when it was phased out in the early
31.
32.
33.
34.
Game, p.230.
Game, p.238.
Brisbane, p.197.
Along the Road to Gundagai was one of Allan's most profitable titles and sold over 10,000
copies in 1925 alone-Game, p.188.
35.
Fust published by AIlan's in 1911.
.
.
.
36. AI/an's Nummcal List of fmpmal Editions, Catologu.e No.B, .October 962,
899 piano
albums. All three volumes of Knox's teaching album remamed active. Impertal Edt/lOll No.2:U lIUl!
fmpmal Edition No.334 had been withdrawn from circulation.
92
Bibliographical Society 0/Australia
& New Zealand Bulletin
1930s. Forty-seven editions remained active in 1962." AIlan's introduced its 'Big
Note' teaching album series, launcbed its Musical Masterpieces editions of eighteenth and nineteenth century piano works and songs, with Serge Rachmaninoft's
Prelude No.1 (KSBN 111), and reprinted and expanded its pre-1921 piano and
violin Modern Masters sheet music series. AMEB albums were subjected to revision through extended editorial consultation.
The 19305: The Golden Age of Radio and Variety Entertainment
The immediate effect of the Depression on AIlan's sheet music production was a
17% decrease in annual printing output recorded in the Kynocb stock book. Although its annual average fell to 158 printed jobs between 1931 and 1933, the
Kynoch printery remained free of retrenchments." However AIlan's productivity
returned to healthier levels in 1934. New markets for popular music and a wider
appreciation of classical music enabled the publisher to increase its printed jobs
to 237, its highest annual printing total since 1921.
Variety programs, live broadcasts of public dances and community singing
concerts were at the heart of commercial broadcasting in the 1930s. AIlan's was
now a shareholder in commercial radio station 3AWand published extensively
for radio audiences." AIlan's Radio Piano Folio (KSBN 2162), Radio Song Album
(KSBN 2531) and a series of Radio Dance Albums boasted 'the complete words
and music of delightful sinJt-able and dance-able tunes'. Tutors and albums sucb
as How to Play the Chromatic Mouth Organ (KSBN 3704), Easy to Learn Steel
Guitar Method (KSBN 3768), Piano Accordion Folio (KSBN3865), and Hill Billy
and Western Folio (KSBN 3907) supplied the new styles and performance modes
heard mainly in radio programs. Radio talks and lectures, 'live' concerts and programs of 'light classics' .. broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission
(ABC) created a listening public for modern classics, forgotten repertoires, opera
and symphonic music. AIlan's relied less on re-published imported editions (although more British and European composers were represented in its Imperial
Edition series), and produced its own edited arrangements, and 'very easy' editions of copyrighted European classical and modern sheet music.
A third'music engraver joined the firm in 1934." Kynoch's now printed
teacbing and performance albums that combined imported copy, reprints, and
music engraved from both manuscript and copy. AIlan's launched its 'shilling
edition' Master Songs series in 1932 with Franz Scbubert's Cradle Song, op.98
37.
Australian Music Book 00.16 had been withdrawn from circulation"-Allan's Classified Cata-
logue ofImpnial Edition, Various Folios, Allon's Catalogue ofAustralian Music Books, n.d.
38. Game, p.240.
39. . 3AW was named for its shareholders Allan & Co. and ].C. Wtlliamson-Game, p.241.
40. Brisbane, p.219.
41. Sid Newitt, a master engraver for Henderson and Spalding, London, had engraved for music
for Oxford University Press. Jack Baker, also British trained, had joined Kynoch's in the mid
19205. Baker's son Gordon was apprenticed to his father and remained as Kynoch's only engraver
to the late 1970s-Bill Kynoch.
The Kynoch Stock Book
93
No.2, (KSBN 2210), and published edited translations and arrangements of its
Modern Masters and Musical Masterpieces series." In 1937, Allan's introduced the
Tune A Day series (KSBN 3242) and published the first of its Treasury of Song
series (KSBN 3375-6) compiled from selected Modern Masters and Musical Master editions. Several standards, including Hymns of Praise and the Australian Music Book series were phased out. Margaret Sutherland's First Suite for Piano
(KSBN 3391), William James' Little Dancer (KSBN 3474), the John Thompson's piano tutor Teaching Little Fingers to Play (Imperial Edition No.432, KSBN
3446), and J.A.Steele's Five Musical Moments (Imperial Edition No.438, KSBN
3681) introduced a new generation of Australian composers and pedagogues.
Sixteen extensively revised and edited AMEB albums were published during the
1930s.
Local screenings of Hollywood movies created a demand for sheet music
editions of movie hits and themes. Allan's re-published editions of Will You Remember Sweetheart? (KSBN 3365), Lost Horizon (KSBN 3399), and Gone with
the Wind (KSBN 3490) and rushed three vocal scores and selections from Snow
White and the Seven Dwaifs (KSBN 3598-3608) into print in 1938 afier the release of the Walt Disney cartoon. In 1933 thsee dance band arrarigements,
'Farewell to Arms', 'You're beautiful tonight dear' and 'Going, Going, Gone!'
(KSBN 2446) entered simply as 'Orchestrations', were the first of Allan's republished, imported 'Big Band' numbers. Commonly arranged for piano, violin,
three or four trumpets, E flat and B flat saxophones, two or three trombones,
guitar and string bass, folios (usually two sets of dance band charts) were limited
to print runs of four hundred copies, and sold principally thsough orchestral
clubs. While probably effective in securing a specialised market at the time, this
method of distribution has limited the survival of Allan's Big Band arrangements.
In 1938, with 339 printed jobs entered, the Kynoch stock book registered
its highest annual printing volume. Facsimile Two, taken from one stock book
page in 1938, shows 33 tide entries and their job numbers." Allan's had increased its turnover of popular sheet music to cater for radio entertainment,
cabaret and Palais circuits and movies. Kynoch's printed and compiled fifteen
popular sheet music and albums by photolithography, and engraved sixteen classical, choral and teaching sheet music and albums from manuscript and imported copy."
Approximately 250 pages of music were printed from the 33 tide entries
shown in Facsimile Two." Allan's Big Band arrangements (no.s.3529-30, 3548
and 3556) commonly incorporated between 15 and 20 pages per folio. The
selective reprinting and re-publishing of its choral music and teaching material
42. Allan's editorial staff in the 19305 included Louis Lavater (pseudonym 'Leo Bartels'), William James, Arthur S. Loam, Frederick Hall, his son Tony Hall, and J.A. Steele.-Bill Kynoch.
43.
The last item, water-damaged and partly obscured, is 'Orchestration', number 3556.
44.
One item was a booklet of Allan's 'Possum Brand' manuscript paper, KSBN 3527.
45.
The title entry of KSBN 3554 is illegible.
94
Bibliographical Society ofAustralia & New Zealand Bulletin
had produced a stock book numbering system that was by the late 1930s nearly
sequential (Facsimile Two, nos.3524-6 and 3534-5). Stock book entries were
more detailed, and included album tides, composer and genre. Songs frommovies, Broadway and Tivoli songs are entered by tide only, consistent with stock
book entries of the 1920s ('Swanee River Album', no.3528, popular songs,
nos.3533, 3546, 3552-5, and movie hits, nos.3550 and 3551).
Imperial editions nos.443-5 (nos.3524-26) and 'Action Songs' No.19 (Table Two, no.3532) included reprints of previously published material and music
engraved from manuscript. Part songs (nos.3534 and 3535) by Hubert Wynn
(pseudonym of Frederick Hall), and piano solos (nos.3536-41) by Evelyn Sharpe
and Hubert Wynn, were new publications, engraved from manuscript. 'Mozart's
Cradle Song' (no.3547) was engraved from imported copy, edited and arranged
by Louis Lavater and published as Allan's Musical Masterpieces No.43." 'Hymns
of Praise' No.20 (nos.3544-45), the last of twenty-two editions, were assembled
from both imported and engraved music, the text edition painstakingly lino set
r
..
47
,or pnntmg.
;'.
Selected stock book tide entries from Facsimile Two, shown in Table Two,
show the diversity of Allan's sheet music markets immediately before the Second
World War. In the so-called 'golden age' of variety entertainment, Allan's continued to introduce quality and variety to its teaching and classical standards and
classics. Two cover designs were prepared for the Stephen Foster album. The
first, for the original album tide 'Stephen Foster's Immortal Songs' (Facsimile
Two) was pasted-up with a nineteenth-century sepia photograph of man and
wife (possibly to represent Stephen Foster and his wife Jane) on a green and
white background." The cover photo of Allan's Swanee River Album has a sepia
photo still of Don Ameche and Andrea Leeds, stars of the Twentieth Century
Fox film Swanee River over the same background and artwork." This album appears to have been held over until the release of the film in 1939, and sold for
two shillings and sixpence (Table Two). Allan's kept its operations streamlined
yet maintained an appearance of variety by publishing Gallant Bows and Curtseys
Low and Cradle Song under pseudonyms chosen by editors Frederick Hall and
Louis Lavater (Table Two). Sympathy from the MGM movie Firefly was engraved by and copyrighted to G. Schirmer Inc., New York.
An annual stock book total of 233 printed jobs for the 'year 1939 represented a fall by a third from the previous year. Popular sheet music outnumbered
all other genres and repertories, accounted for 51% of printed jobs for the year,
and included 31 orchestration folios. Stock book entries 'Empire Piano Folio'
(KSBN 3751), 'My Country' (Allan's Part Song No.403, KSBN 3765), 'There'll
Always Be an England' (KSBN 3833), 'Aussie Boys' (KSBN 3889), the brass
band arrangements of Jack O'Hagan's 'Along the Road to, Gundagai' and
46.
47.
48.
49.
SLVMS 13419, Box 9.
Bill Kynoch.
SLVMS 13419, Box 9.
SLVMS 13419, Box 9.
The Kynoch Stock Book
95
'Where the Dog Sits on the Tuckerbox' (KSBN 3894) were mixed in their patriotic sentiment. We'll meet Again' (KSBN 3924) and 'Berlin or Bust' and
'Madamoiselle from the Maginot Line' ('Orchestrations', KSBN 3925) were
amongst the final entries of1939.
•
Conclusion
The business alliance between Allan's as music retailer and Kynoch's as
established processes that required little modification and were commercially
sustainable, as evidenced by Kynoch's output which, over an 18-year period, averaged about 17 printed jobs per month. Kynoch's efficiency in using photolithography and. music engraving to produce sheet music of consistent quality
enabled Allan's to manage the publication of its sheet music and albums over the
long term and to have reprints in its stores quickly in response to demand.
The Kynoch stock book is an important archive of music printing and publishing in Australia covering a period of dynamic change in the commercial contexts of musical entertainment and strong growth in the established market for
sheet music and albums, both classical and teaching. The stock book is a
chronological record of all sheet music and albums printed for Allan & Co. for
the period. It is the only accurate (although not precise) source for first printing
dates for Allan's sheet music and albums. Using the stock book, it is possible to
fully document the changing musical styles, genres and shifts in public taste, and
to compile a complete catalogue of Allan's popular sheet music, a vast amount of
which remained in circulation for a limited time, and has since disappeared from
public record. The stock book records the introduction of Australian editions of
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century European classical music, holds
a comprehensive listing of all Australian choral and teaching music published by .
Allan's, and is a valuable source for locating Austra1ian ·composers and their
works.
The Kynoch stock book is a rich source for musical and social history of the
period. Further examination of its entire contents in conjunction with the vast
quantity of Allan's published sheet music and progressively amended publisher's
catalogues that survive in libraries, institutions, and private hands, would offer a
substantial contribution to the history of Australian music publishing in the
twentieth century.
Kynoch Stock
Book title
KSBN
Anthem No.3
'Gloria'
612
Puhlished Title
Allan'sAnthems No.3 Gloria, 'From the Twelfth
Mass'. 'This Mass in G, KA 232 is considered
Plate No,
B.612
Composer
Genre/Style
No. of
pages
W.A. Mozart
SATB (English and
Latin), keyboard
8
instrument
spuriously attributed to Mozart, but the actual
composer is unknown.'
614
Allan's Part Songs No. 25 'The Birdie's Message'
B.614
Alfred Wheeler
SS/AA, piano
4
Imp. Ed.
No.334
616
AI/an's Imperial Edition 334, 'Omar', 'Five Tone
n.pub.
Frederick Hall
piano cycle
13
She was very
dear to me
633
B.633
Ben Burt.
popular song
5
Dance Folio
No3
635
B.635
various
waltzes, fox trots, onesteps violin, piano
32
Little town in
639
B.639
'Alma M.
song / ballad
6
piano solos.
32
Part Song
No.25 Birdies
Message
Poems suggested from Edward Fitzgerald's
translation of Omar Khayyam.'
She Was Very Dear To Me 'From Tangerine a musical
satire of the sexes.'
Allan's Dance Folio No. 3. 'Containing many of the
latest and best known songs of the day, especially
arranged as foxtrots, waltzes.'
the Quid
Little Town in the auld County Down 'Sung by John
Sanders, Monte
McCormack.'
County Down
B.640
Carlo (pseud?)
. various /
A.M. Book
No. 16
640
Rustle of
Spring
642
Rustle ofSpring
B.642
Leon Dore
piano solo
7
"Honeymoon
644
Honeymoon 'A vocal valse.' 'Alian's hits from
B.644
Paul Lava!.
populas song
6
.AlIan'sAustralian Mmic Book No. 16.'Favourite
Pianoforte Pieces.'
traditional
Broadway.'
Table One - Selected Kynoch stock book entries from Facsimile One, with imprints and advertising captions from AlIan's sheet music editions
Kynocb Stock Book title
entry
Imp. Ed. No. 444 Six
KSBN
3525
Publisbed Title
Imptrial Edition No. 444 'Six
PlateNo.
B.3525
Genre/style
Ernest Markham
piano
20
36
No·of
pages
Lee
Characteristic Pieces for Pianoforte'
Characteristic Pieces
Composer
(Lee)
Swanee River Album
3528
Swanu River 'Album of Stephen
B.3528
Stephen Foster
American!
traditional
B.3532
Words and music
Alfred Wheeler
children's songs
3
Foster's songs from the Fox film
success Swanu Rival
(Stephen Foster's
Immortal Songs crossed
out)
Action Songs No.19.
3532
Action Song Stries No. 19 'Scotland
Forever', for children's voices and
pIano
Scotland Forever
3535
Allan's Part Songs No. 382 'Gallant
Bows and Curtseys Low'
B.3535
Ghys, acr. Hubert
Wynn (pseud.
Frederick Hall)
SSA·
4
Hymns of Praise No. 21
Words and Music
3545
Hymns ofPraise No. 2 'A Collection
of hymns and solos for Sunday
School anniversaries'
B.3545
various
hYmns
33
Musical Masterpieces
3547
Musical Masterpieces No.43 'Mozart's
,
Crarlle Song
B.3547
W.A. Mozart, acr.
for piano Leo
Bartels (pseud.
Louis Lavater)
classical
3
3550
Sympathy 'From the Metro Goldwyn
Mayer production The Fircjly.'
B.3550
Rudolf Frim!
operetta/ftlm
7
My Cabin ofDrcams 'Feacured by Jim
Davidson and his ABC Dance Band.'
B.3553
Words and music,
popular song
5
Part Song No.382
Gallant Bows and
Curtseys Low
No.43 Mozart's Cradle
Song
Sympathy
My Cabin of Dreams
' 3553
Nick Kenny, AI
Frazzini, Nat
Madison
Table Two - Selected Kynoch stock book entries from Facsimile Two with imprints and advertising captions from Allan's sheet music editions
98
Bibliographical Society ofAustralia & New Zealand Bulletin
'. .4.4.-./1",/
.
('
/.Y
•
L
•
../.hl'_a
.../.,
/)f.
. ,{
Facsimile One. Title entries and job numbers 612-644,
Kynoch stock book 1923.
The Kynoch Stock Book
Facsimile Two. Title entries s and job numbers 3524-3555,
Kynoch stock book 1938.
99