The depth of our music collection is possible because of a number of significant donations and deposits to Auckland City Libraries.
The Albyn Singers Collection This collection of choral music for women's voices was donated in July 1986. Formed in the 1940's as the Miss Patricia McLeod Choir, they gave their first recital as the Albyn Singers in 1954. After the retirement of Miss McLeod, the choir finally disbanded in 1985.
The Alice Law Memorial Collection This collection consists of vocal music, piano music, piano concertos and violin music.
The Auckland Municipal Choir Choral music The Auckland Municipal Choir choral music was introduced to Auckland Public Library's music collection in 1933 when the Auckland Municipal Choir disbanded and donated their collection of over 170 part songs.
Bishops House Collection This collection was donated in the 1970's by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland on deposit loan. This means that the collection is on permanent loan to Auckland City Libraries but cannot be borrowed. This valuable collection had been given to Bishop Luck and had been kept at Bishop House where it formed part of the Duncan Collection. A proportion of the collection appears to comprise works published prior to 1800.
The Bohemian Orchestra This popular orchestra was active in Auckland during the 1940's and 1950's mainly playing arrangements of light orchestral music. Their orchestral scores were donated to Auckland City Libraries in 1998.
The Continuing Education Donation This was received from the Centre for Continuing Education in 1987. It consists of choral, chamber and orchestral music.
The Harold Baxter Collection A substantial collection of instrumental music, mainly light classical, with separate parts for piano/conductor and orchestra, was received in 1953 from the estate of Harold Baxter. He was well known as a violinist, teacher and conductor of the 1YA Orchestra.
The Hersch Collection of Music This consists of chamber music, transcriptions of works for violin, concertos and sonatas.
The Lewis Eady Collection The music collection of Auckland City Libraries was begun with a donation from Mr Lewis Eady of over 6,000 volumes of music literature and scores. Augmented by other gifts and the library's existing holdings of music, the collection was opened in June 1928 with 1181 items. In September 1984, Lewis Eady's Ltd made a further significant donation for the purchase of music or musical information in celebration of their centennial. In 2004, Lewis Eady's Ltd commemorated their 120th Anniversary and in celebration of this achievement and their long association with Auckland City Libraries, they made a further generous donation of sheet music on January 12th 2005. Further to this, Lewis Eady Ltd, along with the Sentinel Community Trust and the Lodge of the Libreral Arts Charitable Trust, donated to the library a new Kawai RX2 Grand Piano on January 12th 2005.
The Royal Auckland Male Voice Choir This collection of choral music for male voices was donated to Auckland City Libraries when the choir was disbanded.
TVNZ Band Music Collection When shifting premises in 1998, the TVNZ Music Archive donated their non-New Zealand band arrangements of popular songs to Auckland City Libraries.
Auckland City Libraries would like to thank those individuals who have generously donated items for the music collection.
If you wish to donate any music or sound recordings to Auckland City Libraries please contact the music librarian.
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