The Intersection - Eastside FM
Sep 26, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
Hello, it's been a long time! We will be back with a new season soon, but we couldn't wait any longer to share this particular episode with you. This episode looks at the early music of Australia…
Toby MartinGuestJacinta TobinGuestor music.
In London at the time, theatres were not known as venues of high culture but were instead a favourite haunt of pickpockets and the like.
Colonial authorities had no doubt that such a venue in convict-era Sydney was a recipe for disaster.
profligate and depraved part of the population." which was in part encouraged by dances held at houses that were
Still, there was a groundswell of interest in musical performance, and not just from the convict or lower classes.
An attempt has been made at introducing some greater degree of sociability amongst the respectable portion of the inhabitants of Sydney than there has been hitherto.
Several spirited individuals have formed themselves into a society, under the denomination of the Sydney Amateur Concert Society, who propose getting out concerts once or twice a month.
They are intended to be conducted by Messrs Sippy and Edwards, who, we are led to understand, possess very eminent musical talents.
The latter gentlemen are the projectors of this rational and instructive species of entertainment, and, for the attempt alone, they deserve much credit.
Thankfully the programs from those shows still exist and in this snippet you can hear vocalists recreating a Glee piece from one of the concerts.
Shortly afterwards, emancipated convict and successful merchant Solomon Levy and his recently arrived brother Barnett Levy set about establishing Sydney's first proper theatre.
Barnett Levy, a skilled vocalist and entrepreneur, was credited with constructing the Theatre Royal on Sydney's George Street and would be dubbed, quote, the father of the legitimate stage.
Levy was quoted in the Monitor newspaper that the theatre would, quote, promote harmony and sociability in this at-present unsociable town.
But New South Wales Governor Ralph Darling hated the idea of any such establishment and in 1828 proclaimed, It
is expedient that a provision should be made for guarding against the evil consequences which the unrestricted power of opening places of public exhibition and entertainment in the present circumstances of this colony must necessarily produce.
Darling begrudgingly allowed that a license would have to be sought for any interlude, tragedy, comedy, opera, concert, play, farce, or other entertainment of the stage, or any part or parts thereof, or any stage dancing, tumbling, or horsemanship, or any other public entertainment whatever.
And what Darling did not say was that such a license, even if granted, could be rescinded at any stage at the Governor's pleasure.
or music.
In London at the time, theatres were not known as venues of high culture but were instead a favourite haunt of pickpockets and the like.
Colonial authorities had no doubt that such a venue in convict-era Sydney was a recipe for disaster.
profligate and depraved part of the population." which was in part encouraged by dances held at houses that were
Still, there was a groundswell of interest in musical performance, and not just from the convict or lower classes.
An attempt has been made at introducing some greater degree of sociability amongst the respectable portion of the inhabitants of Sydney than there has been hitherto.
Several spirited individuals have formed themselves into a society, under the denomination of the Sydney Amateur Concert Society, who propose getting out concerts once or twice a month.
They are intended to be conducted by Messrs Sippy and Edwards, who, we are led to understand, possess very eminent musical talents.
The latter gentlemen are the projectors of this rational and instructive species of entertainment, and, for the attempt alone, they deserve much credit.
Thankfully the programs from those shows still exist and in this snippet you can hear vocalists recreating a Glee piece from one of the concerts.
Shortly afterwards, emancipated convict and successful merchant Solomon Levy and his recently arrived brother Barnett Levy set about establishing Sydney's first proper theatre.
Barnett Levy, a skilled vocalist and entrepreneur, was credited with constructing the Theatre Royal on Sydney's George Street and would be dubbed, quote, the father of the legitimate stage.
Levy was quoted in the Monitor newspaper that the theatre would, quote, promote harmony and sociability in this at-present unsociable town.
But New South Wales Governor Ralph Darling hated the idea of any such establishment and in 1828 proclaimed, It
is expedient that a provision should be made for guarding against the evil consequences which the unrestricted power of opening places of public exhibition and entertainment in the present circumstances of this colony must necessarily produce.
Darling begrudgingly allowed that a license would have to be sought for any interlude, tragedy, comedy, opera, concert, play, farce, or other entertainment of the stage, or any part or parts thereof, or any stage dancing, tumbling, or horsemanship, or any other public entertainment whatever.
And what Darling did not say was that such a license, even if granted, could be rescinded at any stage at the Governor's pleasure.
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