William Ellard (d. c. 1838/39): The much admired Australian quadrilles (Dublin and Sydney, 1835) (‘Dedicated by permission to Miss Hely of Engehurst’) [1] La Sydney; [2] La Wooloomooloo [sic]; [3] La Illawarra; [4] La Bong-Bong; [5] La Engehurst; Neal Peres Da Costa (pianoforte), Annie Gard (violin), Daniel Yeadon (violoncello); Elizabeth Bay House, Sydney, 27 February 2022

Abstract

Dublin-born Francis Ellard, Sydney’s earliest specialist music publisher, advertised his first sheet music titles late in 1835. Ellard engraved all of his later sheet music himself and had it printed here in Sydney, but in this first instance, he commissioned his brother William in Ireland to arrange the music, print it there in Dublin, and ship it out to the colony to be sold. The Ellards gave each of the quadrilles a local title. All five are based on tunes popular in the 1830s, including two still well-known today, in the first quadrille the grand march from Bellini’s ‘Norma’, and in the last the troop song ‘The girl I left behind me’. View the 1835 first edition of the sheet music here: https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/156931406 (TROVE record); https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-179509547 (DIGITISED)