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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 June 2021
To his cultivated ear the voice of music spoke to life and beauty, and his heart beat responsive to its utterances.
❧ Introduction
Musical life in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century was enriched by the large number of fine musicians from Britain, continental Europe and the United States who toured the cities and the regions. Many were, understandably, attracted to the goldfields in the 1850s, where money could be made entertaining the miners and other fortune seekers. What sort of life did these itinerant musicians lead in Australia and what impact did they have on the fledgling settlements into which they ventured? An excellent example is George Loder the younger (1816–68). A close investigation of his activity in Australia, together with his illuminating memoir, goes some way to addressing these questions.
Loder spent a total of six years in Australia: four as a touring musician and the last two in Adelaide. He was a versatile musician with a reputation as a proficient conductor, composer, arranger, pianist, bass singer, flautist, double bassist, and organist. While in Australia, he was Anna Bishop's musical director, conductor of William Lyster's touring opera company, and touring duo partner to his wife, Emma Neville. He died in Adelaide from tuberculosis at the age of fifty-one.
The memoir he wrote while in London in 1858 gives an account of his journey from New York to San Francisco in 1852, his travels to the Californian gold-mining settlements, and his time as a conductor in San Francisco. It also includes reflections on his busy life in colonial Australia as musical director for Anna Bishop. This memoir was published in the Musical World. Loder records that, although he had often to contend with difficult conditions, the work gave him great satisfaction. The financial rewards made the difficulties more bearable.
❧ Loder with Anna Bishop in Australia
George Loder's American wife Harriet died of tuberculosis in November 1855, and Loder recalls that it was her death which caused him to consider leaving San Francisco for Australia.
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