‘The Light of Other Days’
What did these old songs actually sound like? It might seem obvious – just sing and play the notes printed on the page. The problem is that the way people perform music is very subtle, most of what they do is not written in the score and unwritten musical traditions change over time.
‘The Light of Other Days’ comes from the opera ‘The Maid of Artois’ and was composed by Michael William Balfe (1808-1870), with words by Alfred Bunn (1796-1860). The opera premiered in London in 1836 and performance highlights and sheet music copies were available in Sydney by the end of the decade. The copy of the song used for our version was found at Rouse Hill Estate in a bound collection of music called the Dowling Songbook. This volume originally belonged to a young couple who lived in Sydney and Bathurst and their collection is particularly important because the pencil markings they added to the score offer clues as to how they may have performed their songs in the 1830s.
Performance students from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, were asked to learn songs from the Dowling Songbook using the pencil markings made by the original owners of this music as inspiration. The journey of these students was documented in the film ‘Songs of Home’, provided below.
Watch the performance
Listen to Nyssa Milligan and Katrina Faulds perform ‘The Light of Other Days’ and then have a go yourself! We have also provided a link to the film ‘Songs of Home’ which features Nyssa and fellow performance students exploring ways of performing these types of 19th-century songs. We have created one of the only available recordings of this song so we’ve also provided some different compositions inspired by the title. Why not help us share more versions with the world.
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Supported by: City of Sydney
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