Blog Every Day in June day 27: What did a 1920s wedding sound like?

For day 27 of Blog June, we bring you a recent post from the National Library of Australia's blog regarding a special reference question. This post was originally posted under the title "What did a 1920s wedding sound like? by librarian Danelle Edmonson. You can read it on the NLA blog here.


I greatly admire the dedication reference librarians have for providing their clients with detailed answers. The wealth of knowledge and information the NLA holds in both its staff and collection is phenomenal.

Hope you enjoy today's post!


--

As a member of the National Library’s Ask a Librarian team, I get to work on the rich variety of questions sent to us from all across Australia.

When was my great-grandfather born?

How can I find out when this book was published?

What page number is this quote on?

Wedding bells [music] / words by P.C. Cole ; music by Harold Lindsay, nla.mus-vn5787936

While they are all interesting, there are some that you know are going to send you delving deep into Australia’s history.

I was recently scrolling through our list of new questions, when the following jumped out at me:


“Hello, I am trying to find out what kind of music would have been played at an Australian wedding in a small regional town in 1920?”

I was hooked. Music has such an influence on emotion and memory, to be able to hear what a wedding sounded like would add a totally different dimension to our understanding of what it was to be there.

Switching into research mode, I was eager to find a search strategy to recommend. I decided on three sources that were likely to contain relevant information:

• Women’s magazines—perhaps these would include articles about wedding fashions of the time.
• Newspapers—for wedding announcements and articles.
• Published music from 1920—to find out what was popular at the time.

I also thought about the social factors that would influence the music choice, such as:

I started by searching the catalogue for the subject “Women’s Periodicals—Australian”(librarian language for women’s magazines). These are always a fun glimpse into days gone by, and they’re especially valuable for finding references to popular pastimes.

I scanned the magazine pages for music and weddings, all the while trying not to get distracted by the fashions and gossip of 1920. Finally, I found something in a classical music column from The Woman's Record—could it be a clue?

• family income—could they afford professional musicians?
• proximity to music stores—would they have access to the latest hits?
• did the family have conservative tastes? Would they prefer modern music?

The woman's Record, 7 December 1920

Ok, so jazz and ragtime were popular at the time. But the article was from metropolitan Adelaide; would this kind of music have been popular in rural areas, or even played at weddings? Maybe not—sometimes the first “clue” doesn’t turn out to be the one you need, but can still help to refine your understanding of the question and your choice of source material.

I moved on to Trove’s digitised newspapers, which ended up being, of course, a wealth of information. Today we can see someone’s choice of wedding dress and flowers on social media; in 1920 you could read about it in the local newspaper.

Starting with a Trove search for ‘wedding AND music’, I used the ‘Narrow search’ options to whittle the results down to articles from 1920 (you could even narrow by state or newspaper title). This brought up an array of wonderful articles about weddings, such as that of Archibald Dearlove and Nellie Pearce from Kooringa, S.A.:

"Miss G. Pearce presided at the organ and rendered the usual music. The service opened with 'The Voice that Breathed o'er Eden... At the close of an impressive service, 'O Perfect Love' was sung and the Wedding March played as the bridal party left the church."

Burra Record (SA: 1878–1954), 18 February 1920, p. 3.

                                           

I did a quick search of the Library’s catalogue—(you could even use our sheet music app Forte)—and found a handwritten copy of O perfect love.

O Perfect Love 1930–1960, wedding anthem / words written by D.F. Blomfield ; the music composed by S.W.R. Jackling, nla.mus-vn318273

With this, I now had a lovely example to send and a proven research strategy to find out more.
Define the details of the wedding, such as location and wealth
Search Trove’s newspaper articles to find wedding. announcements and descriptions from this area, and take note of the music that is played.
Search for this music in the Library’s catalogue.

Helping someone find an answer to a tricky question is the most satisfying part of being a reference librarian … travelling back in time is just an added bonus!

Norah Valentine Knox and Ernest Whistler Street at their wedding, New South Wales, 21 April 1925 [picture], nla.pic-vn6303285

© National Library of Australia