Sol-fa chart

Sol-fa chart

This chart for teaching singing was made by Samuel McBurney (b. Glasgow, UK 1847, d. Melbourne 1909), who taught sight singing and ear training at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne in the late nineteenth century. Probably the first of its kind made in Australia, the chart features hand-drawn birds to represent the notes of the scale. All the birds of the tonic triad—a black crow and jackdaw for doh, green lovebirds for me, and a red parrot for soh—are shown seated, representing stability. The rest of the birds are shown in flight: ray is an orange hummingbird, fah a blue owl, lah a violet dove, and te a yellow canary.

Grainger Museum Collection, University of Melbourne. Gift of the McBurney family, 1985.

Grainger Museum

c.1890s to 1900.

2018/29-10/2