the score of
waltzing matilda

The
song you are now hearing is Waltzing Matilda, called by some the second or
unofficial national anthem of Australia. The version you're hearing is
performed by
Slim Dusty, a singer of Australian songs and himself a tradition in
Australia. In this
rendition, Slim is accompanied by his Bushlanders.
Most people credit Banjo Peterson with composing Waltzing Matilda,
which has proved to be a very popular song and a great success all over the
world. Although there is little doubt that Peterson write the original
lyrics, as we shall see, the identity of the originator of the melody is
obscure. As with other successful music, it has inspired many
variations, most of which are based on Banjo Peterson's lyrics; other
versions of the song based on the melody have alternative lyrics with
very different objectives
and stories to tell.
Below is a copy of the composer's entire original score, just as he set it
down with pencil and paper; it's an almost-life-sized reproduction designed
to make it legible and easy to read. It contains all four of the song's verses and
its refrain. Click the
score at any time to hear the song again.
At the left, Christina Macpherson, credited with hearing the melody
to Waltzing Matilda and recognizing its full potential. At the right, Andrew
Barton Paterson, known as Banjo Paterson, a popular nationalist Australian
poet of the time and the person who wrote the lyrics.
history
Here's the story of how the song was born. Read it as you listen.
Christina Macpherson was the daughter of an Australian squatter, a
relationship that put her in an excellent position to appreciate the subject
matter and the sentiments expressed by the lyrics of the
song as we know today. However, at the time she first heard it, the lyrics we know today did
not exist and the song was nothing like the song that eventuated.
Details of how the song came to be are murky. One theory is that Waltzing Matilda started
life as a Scots folk tune which was transformed into a popular Scots song
called Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielee. Barr composed the music in
1818 and Tannahill wrote the words in 1805; the tune was transcribed for
brass band by Thomas Bulch in 1893.
At this point, Waltzing Matilda had yet to be born.
When Christina heard Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielee at a public event she was instantly
enthralled by its melody. Not a professional musician herself, she
did her best to commit the tune to memory and to transcribe it so as to
preserve it for conversion into something else.
In one version of the story, Christina's brother Bob, an
acquaintance of Peterson, is thought to have told him about an Australian
sheep sheerer who, being pursued by authorities after participating in a
violent 1894 Queensland sheep herder's strike, shot himself at an outback
waterhole rather than allow himself to be captured. This event inspired
Paterson to write Waltzing Matilda and use it as a socialist anthem in 1895, one
year after the strike. In another version of the story, Paterson
penned the song to please Ms. Macpherson, with whom he was enamored.
- For more about Waltzing Matilda's possible
origins and history, visit the Waltzing
Matilda page at the Wikipedia web site:
click here.
the score—words & music together
To gain insight into what a score is for and what it is like, The Muse Of
Music suggests that you start by playing the song again. To do this, click the picture of Banjo's score, below. This time, follow along
by reading the score as the song plays. Read Banjo's lyrics as Slim and his Bushlanders sing.
The Muse realizes that Banjo's handwriting is not the best,
and that the image of his score is blurred. So, The Muse
has provided a printed an extra-large copy of Banjo's lyrics to help you decipher what you read
in case you run into trouble (see below, under the score). Although Banjo's
original version and Slim's version are similar, don't expect Slim's version to exactly
match the original one. Slight variations among Waltzing Matilda
renditions are common.
In popular or classical music, variations are common. Variations are
permitted—even relished—as a consequence of
musical creativity and artistic freedom; that's one of the wonderful aspects
of art.
|
—tip— viewing & Listening options
As you read about the score and listen to the music, you may find it
difficult to make comparisons between what you read, the score, and the
lyrics because you can't see all of them on your computer monitor at
the same time; or they may be too small to see clearly. You may find it
necessary to scroll up and down between them repeatedly.
If you are reading this on a computer equipped with a large monitor or
more than one monitor, you have the option to reduce or eliminate these
difficulties by opening the score and lyrics in new windows and arranging
them on your monitor(s) before you continue.
It may help to minimize your media player
so it doesn't block your view. |

Do you speak or read Australian? If not, here's a translation of the lyrics
into ordinary English:
Lyrics |
Translation |
- Oh there once was a swagman camped in
the billabong,
- Under the shade of a Coolibah tree.
- And he sang as he looked at the old
billy boiling,
- Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
- Chorus:
- Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda my
darling,
- Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda with me?
- Waltzing Matilda and leading a water
bag,
- Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
-
- Down
came a jumbuck to drink at the waterhole
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with
glee.
And he said as he put him away in the
tuckerbag
"You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me"!
- Chorus:
- Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda my
darling,
- Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda with me?
- Waltzing Matilda and leading a water
bag,
- Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
Down
came the squatter a' riding his
thoroughbred.
Up came policemen, one, two, and three.
Whose is the jumbuck you've got in the
tuckerbag?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Chorus:
Who'll come a-waltzing
Matilda my darling
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
Waltzing Matilda and leading a waterbag
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
- But the swagman he up and he jumped in
the water-hole,
- Drowning himself by the coolibah tree.
- And his ghost may be heard as it sings
by the billabong,
- Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me.
- Chorus:
- Who'll come a waltzing Matilda my
darling,
- Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me.
- Waltzing Matilda and leading a water
bag,
- Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
|
- Billabong—a
bow-shaped lake formed in the channel of a dried up river
bed.
- Billy—a can for boiling water.
- Coolibah tree—a
kind of
eucalyptus
tree which grows near billabongs.
- Jumbuck—a
large, untamed wild sheep that might belong to a squatter.
Taking it might be stealing.
- Matilda—a romantic term for a swagman's bundle.
- Trooper—policemen.
- Squatter—In
the past, Australian farmers who raised livestock on land
they did not legally have a right to use. Some became
wealthy when the land they squatted on was ceded to them.
-
Swag—a bed roll, blanket, cloth, or bundle in
which a swagman carries
all his belongings strapped to his back.
- Swagman—a man who wanders through the country
looking for work carrying a swag on his back.
- Tucker—food.
- Tucker bag—a
bag for carrying food.
-
Waltzing Matilda—to waltz matilda is to look
for work with a swag on one's back.
|
about banjo's score
Notice that Banjo has used paper on which staves have been preprinted. In
his own hand, he has added or omitted these items:
- Song title.
- The key signature, which directly follows the clef. The three flat
symbols signify that score is in
the key of E-flat Major.
- Notes that specify what notes to play on a musical instrument and
the order in which to play them.
- A clef symbol that indicates the range of the notes on the stave. It
could be a bass clef, but here Banjo is indicating a treble clef.
- Vertical bars that indicate the start and end of measures.
- A time signature, which specifies how many beats are in a measure
and which kind of note receives one beat. With these two factors in
mind, a reader can deduce how long to hold each note and which note or
notes to emphasize.
- The time signature is missing from this score. When present, a
reader will find it at the start of a stave directly following the key
signature.
- When a time signature is missing, as it is here, the time signature
is assumed it to be 4/4 time. This music is to be played in 4/4 time.
- Lyrics that match up with notes so that a reader knows what words go
with what sounds.
- Four verses. The first verse begins the piece and the last verse
ends it.
- Verse titles. Each of the verses other than the first verse
begins with a title so a reader
can tell where it begins.
- A refrain. The first verse contains the refrain, as explained below.
- Chorus notations. Each of the last three verses ends with the notation,
Chorus:
You'll come, etc.
Banjo did not put a marker on the page to show readers where the refrain begins
because he expects a reader to figure that out for himself. Here's how:
- A chorus is the part of a song that's repeated, usually
after each verse; it's another word for a refrain.
- Banjo added a notation that reads Chorus: You'll
come, etc. at the end of each of the last three verses.
- Chorus: You'll
come, etc. is Banjo's direction to readers and musicians telling
them to finish a verse by singing the refrain.
- Where is the refrain located in the score? The song beings with the
first verse. Since a refrain usually follows every
verse, it's a safe bet that the refrain is embedded in the first verse.
- A reader can tell where the refrain begins by
looking in the first verse for the lyric, You'll come.
- Look for the words You'll come in the first verse and
you'll find them in the middle of the third stave. The chorus runs from
there to the end of the first verse.
Why ask a reader to look for a refrain instead of marking it on a score?
This method for indicting a refrain is an economical shorthand that saves
composers the trouble of writing a refrain over and over after every verse.
It saves paper, too, and cleans up the score so that it's less messy.
|
|
—tip— take it easy
Rome wasn't built in a day, as the saying goes. As you read about the
score of Waltzing Matilda, you may encounter some musical facts you
don't have the background or musical training to understand. If that turns
out to be the case, don't let that discourage you. The Muse hopes you'll
stick to your guns and keep trying; you'll probably walk away
understanding more than you realize and you'll lay a foundation for future
progress. |
conclusion
Now that you've got the words alined with the music, try playing the song
again. This time, follow the score while you sing the lyrics along with Slim
Dusty and his boys and girls. Sing the lyrics to yourself if you're shy
about your voice.
Notice how the song springs to life when you know the story behind it,
understand the words, and think about the story they are telling while you
are hearing the melody. The Waltzing Matilda melody is great by
itself but the words, melody, and meaning together are much more powerful.
Reading a score while listening to music is a way to facilitate this
integration process.
By now you can see why there's a lot to gain by following along—by
reading a score while you listen to the music.
Banjo Peterson's score for Waltzing Matilda illustrates many of
the characteristics shared by scores everywhere. Now that you've explored
Peterson's work, you're ready to move on to other scores.
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