In 2025, we commemorate 200 years of the earliest known piece of instrumental music written in Australia, a significant milestone in our cultural heritage. It has added significance as it is dance music and was composed by a lady – Tempest Margaret Paul.
Currency Lasses, an admired Australian quadrille, composed by a lady at Sydney was first performed on 7 November, 1825 at Nash’s Woolpack Inn, Parramatta.
https://archive.org/details/Currency52313
The tune Currency Lasses was first noted at a public dinner in honour of the outgoing governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane. Eighty men, all prominent figures in the colony, attended the dinner, which was exclusively for gentlemen. Such occasions provided an opportunity to demonstrate their refinement and social standing in the colony.
As was the custom at the time, toasts were raised to venerate people, events, and ideals (patriotism) and to bestow well wishes. Punch bowls played a significant role in the tradition of toasting, embodying the spirit of camaraderie and community. Popular melodies or songs would accompany each toast, each chosen to suit the position or character of the person being honoured.
Foremost as the leading ‘currency lad’ was William Charles Wentworth, son of D’arcy Wentworth the surgeon and prosperous businessman who had arrived in the colony in 1790. As the evening progressed, a toast was proposed for D’arcy Wentworth. This was accompanied by the air Bonnie Laddie, in his honour. His son William Charles Wentworth returned the thanks to the tune Currency Lasses.
The Band of the 3rd Regiment (The Buffs), lead by bandmaster Thomas Kavanagh, supplied the music for the toasts, performing the Currency Lasses, perhaps for the first time. Regimental bands regularly formed small ensembles (a couple of violins and cello, perhaps a viola, flute, or clarinet) to play for dinners, toasts, musical evenings, dances, balls, concerts and the theatre.
The composer of Currency Lasses was Tempest Margaret Paul. Tempest was an acclaimed amateur singer and pianist. Her first performances were noted in the colony’s inaugural subscription concert season, the Sydney Amateur Concerts, held from June 1826 to January 1827. The Sydney Gazette declared her “the Catalani of Australia” after Angelica Catalani, the famous Italian opera singer. Tempest not only performed in duets and glees, but also displayed her talent as a soprano soloist, accompanying herself on the piano. Her notable performances included Arne’s impressive piece, “The Soldier Tir’d,” as well as the first public rendition in Australia of the relatively recent London sensation, “Home, Sweet Home.”
In her family life, Tempest was married to John Paul, a wealthy Sydney merchant known for importing a variety of goods, including music and musical instruments. Their two sons, John and George were also musically inclined and both performed in the Amateur Concert: John playing the viola in the orchestra, and George as a vocalist in several comic songs.
It is probable that Mrs Paul composed the Currency Lasses Quadrille to commemorate the safe arrival of her ‘currency’ granddaughters, Tempest Jane and Margaret Isabella, who were born in the colony in 1824 and 1825, respectively. Currency lads and lasses were the first generations of native born white Australians.
“Two Years in New South Wales” ( 1827), P. Cunningham
Our colonial-born brethren are best known here by the name of Currency in contradistinction to Sterling, or those born in the mother-country.
Our Currency lads and lasses are a fine interesting race, and do honour to the country whence they originated….they grow up tall and slender.
The ball
In June 1826, the Australian newspaper published an account of a private concert and ball hosted by the Pauls at their new house in George Street, Sydney. “Five of the Buffs’ band [3rd Regiment] attended in the ball-room in a neatly fitted-up orchestra, and contre-dancing, which was only interrupted for a short time by a visit to the supper room, was kept up with spirit by fifteen to twenty couples, to an early hour of Saturday morning, when the company by degrees took leave of their courteous host and hostess.” Although the Australian newspaper only mentions “contre-dancing”, the evening would almost certainly included the latest quadrilles, including Currency Lasses.
There are no instructions were provided for the Currency Lasses Quadrille, however, in consultation with the leading authority on Quadrilles, Ellis Rogers of the Historical Dance Society and the London Quadrille Club, we have devised a dance of the style danced in 1825. To be added soon!
Right from the beginning, the colonists in Sydney wanted to maintain a fashionable appearance. For Sydney’s elite, fashionable dress confirmed their status in the colony, clearly defining not just wealth but also their moral superiority.
It was truly gratifying to behold in this remote quarter of the globe, so large an assemblage as forty charming, well dressed women, most of them “currency lasses,” whose ease and elegance would not disgrace the most fashionable European assemblies…The Australian (5 May 1825)
The French gentleman, Francois Girard, who arrived as a convict in 1820, had quickly established himself as a dancing master in Sydney and was teaching “quadrilles, waltzes, and all kind of elegant dances”. The first account of quadrilles being included at ball was in 1823 at William Cox’s mansion Hobartville, Windsor. Read more about the arrival of the quadrille in Australia.
Publication
It has been suggested that Thomas Kavanagh, bandmaster of the 3rd Regiment may have assisted Mrs Paul in arranging the music for the publications, adapting it for performances at dances and balls, however, the evidence suggests it was her own composition. Tempest and her family visited London between 1828-1831 and it was this time that the music was published by J. Crossn in 1830.
Currency Lasses enjoyed a degree popularity throughout the 1820s and 1830s. The last recorded mention in a 19th-century newspaper occurred in 1843. It then disappeared from view until December 2015, when Sydney musicologist, Dr Graeme Skinner discovered it in a bound volume of late 18th- and 19th-century sheet music. This unique copy of a previously unknown English print of an Australian musical composition of c.1825-26, is the earliest piece of Australian instrumental music to survive.
Acknowledgement
Thank you to Dr Graeme Skinner for discovering Currency Lasses and meticulously researching it’s history. Visit his website for the full history and documentation http://sydney.edu.au/paradisec/australharmony/paul-tempest-currency-lasses.php
Dr Graeme Skinner believes this to be the earliest surviving piece of original music by an Australian colonist, dating to the second half of 1825.
This is an extremely rare piece of Australian music.
