Louise Hanson-Dyer Collection

One of the world’s most prestigious publishers of early scholarly music – the Editions de l’Oiseau-Lyre of Monaco – has been given new life as the Lyrebird Press and relocated to the University of Melbourne.

Transferred to Melbourne along with the re-born music publisher are rare printed materials collected by Editions de l’Oiseau-Lyre founder Louise Hanson-Dyer. The collection of 15th to 19th century music imprints, first editions and music manuscripts, has been donated to the University.

Louise Hanson-Dyer, 1884-1962

The daughter of Melbourne politician and medical doctor Louis Smith MLA and his second wife Marion, Louise Hanson-Dyer was born Louise Smith in Melbourne in 1884. She attended the Presbyterian Ladies College before studying at the Albert Street Conservatorium in Melbourne, where she became an accomplished pianist.

After marrying the wealthy businessman James Dyer in 1911, she became a prominent and outgoing Melbourne socialite, well-known for organising flamboyant cultural events and as a Francophile and President of the Alliance Française.

The Dyers eventually settled in Paris and Louise Dyer began collecting music in 1929. By 1931 she had accumulated many valuable items, including first edition prints and manuscripts, early imprints of French opera and a collection of music treatises. It is this personal collection that has been donated to the University of Melbourne and which currently forms the basis of an exhibition at the University.

Editions de l’Oiseau-Lyre arose when Louise Dyer tried to arrange publication of the complete works of the French opera composer Lully. When the project foundered, she established her own publishing house, which she ran from 1931 until her death in 1962. She married Jeff Hanson in 1939 following the death of James Dyer and became Louise Hanson-Dyer.

During her lifetime, Editions de l’Oiseau-Lyre became one of the most esteemed scholarly musicological publishers in Europe. It is particularly renowned for its monumental series such as the complete works of François Couperin, the complete Attaingnant motets, the chansons of Clément Janequin, Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, and most recently the medieval repertory of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the Magnus Liber Organi.

Louise Hanson-Dyers’ collection passed to Jeff Hanson’s second wife Margarita after his death, and in 1986 the University of Melbourne and Margarita Hanson entered a formal arrangement through which she agreed to transfer her ownership of the library.

• An exhibition – “Bowerbird to Lyrebird: the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Collection” – displaying key historic and rare musical manuscripts collected by Louise Hanson-Dyer between 1929-1931 and recently bequeathed to the University of Melbourne. The exhibition is to be launched by Louise Hanson-Dyer’s biographer Professor Jim Davidson and will be on show until 24 September (First Floor Exhibition Space, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne). The exhibition is co-curated by Dr Jennifer Hill and Richard Excell, with support from the University’s Cultural Collections staff.