Robert Dalley-Scarlett (1887–1959) and Handel Reception in Australia between the World Wars

Abstract

In December 1949, the Brisbane-based musician Robert Dalley-Scarlett received a prestigious Handel Medal from the town of Halle (Germany) for his work promoting the composer's oeuvre. This paper investigates Dalley-Scarlett's pioneering role in the period between the two World Wars, during which time he was not only a key figure in the Brisbane Handel Festivals of 1933 and 1934—among the earliest in the southern hemisphere—but was also active as conductor of the Brisbane Handel Society, a choir established with the intention of ‘broadcasting all of Handel's oratorios’ via the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The specific circumstances leading to the initial award of the medal to Dalley-Scarlett on the eve of World War II are also outlined through a close reading of a series of papers held by the Händel-Haus in Halle. These shed some light on German–Australian musical relations during the late 1930s, while also providing a concrete illustration of one of the ways in which the National Socialist regime used culture in their attempts to spread their deeply disturbing nationalistic message across the globe.