Isaac Nathan. Musurgia Vocalis, an Essay on the History and Theory of Music, and on the Qualities, Capabilities and Management of the Human Voice.

Isaac Nathan (c. 1792-1864) was a Jewish Anglo-Australian composer and musicologist who ended an eventful career by becoming the “father of Australian music”. Born in 1792 in the English city of Canterbury to a hazzan of Polish birth, as a young man Nathan conceived the idea of publishing settings of tunes from synagogue usage and persuaded Lord Byron to provide the words for these. The result was the poet’s famous “Hebrew Melodies.” In 1841 Nathan emigrated to Australia, where he became a leader of local musical life, acting as music adviser both to Sydney’s Great Synagogue as well as the city’s cathedral. He gave first or early performances in Australia of many of the works of Mozart and Beethoven and on the 3rd May 1847 in Sydney’s Victoria Theatre, his Don John of Austria was performed, the first opera to be written, composed and produced in Australia. Nathan was also the first to research and transcribe indigenous Australian music.