Dark complexion preferred’

The unpublished diary of Lucy Pizey recounts her experiences in 1894–1895 whilst touring in Australia with the Fisk Jubilee Singers as their piano/organ accompanist. The troupe has influenced contemporary music in Australia based on their popularization of songs still being performed in genres such as spirituals and gospel. The diary provides glimpses of what ‘life on the road’ was like for a twenty-four year old, unmarried and unchaperoned Anglo-Australian woman in an otherwise all African-American troupe. Notably, race-based issues or antagonisms are absent from the diary, which is significant given the context of the final decade of the nineteenth century leading up to the legislation of the White Australia policy in 1901. Reasons for intra-personnel disagreement based on personal behaviour are recounted but race was not one of them. The diary highlights how musicking as a demanding and capricious occupation has not changed appreciably for contemporary musicians touring in Australia—different eras and modes of travel, but similar challenges

Legislation · Popular music · Australian History and Society · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Theater, Performance, and Music History