The Rite of Spring: 75 Years of ABC Music-Making

To listen to, to dance to, to sing along with -- music made and played by the ABC has been in the forefront -- and in the background -- of Australian lives for 75 years, this is the story of the ABC and music.

For three generations the ABC's symphony orchestras were a jewel in the crown of Australian culture, allowing audiences to hear Rubenstein, Tauber, Szell, Beecham, Schwarzkopf, Rostropovich and Klemperer in their primes, while providing career-long employment for Australia's own leading classical musicians.

Much less well known is the fact that for many years the ABC's in-house musical ensembles also included full-time dance bands, a military bank and wireless choruses of uncommon distinction.

In this ground-breaking study of the complete gamut of ABC music-making, well-known author and music critic Martin Buzacott describes how, often against the odds, the ABC's musical founders -- including Sir Charles Moses, Sir Bernard Heinze and William G James -- created a culture of musical excellence whose legacy remains with us today.

Based on unprecedented access to the ABC's archives and personal interviews with many leading Australian musicians, 'The Rite of Spring: 75 Years of ABC Music-Making' takes a fascinating journey through a musical history in which all Australians have shared.