About The Keys Press
The Keys Press is a specialist music publisher that was established in 1990 by Geoffrey Allen. Since his retirement in 1992 from the position of University Librarian at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, it has become his major concern. While the Press is conducted as a small business its primary purpose is to provide a means to make scores of Australian classical music, contemporary and historical, available to performers and for preservation in libraries.
By 2010 the Keys Press has published some 500 titles, mostly solo instrumental and chamber works, songs and some choral music. The catalogue now includes works by over sixty Australian composers and arrangers. It is the policy of the press to keep all titles in print. A few orchestral works are being added and for these the instrumental parts will be published as CD ROMs with permission for conductors or orchestral managers to print copies for the purpose of performance.
Among the major achievements of the Keys Press are a complete edition of the music of pianist composer Roy Agnew (1899-1944), and the publication for the first time of many of the instrumental and chamber works of Miriam Hyde (1913-2005). A new on-going project commenced in 2005 is the Australian Heritage Series under the guidance of Professor Larry Sitsky of the Australian National University. This series comprises hitherto unpublished works by twentieth century Australian composers that have been the focus of much Professor Sitsky's research and which he regards as worthy of preservation and promotion.
Sample pages of scores and some audio files are currently being added to the catalogue. It is anticipated that sample pages of most works will be provided over the coming weeks. If the Catalogue Number at the left of an entry is underlined then clicking on it should bring up the sample score. Audio files are linked to the title of the piece and if this, or part of it, is underlined clicking on it should bring up the file which should start playing automatically within a few seconds. The audio extracts playing as background to the sections of the catalogue are limited to music by Geoffrey Allen; they can be controlled or switched off in the control bar at the head of each section, or accessed in their own right ithrough the Background Music page. Details of the performances of audio clips and backgrpund music are given in the Audio Clips and Background Music page.