I received an email from a gentleman, Brian White, from Brisbane, Australia, who wrote: Would you please do Australians a favour and add to your collection of songs the original version of Waltzing Matilda as it was played when Christina Macpherson and Banjo Paterson collaborated in the composition of Waltzing Matilda in the Winton area of Queensland in 1895. In 1895 Winton was very remote and pianos were scarce. Christina played a zither/autoharp by ear while Waltzing Matilda was being composed. Would you please demonstrate how Waltzing Matilda would have sounded on zither/auto harp. Brian continued with a comprehensive history of the origins of the words and music: In 1900 Paterson sold the rights to some of his poems, including Waltzing Matilda, to the publishing company, Angus and Robertson. Very soon after, the rights were acquired by the Inglis Tea Company. James Inglis, the owner, commissioned Marie Cowan, the wife of of one of the managers to turn Christina's version into an advertising jingle for Billy Tea. Marie Cowan changed both the words and the music to make it simpler, smoother and more contemporary. Although its origin is clear, only one bar (bar 10) is note for note from Barr's song. This version quickly became the accepted version and the original version which was never published, died out. Brian then sent me copies of Christina's own handwritten manuscript which included "Banjo" Paterson's original words, and it is from this manuscript and a PDF copy from Brian that I have attempted to reproduce the original song. Because I am much more familiar with the Marie Cowan version of the song, I think I may have tended to slip into that melody at times, but have tried to be true to the original Christina Macpherson melody as much as possible. Although in my playing, I only use three chords, G, C and D7 to pick out the melody, the chords I have shown in the annotations are the ones Brian included in his PDF copy and can be used to strum along with my playing.

Waltzing Matilda (Original version)