G'day Ian,

I can't remember any specific reference by AB Banjo Paterson suggesting he knew the tune Christina MacPherson played on the autoharp ... rather, he asked if: "... there were words to that tune?".

Upon being told that Christina didn't know any (the tune she heard at the Warrnambool Races was Thomas Bulch's brass band arrangement as a quick march) Banjo offered a poem he aid he had just made up. (Recent folklorist study suggests he was making a line for Christina, which led to the breakup of his 7-year engagement to her old school chum Sarah Riley!).

Christina was a fairly cvompetent amateur pianist. I have examined sevaeral different autograph copies of her memory of the music with Paterson's words. These have occasional ... but consistent! ... errors in the note values in some bars - suggesting she was copying a laborious transcription by rote and not "hearing" the tune as she wrote it down.

A lot of this has only come to light now that the personal papers of the late members of the MacPherson family have been lodged with major library collections and examined by folklorists and researchers (particularly Richard Magoffin ... and, later, Dennis O'Keefe).

Regards,

Bob Bolton