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Reviews for the Companion to Music and Dance:

This Currency Companion is brilliant. I would say that it makes the most substantial contribution yet to the understanding of Australia’s performing arts. Its 735 pages are jam-packed with summaries, opinions, facts, readings and cross references that lay down a rich and diverse picture of how music and dance have fared in Australia …a tour de force of Australian reference literature. Strong editorial hands have moulded an invaluable, ground-breaking, entertaining volume. What is most heartening…is its profundity. It has not opted for the easy path of the chronicler or the rapid scramble of short data rich articles. Most articles are substantial research pieces, which question Australia’s artistic practices as much as provide answers.
Sounds Australian No. 62, 2003

How to do justice in a short space to the Companion? Enough to say, perhaps, that it will become an indispensable work of reference for scholars and general readers. As with all good encyclopedias, idle browsing is likely to prove no less rewarding that the pursuit of specific information… one can do no more than offer thanks for so rich and useful a resource. My copy will be treasured – and frequently consulted.
Weekend Australian, August 2-3, 2003

This review is late. Every time I dipped into the Companion to check an entry I got diverted. I would look up Borovansky and find myself half an hour later browsing facts on the hula-hula or Coon songs. I keep it handy so that as topics occur to me I can look them up. In the short time it has been in the house it has become a real companion, a book to make friends with and keep by you; to get to know a little at a time. There are just a few books that become indispensable and this reference work is one of them… If the Companion does nothing else, it should open our eyes to the wealth of unexplored topics in our arts history and geography. It is unique in encompassing and clarifying the multiplicity of cultural ideas which contribute to arts practice in Australia whether amateur or professional.
Dance Forum, 2003

The Currency Companion proclaims an abundant and affirming view of all kinds of Australian music making…All readers will have favourite topics or figures whose presence they will wish to check in the volume. I found the treatment about many of mine – from opera entrepreneur W.S. Lyster to conductor Sir Eugene Goosens, from jazz original John Sangster to entertainers Tommy Tycho and Rolf Harris – fresh and apt.
Warren Bebbington, Centre for the Study of Australian Music Journal, January 2004

Something to sing and dance about. The great merit… is that it is an exploration of music and dance in Australia of all kinds. This has the effect of playing down the question of the degree of Australian-ness in a repertory, score or practices. What it offers is a series of shifting perspectives on music and dance in Australia like a mirror ball in a disco. You learn some amazing things. “Cooee”, the Aboriginal call in the bush, was not only taken up by white Australians but at one stage almost became a genre of songs, usually about parting and returning, with some composed overseas. There are terrific articles on busking and censorship, for example. And it is as modern as tomorrow: there are entries on modern dance, postmodern dance and dance parties. At the same time, there is no condescension towards the past. Gilbert & Sullivan gets the entry it deserves, however unfashionable it may be now… The book is designed for use. [The editors] have produced, with their contributors, a benchmark for Australian reference works.
The Age, 25 October 2003

Although music dominates the volume, the combination of the two art forms provides a unique perspective of Australian culture. It also results in possibly unexpected articles by discussing the two together, for example the article on gender is discussed both in terms of dance and in music. Likewise, many of the musical genres discuss dance, such as Ragtime and Jazz. The Companion complements the staple tool of all Australian music reference collections, the Oxford Companion to Australian Music… while the Oxford is an encyclopedia in the traditional sense with entries under some sort of name, the Currency Companion is organised by subject. In this way, the two works can be used in conjunction to give a larger historical perspective. The Currency Companion has therefore earnt a place in every Australian… reference collection.
Continuo, January 2004 

The Companion covers music “in” and not just “of” Australia. The cringer’s whine that there is no Australian culture, only High European culture in exile, is put to rest. All genres receive equal respect.
The Bulletin, 14 October 2003

I have nothing but gratitude to those experts [the contributors] for the chance to learn about the rich blend of politics, beer and song at (or under) a Barossa Liedertafel; about Jindyworobakism in the 1950s which produced a symphony dedicated to Albert Namatjira (Clive Douglas’s Second); and about the little Aussie battler/choreographer Margaret Barr who stunningly prefigured Pina Bausch, the oft-crowned queen of contemporary world dance theatre.
The Canberra Times, 27 September 2003

All ethnic music seems to be represented. But it is the handling of Aboriginal music that shows the careful thought that has gone into the organising and editing of this volume. Aboriginal traditions, in both music and dance, are first treated generally before being discussed regionally. Then there are discussions of Aboriginal influences in popular music and dance, as well as on locally composed classical music. There is also a useful entry on Aboriginal performers of Western classical music. Protest songs and songs about land claims also get a guernsey… There is even a special entry on indigenous and other Australians collaborating and, of course, indigenous dance.
The Age, 25 October 2003

The ultimate measure of this companion is that it lives up to its title. I have learned all kinds of unexpected things and find myself reaching for it to look something up, or more pleasurably, just turn the pages to see what I discover. I suspect it will continue to offer fresh delights – and probably a few healthy irritations – for years.
Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, 23-24 August 2003