Vale Peter Parkhill Folklorist Extraodinaire

Parkhills NLA original collection comprised 222 tapes and cassettes, with over 60 hours of playing time. They were mostly recorded in Melbourne in 1975-83 and include traditional songs and dance music of Turkey, songs and dances of Abruzzi and Compo Basso, Russian songs and liturgical chants, traditional music of Greece, Greek Macedonia, Crete and Syria and Lebanese improvised poetry. There are also yarns, rhymes and songs of rural Gippsland and Pacific Islander music. In 1990 Parkhill added 32 tapes and cassettes recorded in Sydney in 1986-87, including Timorese and Paraguayan music, a Vietnamese music ensemble and interviews with directors of Greek, Turkish and Serbian music and dance organisations. In 1993 further tapes were added relating to Arabic, Persian, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and South American music.