AUSTRALIA - Aboriginal - Songs from the Northern Territory cd2

CLICK ON starinar TO GET MORE TRIBAL AND INDIGENOUS MUSIC.

BE A MEMBER OF A GLOBAL SeeDeRS TRIBE. MoRE CoMING SooN. ENJoY!





Songs From the Northern Territory 2: Music From Eastern Arnhem Land

Artist/Collector:

Alice Moyle

Label Information:

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS): AIAS 2 CD

Media Type:

CD

Year:

Recorded 1963; Released 1997

Availability:

AIATSIS





Notes: For the purpose of music description, Eastern Arnhem Land of the

Northern Territory is divided here as follows: the north-eastern sector

including offshore islands; the eastern sector extending along the coast

as far south as the Roper River; and the Groote Eylandt archipelago

north-west of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Field recordings reproduced on this compact disc were collected in the

eastern sector at Numbulwar, an Aboriginal settlement at the mouth of

the Rose River where the Aboriginal language spoken is Nunggubuyu. They

include a few samples of songs by Djapu-speaking Yolngu people who were

living temporarily on this same settlement, their own territory being

situated at Caledon Bay further north.

Songs heard on disc 2 represent the music of some of the last groups of

Aboriginal people to live in continuous contact with a white settlement.

A mission station (Church Missionary Society) was established at Numbulwar

as recently as 1952.

Since the 1970s, however, there have been many changes in the places of

Aboriginal settlement. Mission stations and government settlements are

now Community Centres administered by the Aboriginal people themselves,

and many have preferred to live more or less permanently on outstations

situated within traditional territories or homelands.

Item characteristics of Eastern Arnhem Land clan songs performed and recorded

in 1960s-all of which were sung by men-are summarised here as follows:

(1) a didjeridu accompaniment which utilises two tones differing widely in

pitch (the interval between the higher or overblown tone and the fundamental

often sounding close to a tenth but varying according to the shape and length

of the hollowed branch); (2) a narrow vocal range of pitch (compare them, for

instance, with Western Arnhem Land songs) which rarely exceeds a fifth or sixth

and may be less than a second; (3) song words which are translatable, meaningful

and appropriate to relevant clan territories and related myths; and (4) the

occurrence of an unaccompanied vocal termination (UVT), or termination of a song

item by voice or voices alone after the accompanying instruments have ceased.

Good examples of this fourth item characteristic are to be heard on discs 3

(Track 11) and 4 (Track 1).

Song refrains may consist of repeated strings of words and syllables; a prolonged

single syllable; or a repeated pattern of vocal sounds (for example, bird calls).

These calls are incorporated into the particular sectional or phraselike structure

of many item sequences performed in Eastern Arnhem Land.

All but one of the Nunggubuyu items on disc 2 were referred to as 'New Brolga'

items. Ngardhangi (Track 9), was said to have been the first to introduce into

the New Brolga style the preliminary 'cry' or opening vocalised glide. This 'cry',

which covers a notably wide pitch range (approximately a twelfth), was interpreted

as the brolga bird's longing for its home country. It is followed by two song

sections, each taken at a lively pace and ending with chirping calls such as durrk

and so on. In the breaks between the vocal sections, the didjeridu and stickbeating

accompaniments maintain the item's continuity.

Clan items in the 'Old Brolga' style (Track 7i), though rarely performed at the

time, exhibited the four characteristics stated above.

Divided into five tracks for the convenience of listeners, the first five tracks

consist of a continuous recording of a complete dance event or corroboree. The

twenty-two items were contributed by members of two clans of the Mandhayung

moiety: the Ngalmi clan represented by Brolga singers Gulundu (b. 1922), Ngardhangi

(b. 1933) and Arrama (b. 1938); and the Murungun clan who contributed Fish and

Feathered String items sung by Larangana (b. 1910) assisted by Djingudi.

Didjeridu accompaniments for both clans were played almost without falter by Rimili

(b. 1938), Nunggargalug clan, Mandirritja moiety. Throughout the performance there

was regular alternation between the singers of each clan as follows:

ITEMS BY NGALMI SINGERS

ITEMS BY MURUNGUN SINGERS

i. The Brolgas come in

ii Yambirrigu (fish)

iii Another flock arrives

iv Yambirrigu (fish)

v Another flock arrives

iv Yambirrigu (fish)

vii Daybreak

viii. Dhambul (feathered strings)

ix Daybreak

x Dhambul (feathered strings)

xi* Brolgas coming from Warkala

xii Dhambul (feathered strings)

xiii Still coming from Warkala, Ramiyu and Karangarri

xiv Dhambul (feathered strings)

xv Daybreak

xvi* Dhambul ('stand them up', that is hold up the sticks by which the

feathered strings are hoisted)

xvii Brolgas coming from Warkala

xviii Dhambul

xix Brolgas coming from Warkala

xx* Dhambul

xxi Brolgas coming ('finish')

xxii Dhambul ('finish')

Asterisks mark the first items in tracks 1-5.

Dancers performed solo, in pairs and more often as a group. Fifteen or more men could

be seen following one another in circular formation or advancing, side by side, in a

line with bird-like hops, arms outstretched like wings. Their chirping sounds intermingle

with the bird-call refrains of the singers.

Women and girls watched but did not take part in the performance.

Many bystanders contributed to the general atmosphere of excitement and their asides

and high-pitched communications are to be heard in the recording.

After the concluding items by each clan ( xxi and xxii), voices can be heard calling

out that the performance had finished. In answer to my inquiry, after the corroboree

was over, I was told that there was 'no special song to finish; they just leave it'.

This remark is to be contrasted with the information given to me concerning the last

item or manbadjan in the Western Arnhem Land Blue Tongue corroboree. See disc 1, Track 2.

The three men who sang for the Brolga corroboree (Tracks 1-5) are heard to better advantage

as soloists in tracks 6, 7 and 9.

Among these New Brolga 'finders' there appeared to be a free exchange of songs. On Groote

Eylandt in 1962 Arrama performed some of Ngardhangi's songs. The following year at Numbulwar,

Gulundu sang Brolga songs composed or 'found' by Ngardhangi, Arrama and another singer, Dabulu.



Manikay.com