AUSTRALIA - Aboriginal - Songs from the Northern Territory cd4

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Artist/Collector:

Alice Moyle

Label Information:

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS): AIAS 4 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 at Milingimbi and

Yirrkala in the north-eastern sector and at Angurugu and Umbakumba on Groote Eylandt.



The Aboriginal communities at Milingimbi and Yirrkala, together with the people at

Galiwin'ku (previously known as Elcho Island) have been referred to in the

anthropological literature as the Murngin (WL Warner) and Wulamba (RM Berndt). More

recently, they have become known as the Yolngu, from a local word meaning 'people'.

The people on Groote Eylandt were known by mainland groups as the Wayingurra and

their language, Ingurra. In the absence of a name for the Groote Eylandters,

Warnindilyakwa, a name formerly given to one of the larger clans on the island, is

sometimes used. Anindilyakwa is the name of the island language.

Item characteristics of Eastern Arnhem Land clan songs performed and recorded in

the 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 this disc (Track 1) and disc 3 (Track 11).

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.

On Groote Eylandt (tracks 7-13), only the first three of the above characteristics

are to be heard. There is no occurrence of the UVT in these items but the following

additional characteristics distinguish emeba (Groote Eylandt clan songs) from manikay

(north-eastern Arnhem Land clan songs):

a. the shaky voice, a deliberate manner of vocal ornamentation used by some emeba singers;

b. the break or brief cessation of the vocal part of a Groote Eylandt clan song which is

signalled by certain words the singer chooses to sing (the song subject at this point may

fall, swoop down, or change abruptly in some way-it was said that the break gives the singer

time to decide which words to sing next);

c. a short, patterned interplay between sticks and didjeridu during the break; and

d. the general clatter of stick-beating percussion arising from several different sources

at the same time.

Further comparison of emeba and manikay reveals that, whereas the durations of the latter

are usually about one minute or less, emeba items may last for more than two minutes each.



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