Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Aug 02 - 06:19 PM

It's really amazing how little we in America know about your continent. The film Walkabout and the bush poets and Paterson and Lawson and the shearing songs don't even break the surface of all there is to know out there, I'm sure. If I were younger I'd...

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Aug 02 - 04:56 AM

It appears that they didn't KNOW of any Didge players in the You-Kay in the early 60's (Rolf couldn't play one at that stage) and in that reference I gave, it says they used 8 x bass fiddles to simulate the sound!!!

I KEEP meeting people who DON'T laugh about Rolf and this song, "Sun Arise" - they remember it well and still love the song and say that (like with me and Pied Piper above), it had a very stirring/profound effect upon them!!!

GO ROLF!!!
(OK, so I'll admit to a bit of bias - we're BOTH West Aussies by birth ...)

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 07:31 AM

I've heard a didge used very effectively as a sort of bass drone with Irish music.

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: Pied Piper
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 07:25 AM

"Sun Arise" had a profound effect on me as a child. It probably explains my love of music with Drones and how I ended up playing Pipes. I was disappointed to here that the Digeridoo sound was actually made using a ring modulator (not a euphemism for a very hot curry). All the best PP

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: rich-joy
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 05:37 AM

Ditto Ted Egan's "The Drover's Boy", of course - hope his film makes it through soon ...

R-J

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: rich-joy
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 05:27 AM

Don't forget "My Brown-Skin Baby, They Take Him Away" by Aboriginal musician, Bob Randall (Pitjantjara man, Alice Springs region, Central Australia - but stolen as a child and taken to Croker Island / Minjalang, NE of Darwin).

This very moving song has become a classic.

Q. Did Phil Vinnicombe (Lobl) do also it, very early on???

R-J

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: rich-joy
Date: 01 Aug 02 - 05:15 AM

Now some of you may laugh at this, BUT!!

ROLF HARRIS and his "Sun Arise" was much beloved of both myself and my Mother - it played on ABC radio back in the very early 60's. I believe it was written by both Rolf and naturalist, Harry Butler and used authentic corroboree chant. It got to No. 1 on the charts in England!! This piece of music also drew other later acts to the aboriginal influence - such as Kate Bush and (hard as it is to believe) Alice Cooper. Rolf has also contributed to a Sanskrit version of it ...

Ah, just found a net reference : http://users.durge.org/~rich/rolf/sun.html but there are other sites of relevance too ...

Cheers! R-J

PS I am also in the process of obtaining the Creole version of Waltzing Matilda, as sung by the Mills Sisters of Darwin and written by their late Uncle, Val McGuinness.
The BEST version !!!

PPS Ted Egan's "Gurindji Blues" was also a VERY important song - (Mum and I also loved this one from the ABC radio playings too) - deals with the Wattie Creek strikes and Lord Vestey stuff.

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 12:09 AM

Oh! ... Christine:

I should also have said that quite a lot of Oodgeroo Nunuccal's poetry (mostly from back when she still went by her European name "Kath Walker") has been set to tunes ... but usually by us Gubbas!

I just reviewed a compilation CD Bronzewing (from older LPs ... and one EP, in aid of the '60s "Freedom Bus") by Phyl Lobl and this has Phyl's fine settings of Dark-Eyed Daughter and No More Boomerang.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 12:02 AM

G'day Percustard and Christine,

I've seen a fair few sets of words that have various degrees of Aboriginal origin ... but the tunes always seem to come from the currently popular Gubba Music. I suspect that much of the real Aboriginal music is of tribal and religious significance and so will not be turned to other uses.

Keep in mind that, to many of the tribal groups, the "songs" are much more than a mere song is to us ... for instance, holding and knowing a specific song may be the claim to ancestral territory and spirit country. A friend of mine did her doctoral thesis on "songs and land ownership amongst Arnhem Land women" ... but I would imagine thaty much of what she studied would be embafrgoed from open publication ... especially under our present elected racists.

It certainly seems that, nowadays, the most popular musical medium for Aboriginal singers is "Country" style ... although some groups have been using 'Rock' very effectively. I recently went along to Macquarie University to hear preliminary presentations of thesis material by anthropological musicologists working, mostly, in the Islands to our north - and there was much more integration of traditional music with western styles. However, I presume that there were fewer religious proscriptions applying to their music.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From:
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 11:10 PM

I don't know if this is what you are after, but there is a piece written by aussie composer Claire Maclean called "Hope There Is". It is based on a poem by Aboriginal poet Oodgeroo Nunuccal. It starts: "As tribal elders sit, their tribal thoughts tie their tribal toungues. We foreigners in this our land know not where lies our future track, no place forward, non back....Now we hope, for hope you have taught us. Hope there is."

I purchased the music through Earthsongs (www.earthsongsmus.com)

Cheers Christine, Australia

Subject: RE: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: Percustard
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 10:24 PM

Folk Tunes that is.

There are millions of authentic cultural songs and tunes that should remain with the peoples that originated them.

I am after songs tunes that are an amalgam of european and aboriginal music.

That is to say, I am not out to appropriate indiginous materials. I am keen, however, to highlight any musical collaborations, song fusions, cross pollinations, that have occurred between the "invaders" and the original "owners" of Australian lands over the past 300 years in Australia.

In other words reconciliation via music not division by appropriation.

Any ideas appreciated.

Seeya

Mark

Subject: Oz Folk Tunes Aboriginal Influences
From: Percustard
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 08:23 PM

Hi all,

Anyone know of any singers songs tunes in Australia that have been influenced or originated from Aboriginal songs tunes singers?