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Kinyirr

CD 6, Track 37
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TRACK 37 (Mar99-04-s21) Song 24: Kinyirr [148]

   
Sung text   Free Translation  
karra mana kinyirr waddi kunyininggi-mukurr-vini-yakarra mana nidin-ngin-akinyirr mana nidin-ngin-a  Look to Kinyirr brother, you should have told those two people to make it clear with the Dreaming Brother, my dear countryKinyirr, brother, my dear country 

This song by Philip Mullumbuk is about the making of the airstrip for the Nadirri outstation, during which operation the Leech Dreaming site, Kinyirr, was damaged by a bulldozer.

Song structure summary

VOCAL SECTIONS 1-3

Melodic section 1

Text phrase 1

Rhythmic mode 1 (without clapsticks)

   
karra  mana  kinyirr  waddi  kunyininggi  -mukurr  -vini  -ya 
SW  brother  place name  2MIN.A.IR look  3DL.S.R make  clear  UAUG  PERF 

Look to Kinyirr brother, you should have told those two people [who are making the airstrip] to make it clear with the Dreaming [Kinyirr is a Leech Dreaming site]

   
karra  mana  nidin  -ngin  -a 
SW  brother  country  1MIN.O  PERF 

Brother, my dear country

Melodic section 2

Text phrase 2

Rhythmic mode 1 (without clapsticks)

   
kinyirr  mana  nidin  -ngin  -a 
place name  brother  country  1MIN.O  PERF 

Kinyirr, brother, my dear country

INSTRUMENTAL SECTIONS 1-2

Rhythmic mode 5a (fast even)

INSTRUMENTAL SECTION 3

Rhythmic mode 5b (fast doubled)

E. Miscellaneous songs (tracks 38-39)

For the sake of completeness, we decided to include in our corpus two songs that are somewhat peripheral to the Walakandha wangga repertory. Philip Mullumbuk’s song about the ancestral Wallaro, Wedjiwurang, does not conform to the normal conventions of wangga and there is some question about whether it is really a wangga at all (Ford, 2007). Similarly, Ambrose Piarlum’s song about the Seagull Dreaming, ‘Tjinmel’, is not, strictly speaking, a Walakandha wangga—since it was composed without the assistance of the ancestral dead—but it is included here because of his close association with the thanggurralh ‘company’ group of Walakandha wangga performers.

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