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Isaac Nathan - The Aboriginal Mother

from Australian Monody by The Marais Project

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about

The Aboriginal Mother and The Aboriginal Father are part of the Australian Melodies song cycle (1841-1863) which contains 28 songs written by Isaac Nathan in colonial Sydney. The song cycle codifies examples of Aboriginal music in a fusion style intended to universally represent modern post-enlightenment Australian society. The underlying ethos is to promote a modern moral position in an antipodal imitation of his Hebrew Melodies. As Above, So Below.

Nathan embedded ancient symbolism fashionable in amorous British Romanticism which took its inspiration in part from the mystical religions of the Italian Renaissance. Through these songs, Nathan paid tribute to Aboriginal musicians as the first in the land. In 2021, Linda Barwick and Jakelin Troy identified and claimed the Song of the Maneroo Women, as a songline of the Ngarigu women of the Snowy Mountains. Nathan inverted the song The Aboriginal Father and juxtaposed it against Handel's Peni tu per un'ingrata from Ezio 1732. Therefore, these songs may be uniquely considered as an example of both, a misappropriation of Aboriginal culture, and a metaphorical Acknowledgement of Country.

This song cycle is a milestone achievement in Australian music that metaphorically reflects the historical social complexities of colonial society. As such, it may be worth adding to the historical timeline of the Uluru Statement of the Heart. Nathan was the first composer to create a representative compositional style fusing Aboriginal and European music in his Australian Melodies. Furthermore, this nationalist and humanist approach influenced many other Australian composers, including John Antill and Peter Sculthorpe. Therefore, the Australian Melodies song cycle may be considered an important historical step towards the emergence of Australian musical identity. (David Crowden)

lyrics

The Aboriginal Mother (from Myall’s Creek)

Text by Eliza Hamilton Dunlop. First published in The Australian 13 December 1838. The original poem consists of nine verses. The composer, Isaac Nathan set stanzas 1, 2, 3 and 8.

Oh! hush thee, hush my baby - I may not tend thee yet,
Our forest home is distant far, and midnight's star is set.
Now, hush thee or the pale-faced men will hear thy piercing wail,
And what would then thy mother's tears, or feeble strength avail!

Ah! could thy little bosom that mother's torture feel,
Or could'st thou know thy father lies struck down by English steel;
Thy tender form would wither, like the kniven on the sand,
And the spirit of my perished Tribe would vanish from our land.

For thy young life my precious, I fly the field of blood!
Else had I, for my chieftain's sake, defied them where they stood;
But basely bound my woman's arm, no weapon might it wield:
I could but cling round him I loved, to make my heart a shield.

Oh, hush thee dear, for weary and faint I bear thee on:
His name is on thy gentle lips, my child, my child, he's gone!
Gone o'er the golden fields that lie beyond the rolling cloud,
To bring thy people's murder cry, before the Christian's God.

credits

from Australian Monody, released May 22, 2022
Susie Bishop, soprano; Tommie Andersson, 9-string guitar

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The Marais Project Sydney, Australia

Founded by Jennifer Eriksson in 2000 The Marais Project has a focus on the music written for the viola da gamba - both old and new. The ensemble has released 9 commercial CDs and present Australia's longest running viola da gamba recital series. In 2019 they celebrated their 20th anniversary. ... more

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