Tropes of Longing and Belonging: Nostalgia and Musical Instruments in Northeast Arnhem Land
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Authors
Toner, Peter Gerald
Issue Date
2005
Type
Article
Language
en
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Abstract
In the musical traditions of the Yolngu of northeast Arnhem Land, in northern Australia, the evocation of ancestrally-significant places is of primary ideological and aesthetic importance. This is primarily done through song texts, when a singer “paints a picture” of a place in the mind’s eye of the audience; when done with great skill, such evocation can produce strong feelings of nostalgia as listeners recall those places and the personal and ancestral events which took place there. Musical instruments can also be used in this way, either through tropes in the song texts, which make reference to the instrument and its ancestral significance, or through the actual sound of the instrument as an enacted trope during the musical performance itself. In either case, the mention or use of musical instruments can resonate powerfully with ideas about ancestors, people and places, making musical instruments important symbols in Yolngu culture.
Description
Citation
Toner, P.G. 2003. Tropes of Longing and Belonging: Nostalgia and Musical Instruments in Northeast Arnhem Land. Yearbook for Traditional Music 37: 1-24.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
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Volume
Issue
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
2304-3857