Aboriginal Music From The Northern Territory Of Australia, 1948

Non-commercial custom pressing of Aboriginal music recorded by Colin Simpson and Raymond Giles for the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1948. The original recordings were made using a Pyrox wire recorder at various Northern Territory locations, such as Delissaville, Melville Island and Oenpelli, with the latter material recorded during the 1948 American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. The dubbing from wire to master disc took place at the Columbia Graphophone Homebush factory from 1949 to 1950. The actual number of sets made and distributed is not known, with some pressings made specifically for the ABC as preservation and access copies, additional sets, custom pressed for university libraries and collectors, were available to order from the ABC as late as 1956 for £6. It appears that the set was originally Issued by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in 1953 under the title 'Music of the Australian Aborigines'. The set came with Additional explanatory notes written by Sydney University anthropology professor, AP Elkin. A contemporaneous review can be found in 'Journal of the International Folk Music Council', Vol. 5 (1953), p. 95. More information about the recordings can be found in: Marett and Barwick 2011 "Aural Snapshots of Musical Life: The 1948 Recordings". Jones 2014 "The Circle of Songs: Traditional Song and the Musical Score to C. P. Mountford’s Documentary Films"