Snow Song

The first printed musical score to be published in Sydney was an arrangement of a traditional song of the Ngarigu people, in the NSW Southern Alps, collected from the singers by the Polish-born explorer John Lhotsky. Entitled A song of the women of the Menero tribe, the song had been arranged with the help of ‘four musical gentlemen’—George Sippe and Joshua Frey Josephson composed the piano part and James Pearson arranged the melody.

Ngarigu (Traditional, NSW Southern Alps)

A song of the women of the Menero tribe
Published version (Sydney, 1834) transcribed by John Lhotsky (1795-c.1865) and arranged by James Pearson (1795-1841) and Joshua Frey Josephson (1815-1892)

Kon-gi kawel-go yue-re
con-gi kawel-go yue-re
kumagi ko-ko kawel-go kuma-gi
ka-ba komagi ko-ko
koma-gi ko-ko kabel-go koma-gi
ka-ba ko-ma-gi yue-re.

Unprotected race of people,
Unprotected all we are;
And our children shrink so fastly;
Unprotected why are we?

Gundji gawalgu yuri
Reconstruction by Jakelin Troy and Linda Barwick. (2020-21) and free translation.

Gundji gawalgu yuri
gundji gawalgu yuri
gumadji gugu gawalgu gumadji
gaba gumadji gugu
gumadji gugu gawalgu gumadji
gaba gumadji yuri.

Let it again snow and keep on snowing more and more for us.
Moon, make it keep on snowing more and more.
Let it again snow and keep on snowing more and more for us.
Moon, make it snow, send the snow.

References:

Jakelin Troy and Linda Barwick, 'Claiming the "Song of the Women of the Menero Tribe"', Musicology Australia, vol. 42 (2020), pp. 85-107.

Further reading:

Amanda Harris, Linda Barwick, and Jakelin Troy, 'Embodied Culture and the Limits of the Archive,' in Music, Dance and the Archive, edited by Amanda Harris, Linda Barwick and Jakelin Troy (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2022), pp. 1-14.

Jakelin Troy, 'Standing on the Ground and Writing on the Sky: An Indigenous Exploration of Place, Time, and Histories', in Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep History, edited by Ann McGrath, Laura Rademaker and Jakelin Troy (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press & American Philosophical Society, 2023).

Jakelin Troy, 'Singing from the mountains: when things really go right in Indigenous research – a story of creative collaboration and Ngarigu cultural renewal', in Keeping Time: dialogues on music and archives, edited by Nick Thieberger, Amanda Harris, Sally Treloyn and Myfany Turpin (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2024), pp. 313-323.

Image Credit: A Song of the Women of the Menero (i.e. Monaro) Tribe near the Australian Alps | National Library of Australia.

Performances

This song has been reworked by Jakelin Troy and Linda Barwick, through a process of creative linguistic and musicological re-interpretation. Here we demonstrate two versions over two performances: the version published in 1834 by Lhotsky, and Troy and Barwick’s 2020 version Gundji gawalgu yuri.

Performance One
John Lhotsky likely first heard this traditional song of the Ngarigu people at Mutong hut, near present-day Dalgety, in the Australian Alps at the end of March 1834. Our performance below took place on 15 April 2021 on the banks of the river at Mutong, where Lhotsky first witnessed this performance.

Performance at Mutong of Ngarigu Snow Song. From left to right: Amanda Harris, Jacinta Tobin, Lara Troy-O’Leary, Linda Barwick, Peter Waples-Crowe and Jakelin Troy. Photo by Toby Martin.

Performance Two
The second performance of the Snow Song took place at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in May 2021. This performance saw Amanda Harris and Neal Peres Da Costa recreate the 1834 version of the song, while a group of performers including Jakelin Troy, Amanda Harris and students of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Early Music Ensemble recreated Troy and Barwick's 2020 version.

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