Alyawarra music: Songs and society in a central australian community

Abstract

Abstract Alyawarra Music: Songs and society in a central Australian community is Richard Moyle's second monograph from his years of field work with central Australian Aborigines during the 1970s. Produced by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in hard and soft cover, and accompanied by a 7 inch 45 r.p.m. recording, the volume is a substantial addition to our knowledge of central Australian music. As research, the monograph has two major weaknesses which I discuss at the end of the review; its strengths are in its detailed presentation of ethnographic and musicological data. The subject of the book is “Alyawarra music as it is practised in Agharringa Country” (p. 1). The author's approach to and conceptualisation of his field are made clear by the division of the book into the thirteen chapters which it contains.