'Maltese Voices Down Under' CD1 Memories of Malta and Gozo produced in 1998

‘Maltese Voices Down Under’ is a twin-CD produced in 1998 by Barry York for Victoria University of Technology in cooperation with the National Library of Australia. CD1 has the theme ‘Memories of Malta and Gozo’ and features excerpts from oral history interviews with 14 Maltese migrants of vintages ranging from 1916 to 1958.

The interviews are rich in insight into family and social life, and culture, in Malta during the first half of the twentieth century, including recollections of the War years and the reasons for emigration.

The excerpts are linked by beautiful music performed in 1998 by Maltese guitarists Fred Cachia, Gary Camilleri, Manuel Casha, Vince Pulo and Joe Xerri and mandolinist Laurie Armato.

The interviewees and track titles are:
1. Joe Cooper – Nicknames
2. Josephine Attard – Mdina and ‘Id-Dudu’
3. Loreto John York – Carnivale and ‘the horse with the prawn-like moustache’
4. Josephine Cauchi – “Not so much froth!”
5. Robert Gauci – Alexandra, Egypt: Ta’ L-Egittu
6. Bella Bugeja – A night at the opera
7. Emmanuel Attard – Strada Wardija, Qala
8. Antonia Bartolo – From Mosta and Detroit to Mackay, 1925
9. Michael Meilak – Ghajnsielem and Madonna Ta’ Loretu
10. Josephine Cassar – The Bastions
11. Frank X Falzon – Preparing for War
12. Joseph B Attard – “Easier to grow a pair of wings and fly…”
13. Joseph Aquilina – Air raids
14. Manwel Nicholas-Borg – On Strickland, and leaving a war-torn island
15. Maltese musical piece

The sound engineering of the CD was undertaken by Kevin Bradley, who in 1998 was the Sound Archivist/Engineer at the National Library in Canberra.

The full interviews from which the excerpts were taken are held at the National Library and were recorded in the 1980s and 1990s. They are part of the Library’s Oral History collection which includes many interviews with Maltese migrants. The Library also has recorded Maltese ghannejja (folk musicians) in the western suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney.

Thanks also goes to Mark Caruana of Sydney, Joan Garvan, Mark Cranfield and Paul Hetherington for their invaluable support in 1998.

Sadly, the interviewees who feature on CD1 are no longer with us.

Видео 'Maltese Voices Down Under' CD1 Memories of Malta and Gozo produced in 1998 канала Barry York