Maltese Voices Down Under CD2 The Voyage produced by Barry York 1998

‘The Voyage to Australia’ was the second CD in the twin-CD produced in 1998 by Barry York for Victoria University of Technology in cooperation with the National Library of Australia. CD2 has 12 tracks and features excerpts from oral history interviews with 10 Maltese migrants of vintages ranging from 1916 to 1958, plus two songs ‘The Maltese of New Caledonia’ and ‘The Saga of the Skaubryn’.

The interviews and songs are rich in detail and insight about the voyages to Australia of boats such as the ‘Gange’ in 1916, the ‘Orsova’ in 1922, the ‘Rangitiki’ 1946, ‘Cyrenia’ 1949, ‘Florentia’ 1952, ‘Moreton Bay’ 1952, ‘Toscana’ 1954, ‘Sydney’ 1954, ‘Arosa Kulm’ 1956 and the ill-fated ‘Skaubryn’ in 1958. The excerpts have an average length of about 4 minutes.

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

‘The Maltese of New Caledonia’ song features Therese Agius (composer), Cettina Liddell (vocals) and Frank Zammit (vocals and lyrics).

‘The Saga of the Skaubryn’ was written and performed by Georgina Camenzuli, accompanied by guitarists Zaren Camenzuli, Censu Gauci and Joe Mifsud.

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

The full interviews 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.

I am putting CD2 on-line via Youtube as a service to those with an interest in migrant ships during the first 60 years of the C20th, as well as people interested in Maltese culture, Australia’s immigration history and Malta’s emigration story of the first half of the C20th. The CD set has long been out of print.

Видео Maltese Voices Down Under CD2 The Voyage produced by Barry York 1998 канала Barry York