stereo loop
2010.

Carra Barra Wirra Canna is derived from an Australian lullaby of the same name.

The original song was written in 1965, a time nearing the end of a over century during which Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their homes to become assimilated into ‘white’ Australian culture “for their own good”. These children are referred to as the Stolen Generations.

Scored in the key signature of E-flat, the song contains three ‘flat notes’, represented on the piano keyboard as black keys. In Norment’s adaptation, the melody is played with the flats removed – the ‘black keys’ are played as ‘white keys’ - transforming the sweet and ‘innocent’ melody into one filled with melancholy and unresolved tension. The ‘neutralized’ notes haunt the tune with the memory and effect of historical injustice, bringing the emotional reality to the forefront. Maintaining the simplicity and meditative quality of a lullaby, Norment plays the tune on a Kalimba, a modernized thumb piano. The resonance tones of the original ‘black notes’ are layered in the background enhancing the song’s tension. The treatment of resonance and dissonance in the song follows Norment’s interest exploiting in the formal qualities of sound in addition to the socio-cultural markings in sound and music.