Didjeridu - Didgeridoo
The most interesting Aboriginal musical instrument is the didjeridu. It was only known to the tribes of Eastern Kimberly and the northern third of the Northern Territory. The instrument is an unstopped hollowed piece of bamboo or termite-hollowed wood, usually the latter, about four or five feet long, and two or more inches in internal diameter, with a mouth-piece made of beeswax or hardened gum. The player blows into the instrument in trumpet fashion.
The wooden variety are termite-hollowed branches or trunks of trees with the bark removed and the ends internally scraped or, nowadays, chiseled and rasped to improve the playing sound.
Some trees used in Didjeridu production are Stringy Bark (Eucalyptus Tetrodonta), Wooly Butt (Eucalyptus Miniata), River Red Gum (Eucalyptus Camaldulensis), Ironwood (Erythrophlaeum Laboucherii) and in more recent years in South Australia, Box Gum and Wattle though the instrument is not native to South Australia.
Bamboo Didjeridus are traditionally hollowed out with a fire stick or hot coals however, in recent times, extension drill bits have been used.
The instrument may vary in length from just under a meter to 2.5 meters (used for sacred rites and ceremonies) however, preferred length seems to be between 1 and 1.5m. The instrument is often decorated with ochre and clay designs and in modern times, carved or burnt patterns may be utilized.
Didjeridu playing is learned when young. A good player, or "puller" as he is called, produces two pitches, one usually a tenth above the regular one but it is always a short sharp sound, with no suggestion of a Didjeridu.
The Name can also be spelled 'Didgeridoo'. There are approximately forty aboriginal names for it where it is used, from the north of Western Australia through the Arnhem Land peninsula to Northern Queensland.
The Didjeridu is used with other instruments such as the Bull Roarer and Click (or Clap) Sticks. It is often used as an accompaniment to song and dance. It is also used in ceremonial functions. A large version of the Didgeridoo called a Yurlunggur is used only in ceremonies.
Three distinct styles of traditional playing have been identified. West Arnhem Land uses quiet and uncomplicated patterns. A feature of that style is that hummed notes are used in conjunction with blown notes to produce slower patterns. North- East Arnhem Land uses the first overtone, at about a tenth above the fundamental droning note. This may be heard as a long hoot or a short sharp "toot".
Eastern Arnhem Land styles use the second pitch as well as a variety of techniques using manipulations of the tongue, lips and breath to create fast energetic rhythmic patterns. The precision and variety of rhythm produced on the didjeridu are very striking. Sometimes it sounds like a deep pipe organ note being played continuously; at other times like a drum beaten in three-four time, and so on, varying according to the type of song and dance which it is accompanying.
The continuous nature of the sound is most remarkable. The breath is taken, or "snapped", through the nose. Two quick breaths are usually taken but some of the incoming air is kept in the mouth to be blown into the instrument while the next quick intake is being made. This process, called circular breathing, results in the cheeks being used much like a bellows.
The Didjeridu is the centerpiece of most of the Corroborees danced by the Northern tribes in
the Territory and the East Kimberleys. A corroboree is an important ceremonial when all the
various tribes of a region would come together to hear and recount the sacred stories.
There are a number of stories revealing something of the significance of the Didjeridu to the Aboriginals of northern Australia. It is seen as a phallic symbol and male instrument, with women in many areas traditionally prohibited from playing.
One story that links the Didjeridu with creation tells of how in the beginning the Great Spirit Balame (Byamee) created man and woman and they in turn had the responsibility to create the animals and birds that they did by either singing them into form or sounding them into form through playing the Didjeridu.
The Didjeridu itself was supposed to have been created or conceived a long time ago. In the North of Australia, a mean giant captured two young and beautiful adolescent girls who wanted them to be his wives. After some time the girls managed to escape and hastily made their way back to their tribe.
The mean giant was angry when he discovered what had happened and endeavored to reclaim what he considered his property. Meanwhile, the elders of the young girls' tribe set a trap for the giant. They dug a huge pit along the path leading to their home camp.
The giant, in his angry haste, fell into the pit and was immediately killed with many spears thrown by tribal hunters hiding nearby. As he curled on his penis, looking very much like a huge porcupine, he began to blow on his penis, making an amazing droning sound. They tried to copy it, to no avail' so they searched for and found a large hollow log, the center of which had been eaten out by termites. By blowing on one end of this hollow log, they were able to create the sound made by the giant in his death throws.
- From Alistair Black
Three men were camped on a cold night in the outback. One of the men told another to put another log on the fire, because the fire was getting low and it was so cold. So, the other man turned around and grabbed a log, which was awfully light to the touch, for it was hollow. As he turned to drop it into the fire, he noticed the entire length was covered with termites. He didn't know what to do, for he could not throw the branch into the fire, because it would kill the termites, and his friends were telling him to do so because it was cold. So he carefully removed all the termites from the outside of the log by scooping them into his hand, and he deposited them inside the branch. Then he raised the branch to his lips and blew the termites into the air, and the termites blown into the air became the stars, and the first didjeridu was created.
- Gary Fenstermacher
This story of the didjeridu comes from the dreaming of the people of the Northern Territory and they say that YIDAKI the warrior was coming home from a hunt with kangaroo over his shoulder when he saw a dead branch lying on the ground. He picked it up and there was daylight coming in the other end and noticed there were a lot of little insects (which you call termites) in there. And he blew through it to get rid of them and it made a sound something like this.
And the warrior liked the sound that it made. He found that by breathing through his nose and out through his mouth in a circular fashion he could make rhythm and many other sounds. Something like this :
The warrior took his hollow branch back with him and played it for his people. And they were drawn to the sound and they painted up with colored ochre and danced Corroboree to it's rhythm. And during his lifetime the warrior taught many other young men the circular breathing method and this simple instrument became very popular and part of their culture. And it was used in ceremony, dance and forms of healing.
When the warrior died, his spirit left his body and went into the hollow log that you call the DIDJERIDU. And if you listen in a quiet place somewhere by holding one end to your ear, you can still hear YIDAKI playing in this instrument. And the aboriginal people of the Northern Territory believe that because there is a man's spirit in there it is a man's instrument and women should not play the DIDJERIDU. This then, is the story of what aboriginal people call the YIDAKI and you know as the DIDJERIDU.
And if you listen now to this spiritual instrument, it will not only enter your ears, but it will open your heart and reach and lift your spirit.
- Francis Firebrace
News in Science - July 7, 2005
The noise inside the mouth of a didgeridoo player reaches levels almost as high as a jackhammer and could cause hearing damage if we had ears in our mouth, new research shows.
A study published in the journal Nature today is the first to look at the acoustics of the didgeridoo, the world's oldest wind instrument.
Professor Joe Wolfe of Sydney's University of New South Wales and colleagues measured the acoustics of the didgeridoo, an instrument played by indigenous Australians traditionally made of a long wooden tube hollowed out by termites.
They measured the acoustics from within the player's mouth using a system of tubes and microphone probes.
Wolfe says the noise in the mouth reaches about 100 decibels, which is about as loud as a noisy nightclub and about 10 decibels lower than a jackhammer.
"This is very loud," he says. "Sustained 100 decibels at your ear would be dangerous."Similar levels are present in the mouths of trumpeters or clarinet players, he says.
The didgeridoo is a unique instrument as it usually only has one note. Its predominant musical feature is its huge range of timbre, or tone colour.
The didgeridoo's range of timbre is only equalled by the human voice although the organ comes close, Wolfe says.He says changes in timbre are produced by varying the shape of the tongue and vocal tract, just like we do when we make different vowels in speech.
The lip mechanism used is similar to techniques used for playing brass instruments like the tuba and trombone.
"The mechanism is a little bit counter-intuitive," Wolfe says.
"It turns out that the resonances in your vocal tract cut off certain sounds and it's the sounds that remain that are important."
He also describes the didgeridoo as "a little bit like your voice in reverse".In speech, the resonance originates from the vocal cords and travels out through the mouth.
But in didgeridoo playing the resonances originate at the lips before travelling down the vocal cord and back out through the instrument.
The article's lead author, Dr Alex Tarnopolsky, says the best sound comes out if the vocal folds are nearly closed at the glottis, the opening at the upper part of the larynx.
"Otherwise the resonances aren't strong enough to stifle those frequencies," he says.
"We conclude that a major difference between a novice and an experienced player is a learned, but usually subconscious ability to reduce the glottal opening."
Wolfe says most wind musicians learn the glottal technique over several years and it appears that didgeridoo players do it intuitively."
As with speech you're trying to imitate particular sounds and you do various things, not all of them conscious, until you get that sound," he says.
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