The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia at least 1,000 years ago, and is now in use around the world, though still most strongly associated with Indigenous Australian music. In the Yolŋu languages of the indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land the name for the instrument is the yiḏaki, sometimes more recently also called mandapul. In the Bininj Kunwok language of West Arnhem Land it is known as mako (pronounced, and sometimes spelt, as mago).
A didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical, and can measure anywhere from long. Most are around long. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower its pitch. Flared instruments play a higher pitch than unflared instruments of the same length.
History There is currently no consensus on the exact age of the didgeridoo. Archaeological studies suggest that people of the Kakadu region in Northern Australia have been using the didgeridoo for less than 1,000 years, based on the dating of rock art paintings. A clear rock painting in Ginga Wardelirrhmeng, on the northern edge of the Arnhem Land plateau, from the freshwater period (that had begun 1500 years ago) shows a didgeridoo player and two song-men participating in an Ubarr ceremony.George Chaloupka, Journey in Time, p. 189. It is thus thought that it was developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia, possibly in Arnhem Land.
T. B. Wilson's Narrative of a Voyage Round the World (1835) includes a drawing of an Aboriginal man from Raffles Bay on the Cobourg Peninsula (about east of Darwin) playing the instrument. Others observed such an instrument in the same area, made of bamboo and about long. In 1893, English palaeontologist Robert Etheridge, Junior observed the use of "three very curious trumpets" made of bamboo in northern Australia. There were then two native species of bamboo growing along the Adelaide River, Northern Territory".
According to A. P. Elkin, in 1938, the instrument was "only known in the eastern Kimberley [region in Western Australia] and the northern third of the Northern Territory".
Etymology The name didgeridoo is not of Aboriginal Australian linguistic origin and is considered to be an onomatopoetic word. The earliest occurrences of the word in print include a 1908 edition of the Hamilton Spectator referring to a did-gery-do' (hollow bamboo)", a 1914 edition of The Northern Territory Times and Gazette, and a 1919 issue of Smith's Weekly, in which it was referred to as a "didjerry" and was said to produce the sound "didjerry, didjerry, didjerry and so on ad infinitum".
A rival explanation, that didgeridoo is a corruption of the Irish phrase or Scottish Gaelic , is controversial. Irish or , and Scottish Gaelic , are nouns that, depending on the context, may mean "trumpeter", "hummer", "crooner" or "puffer", while Irish means "black", and Scottish Gaelic means "native".
Other names There are numerous names for the instrument among the Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia, none of which closely resemble the word "didgeridoo" (see below). Some didgeridoo enthusiasts, scholars and Aboriginal people advocate using local language names for the instrument.
Yiḏaki (transcribed yidaki in English, sometimes spelt yirdaki) is one of the most commonly used names although, strictly speaking, it refers to a specific type of the instrument made and used by the Yolngu peoples of north-east Arnhem Land. Some Yolngu people began using the word mandapul after 2011, out of respect for the passing of a Manggalili man who had a name sounding similar to yidaki.
In west Arnhem Land, it is known as a mako, a name popularised by virtuoso player David Blanasi, a Bininj man, whose language was Kunwinjku, and who brought the didgeridoo to world prominence. However the mako is slightly different from the Yiḏaki: usually shorter, and sounding somewhat different – a slightly fuller and richer sound, but without the "overtone" note. The word is pronounced mago and is sometimes spelt that way.
There are at least 45 names for the didgeridoo which are still used in the lingua franca by some Aboriginal people. The following are some of the more common regional names. People Region Local name Anindilyakwa Groote Eylandt ngarrriralkpwina Arrernte Alice Springs ilpirra Djinang (a Yolngu people) Arnhem Land yiḏaki Gagudju Arnhem Land / Kakadu garnbak Gupapuygu Arnhem Land yiraka Iwaidja Cobourg Peninsula artawirr Jawoyn Katherine / Nitmiluk / Kakadu gunbarrk Kunwinjku Arnhem Land / Kakadu mako Mayali Alligator Rivers martba Ngarluma Roebourne, W.A. kurmur Nyul Nyul Kimberleys ngaribi Pintupi Central Australia paampu Warray Adelaide River bambu Yolngu Arnhem Land mandapul (yiḏaki)
Description and construction A didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical, and can measure anywhere from long. Most are around long. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower its pitch or key. However, flared instruments play a higher pitch than unflared instruments of the same length.Fletcher, N.H. (1996) The didjeridu (didgeridoo). Acoustics Australia 24, 11–15.
The didgeridoo is classified as a wind instrument and is similar in form to a straight trumpet, but made of wood. It has also been called a dronepipe.
Traditional
Traditional didgeridoos are usually made from hardwoods, especially the various eucalyptus species that are endemic to northern and central Australia.Taylor R., Cloake J, and Forner J. (2002) Harvesting rates of a Yolgnu harvester and comparison of selection of didjeridu by the Yolngu and Jawoyn, Harvesting of didjeridu by Aboriginal people and their participation in the industry in the Northern Territory (ed. R. Taylor) pp. 25–31. Report to AFFA Australia. Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, Palmerston, NT. Generally the main trunk of the tree is harvested, though a substantial branch may be used instead. Traditional didgeridoo makers seek suitably hollow live trees in areas with obvious termite activity. Termites attack these living eucalyptus trees, removing only the dead heartwood of the tree, as the living sapwood contains a chemical that repels the insects.McMahon, Charlie. (2004) The Ecology of Termites and Didjeridus, The Didgeridoo: From Ancient Times to the Modern Age (ed. David Lindner) Schönau: Traumzeit-Verlag Various techniques are employed to find trees with a suitable hollow, including knowledge of landscape and termite activity patterns, and a kind of tap or knock test, in which the bark of the tree is peeled back, and a fingernail or the blunt end of a tool, such as an axe, is knocked against the wood to determine if the hollow produces the right resonance. Once a suitably hollow tree is found, it is cut down and cleaned out, the bark is taken off, the ends trimmed, and the exterior is shaped; this results in a finished instrument. A rim of beeswax may be applied to the mouthpiece end.
Modern
Non-traditional didgeridoos can be made from native or non-native hard woods (typically split, hollowed and rejoined), bamboo, glass, fibreglass, metal, agave, clay, resin, PVC piping and carbon fibre. These typically have an upper inside diameter of around down to a bell end of anywhere between and have a length corresponding to the desired key. The end of the pipe can be shaped and smoothed to create a comfortable mouthpiece or an added mouthpiece can be made of any shaped and smoothed material such as rubber, a rubber stopper with a hole or beeswax.
Modern didgeridoo designs are distinct from the traditional Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo, and are innovations recognised by musicologists.Wade-Matthews, M., Thompson, W., The Encyclopedia of Music, 2011, pp184–185. Didgeridoo design innovation started in the late 20th century, using non-traditional materials and non-traditional shapes. The practice has sparked, however, a good deal of debate among indigenous practitioners and non-indigenous people about its aesthetic, ethical, and legal issues.Brian Fitzgerald and Susan Hedge, "Traditional Cultural Expression and the Internet World," in Christoph Antons, ed., Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Cultural Expressions, and Intellectual Property Law in the Asia-Pacific Region (Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands: 2009), 264–65.
Decoration Didgeridoos can be painted by their maker or a dedicated artist using traditional or modern paints while others retain the natural wood grain design with minimal or no decoration.
Playing
A didgeridoo can be played simply by producing a vibrating sound of the lips to produce the basic drone. More advanced playing involves the technique known as circular breathing. The circular breathing technique requires breathing in through the nose while simultaneously using the muscles of the cheeks to compress the cheeks and release the stored air out of the mouth. By using this technique, a skilled player can replenish the air in their lungs, and with practice they can sustain a note for as long as desired. Recordings exist of modern didgeridoo players playing continuously for more than 40 minutes; Mark Atkins on Didgeridoo Concerto (1994) plays for over 50 minutes continuously. Although circular breathing does eliminate the need to stop playing to take a breath, discomfort might still develop during a period of extended play due to chapped lips or other oral discomfort.
The didgeridoo functions "as an aural kaleidoscope of timbres" and "the extremely difficult virtuoso techniques developed by expert performers find no parallel elsewhere".
The didgeridoo player and composer William Barton has expanded the role of the instrument in the concert hall both with his own orchestral and chamber music works and with those written or arranged for him by prominent Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe.
Physics and operation
A termite-bored didgeridoo has an irregular shape that, overall, usually increases in diameter towards the lower end. This shape means that its resonances occur at frequencies that are not harmonically spaced in frequency. This contrasts with the harmonic spacing of the resonances in a cylindrical plastic pipe, whose resonant frequencies fall in the ratio 1:3:5 etc. The second resonance of a didgeridoo (the note sounded by overblowing) is usually around an 11th higher than the fundamental frequency (a frequency ratio of 8:3).
The vibration produced by the player's lips has harmonics in the ratio 1:2:3 etc. However, the non-harmonic spacing of the instrument's resonances means that the harmonics of the fundamental note are not systematically assisted by instrument's resonances, as is usually the case for Western wind instruments (e.g., in the low range of the clarinet, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th harmonics of the reed are assisted by resonances of the bore).
Sufficiently strong resonances of the vocal tract can strongly influence the timbre of the instrument. At some frequencies, whose values depend on the position of the player's tongue, resonances of the vocal tract inhibit the oscillatory flow of air into the instrument. Bands of frequencies that are not thus inhibited produce formants in the output sound. These formants, and especially their variation during the inhalation and exhalation phases of circular breathing, give the instrument its readily recognisable sound.Tarnopolsky, A, Fletcher, N. Hollenberg, L., Lange, B., Smith, J. and Wolfe, J. (2006)"Vocal tract resonances and the sound of the Australian didjeridu (yidaki) I: Experiment", J. Acoust. Soc. America, 119, 1194-1204. https://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/reprints/Tarnopolskyetal.pdf