KAYPACHA - Instrumentos Musicales

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DIDGERIDOO or YIDAKI

The Didjeridu, or didgeridoo, also called yidaki in one of the many aboriginal names, as an Australian Aboriginal tribe from the Kimberly region and Arnhem Land (northern and northwestern Australia, respectively). Is a branch of a variety of eucalyptus emptied naturally by termites, between 1 and 1.75 meters, and four to ten centimeters in diameter. The performer blows into the instrument similar to a trumpet. For decoration Didjeridu can be painted and unpainted. Traditionally, paintings and symbols representing beings in the history of the ancestors of the Aborigines.
		It is played solo or with other instruments to accompany songs and dances. Also plays an important role in ceremonies, and there is even an option for special ceremonies, the Yurlunggur, between 2 and 2.5 meters. It is the basic part in most of the tribes in their regions of origin.
The continuous sound of the instrument, without interruptions to take air, is one of the most prominent. Generally, breathing, keeping the sound using the residual air that is not in the lungs. This technique called circular breathing, causes the cheeks to act as a bellows.
		Historically, the origin of the Didjeridu is around 40 thousand years ago. Found drawings of men playing instruments that seem didjeridus paintings in caves found in northern Australia in the 1940 expedition.
However, Aboriginal people, in speaking of the origin of the Didjeridu in their legends, dates back much further than a thousand years ago, reaching the Age of Dreams, the time of the ancestors who created the world.
		Myths and Legends of the Didgeridoo: There are several legends that reveal the meaning of the Aboriginal Didjeridu in northern Australia. It should be remembered that Aboriginal culture is about 40,000 years and is a culture of nomadic hunters. The Didjeridu is seen as a phallic symbol and a male, prohibited in some areas touching by women. According to one legend, a woman playing the Didjeridu, give birth to twins. Being a nomadic people of hunters would have an extra mouth to feed, and would have to kill a child, and this belief might come from the ban.
The Didjeridu is also associated with creation myths. Aboriginals have the beginning of time, Yurlunggur, the Rainbow Serpent, took part in the creation of the world, and gliding through the ground created riverbeds. Thus, yurlunggur, one of about 2.5 meters Didgeridoo used only for ceremonies represent the Rainbow Serpent. There is another myth that relates to the creation Didjeridu. In the beginning, the Great Spirit Balam created man and woman, and in return were given the task of creating a form giving the animals with singing or playing the Didgeridoo.
Didjeridu itself is considered by the Aborigines created long ago. According to three men were camping on a cold night. One of the men told another to put a branch in the fire as it was shutting down. So the man stood up and took a branch that seemed very light. He looked and saw that the termites have hollowed, and they covered the entire branch inside and out. I did not know what to do, because if you pull the arm to fire the termites would die, but he insisted his colleagues to do so because they were cold. So it was carefully collected all the termites that were deposited inside the branch. When finished, they took the lips one end of the branch, and breathed to get termites. A thrilling buzzer sounded, and termites, which were launched at the sky became the stars. And so was created the first Didgeridoo.

But perhaps the most beautiful story told about the Didjeridu is that it tells Francis Firebrace: "As Europeans, we, the natives of my country, Australia, come to this land for some forty thousand years. But we know we have been here since the beginning of time. We are the oldest culture on earth. And we the most ancient, which we call yidaki, and you call Didgeridoo. It is a branch of a tree that termites have emptied. When the branch dies and falls to the ground, cut the ends and thus produce the Didgeridoo. The story that I will have come from northern Australia. Yidaki warrior came home one day a hunt with a kangaroo on his shoulders. On the way took a dead branch that was on the floor. Looked at one end and saw the sunlight on the other, and realized that many had termites in it. So it blew from one end to draw termites and made a sound. Warrior liked the sound. Found that breathing through the nose to the air after missing the mouth circumferentially could create rhythms and other sounds. The warrior took the hollow branch, it showed the people of the tribe and played for them. And I liked the sound, and the branch with painted ocher, and danced along the corroboree pace. And for the rest of his life, the warrior men taught the technique of circular breathing, and this simple instrument became popular and became part of their culture. And was used in ceremonies, dances and healing. When the warrior died, his spirit left his body and entered the hollow branch didjderidu callers. And if you listen in a quiet setting one end of the Didjeridu in your ear, you can hear Yidaki playing their instrument. And the Aborigines of northern Australia believe that, as in the Didjeridu is the spirit of a man, is a tool for men and women should not touch it."

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