iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Hi all,

Going through my tuition CDs again, I was wondering if the traditional "vamps" used for playing such or such theme are constructed in a sort of logical way, a bit like language... or if they are said to be directly coming from the Dreaming just like that... or if we Balandas just do not know such things and never will ???

I mean, very basically there are only four different tongue movements in NEAL style :
1> straight Witj and with the returning movement Witj-dju
2> straight Dith and with the returning movement Dith-dhu
3> straight Dhirrl and with the returning movement Dhirrl-Lo
4> straight Dup and with the returning movement Dup-pu
Of course there is a lot more to that : Yidaki's pitch, PV pitch, pace's speed, pauses, all subtle variations between these 4 sounds...

I can't help making a parallel with Central Desert Dot-Painting.
Very few symbols (also four in fact : dot, circle, straight or curved line, and footprints), the same subtle variations : colors, density, size, empty space and all subtle variations too.
This central-desert paintings form a sort of "graphical language" evoking space (maps) and time (footprints evoking movements from point A to point B).

Could the NEAL (and even WAL) traditional songs be patterned in a similar way ? Creating a "musical language" evoking time (rythm) and space too (if let's say the "dith" acts for an ancestor's pace or foot print, 10 "dith" would signify the distance of 10 paces).
???

Or am I way off ?


(I know that Yidaki is not played solo in ceremonies... it goes along with bilma and above all the songman... but it is still the same with the paintings which are created while singing or reciting stories from the Dreaming... so when I say "musical or graphical language" I'd rather add "part of" that complex language)

Thanks for sharing your views and knowledge

Interesting thoughts my friend - we shall wait together for enlightenment!

Hi Francis,

Missed this one and just saw it!



I don't think there is anything that is unknowable. There is a tendency to see Aboriginal culture as mystical but spend enough time with Indigenous people, or any other people, and one will start to understand and know. The problem is there are very few who have spent the necessary time to learn deeply, Strehlow in my books is still the exception, someone who could see from the Indigenous perspective.



From my experience, I would say no. In NE Arnhem Land at least, the tempo of a yidaki rhythm has meaning, usually associated with the song subject and what the main protagonist of the song is doing. So sometimes, a particular song (and yidaki section) has 3 versions: slow, medium and fast.

I remember asking Dharrapuy a question similar to yours, and his reply was something like "yidaki is just music, to make it fun for the dancers".

Having said that, David Turner wrote about the didgeridoo at Groote Eylandt and suggested that the rhythms played do have greater significance but a lot of it I don't understand and to me seems a little 'New Age'. Get your hands on "Afterlife before Genesis" and let us know what you think!

I can't speak for other areas where the didgeridoo is endemic but further research by others would be good.

Guan