Duduk

The duduk (Armenian Դուդուկ ), also the duduk, a woodwind instrument with an extremely large double reed which is up to ten inches long and up to three inches wide. It is regarded as Armenian national instrument and is also called " Armenian flute " known ( not to be confused with the Armenian flute blul ).

Origin and Distribution

The Armenian duduk is one of the short cylindrical oboes that are spread from the Balkans to East Asia. The origins of these instruments can be traced back to pre-Christian times. The simple form of the instrument has changed only slightly through the centuries.

The duduk is in neighboring Georgia under the name duduki known. Two dudukis play there in the urban dance and entertainment music usually together with a cylinder drum doli. In Turkey, the instrument is called mey, duduk with the Turkish Kurds, balaban in Azerbaijan and Iran. It is there other woods, for example, made of olive wood. The Mey can be sharper than the Armenian duduk in the sound, the sound is similar about a Krummhorn. Geographically distant relatives are the Chinese guan, the Japanese hichiriki and played in Korea piri.

Duduk is an onomatopoeic word without definite linguistic background. It comes in a modified form in many languages ​​of Europe and western Asia and describes the different instruments: whistles, flutes, reed instruments and bagpipes. Related Dudel are German, Czech dudy, Hungarian duda, Russian dudka, georgian duduki, Tutak Armenian, Azerbaijani Tutek, Chuvash tutut and Turkish düdük.

Design

The instrument is about 25 to 40 inches long without reed depending on the root. It has seven to eight permanent front finger holes and a rear thumb hole. The wood used is usually apricot wood, the reed is made from a reed section. The range of seven permanent front finger holes and a ninth with eight permanent front finger holes a tenth.

Play

The duduk sounds, depending on the overall length including mouthpiece, in proportion to their size surprisingly low: The lowest tone is usually between at middle c and the small g The overblowing - cylindrical drilled reed instruments overblow the first time in the twelfth - is not normally provided. The sound is very soft for a double-reed instrument, similar to the sound of a clarinet in the low register and by the directly played with the lips reed quite variable. It is usual to play with circular breathing.

The Armenian duduk is played in pairs as most Asian oboe instruments. An instrument holds a drone (Armenian: duduk dam), the other is used as a melody instrument. Another, deeper tuned duduk can complement a bass line. Your velvety sound with the typical for the Armenian music melismas often triggers associations of melancholy and sadness, perhaps you can bring in connection with the repeatedly shaped by millennia of persecution and painful history of the Armenians.

The duduk is an important element of the soundtrack of the movie Ronin with Robert De Niro and Jean Reno. The responsible film composer Elia Cmíral was directed by John Frankenheimer for the composition the keywords "sadness, loneliness and heroism ." The most internationally famous duduk player is Dschiwan Gasparjan. Another Armenian duduk player Gevorg is Dabagian.

In 2005, duduk music was included in the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Short oboes in other countries

The duduk is in Bulgaria is a relatively little popular wind instrument, it is known mainly in North-West Bulgaria. There it extremely fast dance songs in ² / ₄ - clock, mainly from sixteenth notes consisting executed.