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Aboriginal music and the didgeridoo
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Genre
Aboriginal music and the didgeridoo · Aboriginal peoples have lived in Australia for more than 50,000 years, and their songs connect land, ancestors and laws; every song belongs to a place and a group. In Arnhem Land, in the north, the sound of the didgeridoo, called yidaki by the Yolŋu, accompanies them: a eucalyptus trunk hollowed out by termites that drones without interruption thanks to circular breathing. Rock paintings show players from at least a thousand years ago. In 1991 the Yolŋu band Yothu Yindi took those sounds into the charts with Treaty.
Listening
Listening tip. Alan Maralung sings a wangga song here that, by his own account, he received from a spirit in a dream. Hear how his clapsticks beat the time and the didgeridoo beneath holds one continuous, droning note.
Bushfire · Alan Maralung & Peter Manaberu, 1988
Treaty · Yothu Yindi, 1991
Wiyathul · Gurrumul, 2008
See also
Categories: Genres