THE DIDJERIDU AND THE OVERDUB
Technologising and Transposing Aural Images of Aboriginality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v1i2.28589Keywords:
didjeridu, aboriginality, cultural identityAbstract
This article investigates how aural 'images' of aboriginality are technologised and transposed across cultures, with special regard to the didjeridu. In doing this, the study involves consideration of both the traditional background of the didjeridu and its use and the central role of technology in contemporary music. This in turn involves study of producers and performers of didjeridu music working in nontraditional Aboriginal music and their relation to both 'authentic' Australian culture and the "universal pop aesthetic" identified by Simon Frith (1989). This article draws on a range of academic sources, representations and interviews, all of which contribute to an holistic overview of the technologisation and transposition of an aural image of Aboriginality betwixt soundscapes and "humanscapes" (Agar, 1986).
References
Agar, M. (1986) Independents Declared, Washington D.C.: Smithsonian.
Dargin, A. (1992) Radio Interview, Backtracker, Mal Honess, ABC Radio Mid-North Coast, Kempsey, NSW.
Feld, S. (1982) Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Frith, S. (1989) 'Introduction' in (1989) S. Frith (ed)World Music, Politics and Social Change, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.
Jensen,J.(l990)'Technology/Music:UnderstandingProcessualRelations",Popu/arMusic and Society, vl4 nl, Spring.
Jones, S. (1992)RockFormation: Music, TechnologyandMassCommunication,Newbury Park: Sage.
-----(1990) 'Technology and the Future of Popular Music', Popular Music and Society, v14nl,Spring. .
Jones, T. (1980) 'Didjeridoo', The New Grove DictionaryofMusicandMusicians, S. Sadie (ed), London: MacMillan Publishing.
-----(1973) 'The Yidaki(Didjeridoo)inNorth-EastemAmhemLand: TechniquesandStyles' inR.M. BemdtandE.S. Phillips (eds), TheAustralianAboriginalHeritage,Sydney: Ure Smith,.
Lauridsen, J. (1983) The Influence of Instrumental Harmonics of Pitch-Preference: A Study Based on Australian Aboriginal Songs, College Park: Music Department, University of Maryland.
Moyle, A.M. (1981) 'The Australian Didjeridoo: A Late Musical Intrusion', World Archaeology, v12.
Newton, J. (1990) 'Becoming 'Authentic' Australians Thtough Music', Social Analysis, v27.
Randel,D.M.(l978)HarvardConciseDictionaryofMusic,Cambridge,Mass.:TheBelknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Riddington, R. (1988) 'Why Baby Why: Howard Broomfield's Documentation of the Dunne-Za Soundscape', The Canadian Journal of Native Studies, v8 n2.
Schafer, R.M. (1978) The Tuning of the World, New York: A.A. Knopf.
Truax, B. (1984) Acoustic Communication, Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Wild, S.A. (1992) 'Songs of Experience', The Musical Times, July.
----(1987) 'A Musical Interlude' in D.J. Mulvaney and J.P. White (eds) Australians to 1788, Broadway, NSW: Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates.
