Elijah Gunydjurruwuy Wunungmurra playing a Rodney Dhalpalawuy ceremonial yirdaki

This yirdaki was collected in 2008 in the Gove area as part of a group of 4 used instruments that were brought to me by Yolngu, these 4 yirdaki were played at the late Dr R*ym*ttj* Marika's funeral that same year. You can read more about Dr Marika on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymattja_Marika

In that year, I recorded Burrngupurrngu's son Wambarna playing this stick, I also recorded him playing other yirdaki but he didn't sound very good, he sounded best on this Dhalpalawuy yirdaki which you can watch here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zee8P0p8wkE

Anyway, here's Elijah giving his take on Nunhdhirribala style. He gravitated towards this instrument frequently during his short artist-in-residency at iDIDJ Australia, another stick he loved is one made by Adam Marrilaga, our previous artist-in-residence.

This is quite a remarkable stick in a number of ways, it is a nuggety little gem that punches way above its weight. It has the most exquisite voice with tons of nuance, not bright or shrill at all but with a dark complex texture yet with exceptional acoustic elasticity, fantastic back pressure, and an uncommon depth to its voice. It is no wonder it has been used extensively in ceremony by Yolngu, this yirdaki would have passed through many hands and has been played by some of the greats in eastern Arnhem Land in communities and outstations.

For this and other offerings, check out the iDIDJ Store for some great specials and the best yirdaki and mago instruments you'll ever come across, as made and played by Aboriginal people of the Top End of Australia:

http://www.ididj.com.au/store/fine_didjeridus.html

Category:

Music

Tags:

• elijah
• gunydjurruwuy
• wunungmurra
• dhalwangu
• rodney
• dhalpalawuy
• garma
• guyamirrilil
• rorruwuy
• yolngu
• yirdaki
• yidaki
• didgeridoo
• didjeridu
• didge
• arnhemland
• arnhem
• land
• aboriginal
• music
• instrument
• northern
• territory
• raymattja
• marika
• rirratjingu

[nitupsaar]

What mouth sounds does he play?

[ididjaustralia]

@nitupsaar hard to represent it as mouth sounds, that's one of the drawbacks of notating rhythms.

[sonofthedestroyer]

Guan do you live in the Northern Territory? Or you live in the south and travel there?

[ididjaustralia]

@sonofthedestroyer Victoria in the south.

[whyterubi]

AWESOME.

[derekpharms17]

Elijah's triplet based style is my fav of any NEAL styles:D great vid

[pseudolithos]

It's an Italian Yidaki...! :)))

[TheUnDeRGRouNDHoBo]

wholly strappin wombat gravy thats sounds awesome

[ozmadman]

Love the little exhalation of air and the end of playing!!! so even Yolngu get out of breath then !

[ozmadman]

Nice to have another video of this style will give it some practice on the "Red Flag" instrument I got from you Guan, see what it sounds like in High B !!!!

[WhiteTiger333]

What a wonderful sound! I've never heard it played like that before. That distinct "thump" brings a mental picture of a foot hitting the ground in dance.

[theotherther1]

So this is Nunhdhirribala style? I'll definitely try to find more examples of it. It sounds almost like a synthesizer. Thank you and thank Elijah for this performance.