DŪDAS: Latvia musical instrument

The dūdas is a kind of bagpipe instrument that is from Lavtia and Estonia. The musical instrument was popular from the 16^th century to the 18^th century.

The musical instrument is said to have first showed up in Livonia around the 15th century, having the 1^st biopic proof of the instrument showing up in the 16^th century. The publication of the 1550 Cosmosographia by the researcher called Sebastian Münster of Basel reveals icons of a witch and devils dancing followed by a player of a bagpipe and also a player of a lyre. However it is not clear if the musical instrument in the diagram is meant to represent musical instrument that is used within Livonia or musical instruments, or is the picture taken from the common pattern of representing players of music in the artworks of the Europeans.

Playing the musical instrument was banned from the year 1753 onwards, but the highest work of destroying the musical instrument tradition was done by movement of Herrnhutian – in the region of Vidzeme where the congregations of Herrnhutian were nearly most active, approximately all the musical instrument were gathered and destroyed, because of that, little is known about the ancient traditions of the lower classes.

At the ending part of the 19^th century, such instrument has vanished throughout the majority of Latvia, and only in Alsunga where players of the musical instrument were still present in the starting part of the 20^th century. The most popular player of them is Pēteris Šeflers, he produced a record in the 1930s and also can be seen playing the musical instrument in a film Dzimtenesauc.

Dudmaises are manufactured of sheep, goat, ox, or the dogskin, sometimes from the stomach of a sheep. A blowing pipe is fixed to the top of the musical instrument. On one side of the bag, a pipe that has finger holes is attached to it, on the other side of the bag; one or two drone pipes that do not have finger holes are attached, which performs at a single tone. The mouth piece of the musical instrument that has reed, which are manufactured of goose quill or a cane is normally inside the bag of the musical instrument. Bent tips that have the shape of a bent horn that is manufactured of pine wood or apple wood is attached to the outside end of the musical instrument.

The musical instrument is manufactured of a leather bag, and no less than three pipes that are of different sizes are attached to the musical instrument.

The bag of the musical instrument is originally manufactured from the skin of a badger, the skin of a calf or the skin of a goat. The animal skin is first sewn with the use of a fur inside and with the use of only single minimal seam. Another leather band is then tacked on the top of the double stitch to produce a hermetically sealed seal on the instrument’s bag. Two holes are left to be open on the pipes, at the neck of the instrument and at the bottom part of the instrument.

The soska is a small maple pipe that is simultaneously narrowing towards the top of the instrument. The soska is a used to blow the air inside the instrument’s bag. The soska is put through the hole that is located at the bottom of the musical instrument and the skin is sealed by knotting it firmly with thin rope.

The two other pipes attached to the instrument are for the playing of music.

The smaller pipe called perabor is used to perform the drone. The pipe is originally produced from a stick that is burned through its whole length by a metal rod. About six to eight playing holes are bored through the side of the pipe. The holes of the pipe are placed at the same distance from each other, though they possess various diameters. In eight-holed version, the 7^th hole in on the reverse side of the perabor and the 8^th hole of the pipe is located at the bottom of the pipe on the side. A straw, pishchyk, is put into one extreme of the pipe that is put into the bag and firmly sealed with the use of a rope. The other extreme of the perabor is fixed to curved horn called rahaven, having a broadening opening that is carved out of a hard wood called Karelianbirch. 

The huk pipe was manufactured out of a big maple stick, a pishchyk as well as a rahaven, but there are no holes on the pipe. This pipe manufactured only one base tone known as boordon. Normally, both pipes were not just manufactured of the same kind of wood, but also from the same tree to sound in tune.

The playing of this musical instrument was renewed in the 1970s and the 1980s. MārisMuktupāvels, MārisJansons, DainisStalts and Valdis, were said to be the first players of the musical instrument after it has been revived. The musical instruments were renovated with the use of examples seen in the archives of the history museum and icons of the musical instrument.