An unlikely duo has teamed up under the Creative Gunning banner to perform a collaboration, an ‘Ancient Worlds in Harmony Concert’ featuring hand-crafted didgeridoos and a traditional Japanese Sho.
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00:00The country town of Gunning, just to the north of Canberra, isn't the sort of place you'd expect to witness a world premiere.
00:09But a world premiere is exactly what I've just experienced.
00:15It's the first time that a 7th century Japanese wind instrument has come together with an Aboriginal didgeridoo.
00:35So it's pretty special isn't it?
00:37Yeah, very special.
00:38The Gunning Southern Tablelands Arts contacted me and they contacted Henry Link from Sydney.
00:44We wrote a piece together in the last three months and then we put on a show here tonight.
01:02I don't think there's been a lot of pieces written for the combination that we just had, which is a Japanese show and a didgeridoo.
01:09I don't actually know of any other pieces written for this combination of instruments.
01:14Now there's not many Japanese show players in Australia?
01:18Yeah.
01:19Am I looking at the only one?
01:20As far as I know, yes.
01:22Over a thousand years ago it was used in the imperial court to perform music for the imperial family.
01:29And then it's sort of stayed dormant for about a thousand years and it's only had more of a resurgence in the last hundred years, fifty to a hundred years.
01:37Because of some show performers who collaborated with Western performers as well.
01:42So now it's becoming more popular again.
01:45Is that the most unusual instrument you've performed alongside her?
01:49Yeah, very much so.
01:50Having 17 different pipes and the exhale, inhale, it's a lot different to what I've played before.
02:08You need to keep the instrument warm with either wrapping it up in an electric blanket or putting it on a heater.
02:16Why does the instrument need to keep warm?
02:18I can actually show you.
02:20So that's a reed, a really thin reed with a bit of melted lead shot on top.
02:27And so that center piece of the reed, when you're breathing into the instrument, inhaling and exhaling through the instrument, the condensation from my breath would latch onto that reed.
02:39And because it's so small, the heaviness of the condensation stops the reed from vibrating.
02:44So I have to keep it constantly dry with an electric heater.
02:52Is the dig easy or is the show easier?
02:57Which is the easiest?
02:58I mean, to make a sound, I would say the show is easier.
03:03I think they're both on par.
03:04Yeah, they're both pretty hard to pick up and play.
03:07So diggeridoo, you have to do quite a lot with the secular breathing, but also the buzzing of the lips, which I'm really bad at.
03:13And will you ever come back to Gunning again?
03:15Oh yeah, of course.
03:16For another show, another show.
03:18Another show, for sure. Yeah, I love it.