This week we'll be looking at Armenia, which is a transcontinental country at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
The capital of Armenia is Yerevan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1108052.stm
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/am.html
Pictures of Armenia:
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The duduk is the national musical symbol of Armenia.
The duduk is a double reed instrument which has ancient origins, said to be from 1500 to 3000 years old. The earliest instruments similar to the duduk's present form are made of bone or entirely of cane. Today the duduk is exclusively made of wood with a large double reed. Armenian duduks are mainly made from aged apricot wood (Prunus armeniaca, "Armenian plum" in Latin), although other regional varieties use other materials (mulberry, etc.) The particular tuning depends heavily on the region which it is played. In the 20th century the Armenian duduk began to be standardized diatonic in scale and single-octave in range. Accidentals, or chromatics are achieved using fingering techniques. The instrument's body also has different lengths depending upon the range of the instrument and region. The reed is made from one or two pieces of cane in a duck-bill type assembly. Unlike other double-reed instruments, the reed is quite wide, helping to give the duduk both its unique, mournful sound, as well as its remarkable breath requirements. The duduk player is called dudukahar
Variants of the duduk can be found in Armenia and the Caucasus. The roots of Armenian duduk music go back to the times of the Armenian king Tigran the Great (95–55 BC). The instrument is depicted in numerous Armenian manuscripts of the Middle Ages.
(information found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duduk)
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