The dudka is the simplest wind instrument of the Ukrainian village. Any teenager could make one in half a day: find a straight willow shoot in spring when “the sap flows,” carefully separate the bark, remove the core, cut a whistle and a few finger holes — and the dudka is ready.
Lullabies, pasturage tunes, and simple folk-song melodies were played on it. In different regions the dudka had different names: zozulka, pyshchalka, siurcha. It gave rise to the entire family of Ukrainian flutes — from the primitive whistle to the concert chromatic sopilka. Ethnomusicologists value the dudka as the “first step” in a Ukrainian village child's musical education.
