duduk

Pronounced "dooh-DOOHK", this amazing, warm and sweet-sounding oboelike musical instrument from Armenia and Georgia is the one instrument in the world that sounds like a human voice. Djivan Gasparyan is one of the best-known soloists on this instrument. The duduk is usually suited to slow, mournful melodies but it's not unusual to hear it playing bright, happy music. In Georgia, the name of the instrument is "duduki". Variants of the duduk do exist in several other countries, for instance Azerbaijan, but the names for them vary, like "balaban" in Azerbaijan and "balaman" in Daghestan, but their tonal quality tends to be a little louder and more penetrating.