The Turkish ney is an end-blown

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

made of reed, an Ottoman variation on the ancient

ney The ''ney'' ( fa, Ney/نی, ar, Al-Nāy/الناي), is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian music and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continually ...

. Together with the Turkish

tanbur The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...

lute and Turkish

kemençe Kemenche ( tr, kemençe) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Armenia, Greece, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black ...

fiddle are considered the most typical instruments of Classical Turkish music. The ney also plays a primary role in the music of the

Mevlevi The Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya ( tr, Mevlevilik or Mevleviyye; fa, طریقت مولویه) is a Sufi order that originated in Konya (a city now in Turkey; formerly capital of the Seljuk Sultanate) and which was founded by the followers of Jalal ...

Sufi rites (''semâ'').

Description

A rim-blown, oblique flute made of giant reed (''

Arundo donax ''Arundo donax'' is a tall perennial cane. It is one of several so-called reed species. It has several common names including giant cane, elephant grass, carrizo, arundo, Spanish cane, Colorado river reed, wild cane, and giant reed. ''Arundo'' an ...

''), the Turkish ney has six finger-holes on the front and a high-set thumb-hole on the back. The thumb hole is not centered, but rather is angled to the left or right depending on whether the instrument was intended to be played with the left or right hand on top. A feature that distinguishes it from similar instruments of other cultures is the flared mouthpiece or lip-rest, called a ''bashpare'', traditionally made of water buffalo horn, ivory, or ebony, but in modern times many are

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

or similar durable material. The Turkish ney is played by pressing the ''bashpare'' against nearly-closed lips and angling the flute so that a narrow air-stream can be blown from the center of the lips against the interior edge to the left or right, depending on whether the flute is left- or right-handed in construction. This technique gives a lower volume, but a better controlled sound compared to the technique used with the Persian ney or the Mongolian

tsuur The tsuur (Mongolian), choor (Kyrgyz) or chuur (Tuvan) is an end-blown flute of varying lengths that is common among Inner Asian pastoralists. It is similar to the sybyzgy (Kazakh) and kurai (Bashkir). In western Mongolia it is mainly used by ...

, which are played by tucking the mouthpiece under the upper lip and making contact with the teeth.http://persianney.com/technique.html persian ney Besides the finger holes, the pitch is altered by adjusting the

embouchure Embouchure () or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is of ...

, angle and force of the breath, with more forceful producing the higher pitches. Compared to most

fipple The term fipple specifies a variety of end-blown flute that includes the flageolet, recorder, and tin whistle. The Hornbostel–Sachs system for classifying musical instruments places this group under the heading "Flutes with duct or duct flut ...

flutes and reed instruments, the ney is very difficult to play at first, often taking several weeks of practice to produce a proper sound at all, and even more to produce the full range of pitches. A skilled ney player can sound around 100 identifiable different tones in a two-and-a-half octave range or more.

Sizes

Before the tone naming convention do-re-mi-etc.. was adopted in Turkey, the notes had full long names which still partially are in use in ney circles, for example as names of fingering for a given ''perde'' (the set of pitches used in the performance). Neys come in many lengths, each producing a different key. Professional players usually possess a range of ney in different keys so they match to other instruments in an ensemble. :In some Turkish musical circles, the "pitch" (''akord'') of a ney is determined by the tone produced of its rast perde. For example some refer to the note generated with all holes closed, meaning ''Davud'' would be in E, ''Bolahenk nısfiye'' would be in D, and ''Ṣah'' would be in F. :In others, the pitch is determined using the note (''perde'') which matches A=440 Hz (''diyapazon''). This pitch is one note higher, e.g., Mansur being A/La rather than G/Sol. The lengths below are approximate, as it can vary somewhat due to the natural characteristics of the individual reed.

Players

A Turkish ney player is referred to as a ''neyzen''. A curious distinction in the Turkish language is that playing the ney is described using the verb ''üflemek'' ("blow") whereas for all other instrumentalists one uses the verb ''çalmak'' ("play/brush"). It is speculated that the ney's close identification with the

Sufis might be the origin of this usage (''God made Adam out of mud, and then "blew" life into it''). Noted modern ney players include Niyazi Sayın,

Akagündüz Kutbay Aka Gündüz Kutbay (August 17, 1934, Istanbul - August 27, 1979, Istanbul), was a leading Turkish ''ney'' (oblique rim-blown reed flute) player of the 1960s and 1970s, known for his traditional sound, deep tones (''dem sesleri''), and interest i ...

, Sadreddin Özçimi,

Kudsi Erguner Kudsi Ergüner (born 4 February 1952 in Diyarbakır, Turkey) is a Turkish musician. He is considered a master of traditional Mevlevi Sufi music and is one of the best-known players of the Turkish ney flute. Biography As a boy, Erguner s ...

, Süleyman Erguner (''torun'') and Münip Utandı.

Fingering

The following is a description of how fingering, blow angle and blow intensity (roughly represented with symbols for wind speed and direction borrowed fro
USNWS
are combined to create the tones in a popular scale ("Hüseyni") on a common Turkish ney type (Bolahenk). Note that some pitches can be produced two different ways. There are hundreds of similar scales in use in classical Turkish music. Hüseyni is probably the most frequently used. A dozen of the most common scales account for an important majority of all Turkish classical music, while many are seldom used.

Related instruments

The classical Turkish ney's closest relatives in other countries, the Arab ''nay'' and the Persian ''ney'', do not use a mouthpiece, but rather blow against the sharpened edge of the tube. In Turkish folk music, one type of ney ('' dilli kaval'') has a fipple; the other type (''dilsiz'') is a rim-blown oblique flute, as is the Turkish classical ney. The Bulgarian ''

kaval The kaval is a chromatic end-blown flute traditionally played throughout the Balkans (in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Southern Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Northern Greece, and elsewhere) and Anatolia (including Turkey and Armenia). The ka ...

'', a folk instrument, resembles the Turkish dilsiz folk ney. The Romanian ''nai'' is a panpipe rather than a flute, but may be related etymologically and morphologically.

Popular media

'
Ney Taksimi/Aziz İstanbul
'' a composition by Münip Utandı is the most sampled Turkish ney song on the Internet, being sampled by several media. ''Ney Taksimi'' means improvisation at the ney instrument. The following is a table showing the songs that used the original sample (the first 2 min. of the recording linked at top row).

References

* Signell, Karl. "Meetings with a remarkable man: Neyzen Akagündüz Kutbay," ''Festschrift for Robert Garfias'' (in press) * Tammer, Anthony. "Construction of the Turkish Ney," ''Turkish Music Quarterly'' V/4-VI/1 (1993) * Erguner, Süleyman. ''Ney metod'' Quarto, 351 pages, b/w, color illustr., 2 CDs.

External links

Ney/Nay Teacher and Performer

"Construction of the Turkish Ney,"
by Anthony Tamer in ''TMQ''

* ttp://www.umbc.edu/eol/wikipedia/Shah_ney.mp3 Improvisation by Süleyman Erguner on Ṣah ney (excerpt)00:01:58, 4.7 MB, mp3
Turkish Music Quarterly contents

NeyAtolye - Turkish Ney Flute Workshop, Izmir - TURKEY (English)
extensive information about the Turkish Ney.

NEYYAPIM, also a useful resource (English)

Neyforum, also in English (English)

NEYDERGISI, The first journal only about NEY (Turkish)