Turkish Ney

The Turkish ney that is made of Hatay Bamboo is perhaps one of the first instruments that human beings produced and one of the most important wind instruments of Ottoman music. Although the ney is a primitive instrument , which came from the very old times of history; it has an moving and otherwordly sound.The word "ney" derived from the word "nay" which means bamboo in Persian.

The person who plays (or lows) the ney is called the "neyzen" or or the "nayi".

The ney is one of the instruments that have a permanent tuning. The tuning of the ney is established at the time its holes are opened and remains stable. The bamboo used in production of the ney hasto 9 joints. The inner part of the ney isempited. The topmost joint is not opened completely, remaning half opened. The holesthat produce the sound (also called the perde) are distrubuted to the joints in a certain corder. There are in total 7 holes, 1 on the back. A head-piece called the "başpare" is placed on the firstjoint (the boğaz) of the ney; this is also the blown part of the instrument and the "başpare" is made of the horn of oxes. Silver rings are fixed to both ends of the bamboo, toprevent it from cracking.The ney is held at a certain angle, placing it onthe left or right knee, and the lips procuce a slight pressure on the başpare from the side.The sounds of the lowest pitch are called the "dem sesler" When the holes reopened by the fingers by a half or by a quarter , some special intermediary sounds can be produced. There are also sounds obtained by bending the head or by contacting the lips.

The ney which is one of the fundamental instruments of Mevlevi music (the other is the kudüm) was commonly used in non-religous music for a long period. Special names , from the low pitch to the high are given to various sizes of ney : the "bolahenk" the "davud" the "şah" the "mansur" the "kızney" the "müstahsen" the "sipürde".

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