Ney

The Ney, which is probably the oldest pitched instrument known to man, is an oblique rim blown reed flute with five finger holes in front and one thumb hole in the back. One of the principle instruments of Traditional Persian Music, the ney has a range of two and a half octaves. The upper end is covered by a short brass cylinder which is anchored in the tiny space between the upper incisives of the player. Sound is produced when a stream of air is directed by the tongue toward the opening of the instrument. In this way, sound is produced behind the upper teeth, inside the mouth, which gives the ney a distinct timbre than that of the sound produced by the lips on

Mavi Boncuk |

Ney (A Reed-Flute)

The word Ney, after it was used as NA in the Sumerian language, became HAY in Persian which meant "the reed".

Eventually, it came to be spelt as Ney in Turkish. Ney which dates as back as 3000 B.C. is now preserved in the Philadelphia University as a "Sumerian flute".

After the adoption of Islam by the Turks, Ney became popular especially in the religious music. Mevlana, the great philosopher of Islam, demonstrated the importance when he attributed to Ney in his "MESNEVI" by saying "Hear what Ney whispers…."

Ney is a wind instrument made of a hollow reed. Its mouthpiece is called "Baspare" and it is made of an animal's horn. There are 7 holes on Ney, 6 on the upper part and one on the lower.

In order to get the Ney properly tuned, the nodes on the reed must be quite proportional. Since very few reeds have this particularity, it is hard to find an acceptable one and therefore, Neys are rather expensive musical instruments.

3 octave sound can be obtained from Ney by way of modifying the blowing strength. They are in different tuning orders as to their lengths, and diameters. Thus, they are known with different names relatively.

Their names range from high pitch to low as follows:

Mansur Nisfiye, Sah Ma'beyn, Sah Nisfiye, Davut Nisfiye, Bolahenk Ma'beyn, Bolahenk Nisfiye, Süpürde Ma'beyn, Süpürdü Nisfiye, Müstahzen Nisfiye, Yildiz Ma'beyn, Kiz neyi, Mansur Ma'beyn, Mansur, Sah Ma'beyn, Sah, Davut Bolahenk Ma'beyn, Bolahenk.

It is called a NISFIYE when each ney is made one octave on high-pitch. The lower they go by sound, the longer they became and therefore, it becomes difficult for a player to perform it. To avoid this inconvenience, one octave high pitch Neys are made which are half the length of the previous ones. These are called Nisfiye which means the "Half Ney".

There are also neys with half note differences with each other and these are called "MA'BEYN". Ney Player is generally called a "NEYZEN" and called a "NAYI". Blowing Nay is a more common term rather than playing Ney. Another Turkish musical instrument which is almost being forgotten, is a Girift. It is relatively shorter than Ney and made of a 6 node reed. While Ney has got a nodes and 7 holes, Girift has got 8 holes. There is a 2 octave sound range between Kaba Rast (SOL) and Gerdaniye (SOL). It did not become popular among musicians for it was rather difficult to play it. Girifteen Asim Bey was the master of this instrument.