Turkish ney


The Turkish ney is an end-blown reed flute, an Ottoman variation on the ancient ney. Together with the Turkish tanbur lute and Turkish kemençe fiddle are considered the most typical instruments of Classical Turkish music. The ney also plays a primary role in the music of the Mevlevi Sufi rites.

Description

A rim-blown, oblique flute made of giant reed, 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 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, which are played by tucking the mouthpiece under the upper lip and making contact with the teeth.
Besides the finger holes, the pitch is altered by adjusting the embouchure, angle and force of the breath, with more forceful producing the higher pitches.
Compared to most fipple 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.
Perde NameFingeringNote
Neva●  ○ ● ○ ○ ● ○D
Nim hicaz●  ● ○ ○ ○ ● ○#C
Çargah●  ● ● ○ ○ ● ○C
Segah●  ● ● ● ○ ● ○H
Kürdi●  ● ● ● ● ○ ○♭H
Dügah●  ● ● ● ● ● ○A
Rast●  ● ● ● ● ● ●G

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.
Ney nameLength Dügah tone Dügah tone Dügah tone
Bolahenk Nısfiye520 mmHüseyniLaE  / Mi
Bolahenk-Süpürde Mabeyni550 mmHisarSol diyezE / Mi bemol
Süpürde Ney580 mmNevaSolD  / Re
Müstahsen620 mmNim HicazFa diyezC / Do diyez
Yıldız Ney665 mmÇargahFaC  / Do
Kız Ney710 mmBuselikMiH  / Si
Kız-Mansur Mabeyni745 mmDik KürdiMi bemolB / Si bemol
Mansur Ney780 mmDügahReA  / La
Mansur-Şah Mabeyni820 mmZirgüleDo diyezG / Sol diyez
Şah Ney860 mmRastDoG  / Sol
Davud Ney910 mmIrakSiF / Fa diyez
Davud-Bolahenk Mabeyni970 mmAcem AşiranSi bemolF  / Fa
Bolahenk Ney1 m 40 mmHüseyni AşiranLaE  / Mi

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 whereas for all other instrumentalists one uses the verb çalmak. It is speculated that the ney's close identification with the Mevlevi Sufis might be the origin of this usage.
Noted modern ney players include Niyazi Sayın, Akagündüz Kutbay, Sadreddin Özçimi, Kudsi Erguner, Süleyman Erguner and Münip Utandı.

Fingering

The following is a description of how fingering, blow angle and blow intensity are combined to create the tones in a popular scale on a common Turkish ney type. Note that some pitches can be produced two different ways.
BlowFingeringHertzNote
●  ● ● ● ● ● ●587A
●  ● ● ● ● ● ○660B
●  ● ● ● ○ ● ○739C
●  ● ● ○ ○ ● ○783D
●  ○ ● ○ ○ ● ○880E
○  ● ○ ● ○ ● ○927F
○  ○ ○ ● ○ ● ○1043G
●  ● ● ● ● ● ●1174A
●  ● ● ● ● ● ○1321B
●  ● ● ● ○ ● ○-C
●  ● ● ○ ○ ● ○1566D
●  ● ● ● ● ● ●1761E
●  ○ ● ○ ○ ● ○1761E
●  ● ● ● ● ● ○-F
●  ● ● ● ○ ● ○-G
●  ● ● ○ ○ ● ○2348A
●  ● ● ● ● ● ●2348A
●  ● ● ● ● ● ○-B
●  ○ ● ○ ○ ● ○-B
●  ● ● ● ○ ● ○-C
●  ● ● ○ ○ ● ○3132D
●  ○ ● ○ ○ ● ○3522E
●  ● ● ● ○ ● ○-F
●  ● ● ○ ○ ● ○-G
●  ○ ● ○ ○ ● ○4696A
●  ● ● ○ ○ ● ○-B

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 has a fipple; the other type is a rim-blown oblique flute, as is the Turkish classical ney. The Bulgarian kaval, 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

' 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.
ArtistTrackYearGenreAlbumLink
Münip UtandıNey Taksimi
Aziz İstanbul		1998Traditional Turkish FolkN/A'
TulkuSpiral Dance1998WorldSeason Of Souls
MuslimgauzeTurkish Sword Swallower2000Tribal, ExperimentalSufique EP
KaruneshAlibaba2000New AgeGlobal Spirit
AfricanismSlave Nation2003Tribal HouseSlave Nation
Christophe GozeMosaic2003New AgeWorld, Middle East,
India ANW 1052
Sergio MarquesMorningside2007TranceSpecial Collector's Edition 2
King MokkaLéïli2007Electro HouseLéïli
YOJISandwich 2011House, Techno, Hard TranceSandwich EP
BluSkay & KeyPlayerGiza2014Progressive TranceN/A
Alexandre Bergheau & Geert HuininkDesert Wings 2015TranceDesert Wings