Oblique rim-blown flute of the Arab countries, Iran and Central Asia. The term derives from the old Persian for ‘reed’ or ‘bamboo’ and by extension ‘reed flute’. The instrument has been known in the Near East since antiquity; iconographic and written documents attest its use by the ancient Egyptians in the 3rd millennium bce. A particularly striking example of its use occurs on a ceremonial slate palette (c2900 bce, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), on which a fox plays the instrument for a dancing giraffe and ibex (see Egypt, §I, 2, fig.1); a Sumerian silver flute dating from 2450 bc has been found in the royal cemetery of Ur in Southern Mesopotamia.
The ney
of Iran is primarily a classical instrument; it is made of reed with seven nodes,
40 to 80 cm long, and has five finger-holes and one thumb-hole producing the
basic pitches c'–d'–e'–f'–f
'–g'–a' (the e and a are a
quarter-tone flat). Other notes can be obtained by varying the breath pressure,
and the range can thus be extended to two and a half octaves. As the bevelled
edge of the mouth-hole is sharp on the inside, it is often covered by a metal
band to prevent damage to the instrument. The joints are sometimes made at the
nodes of the reed, the tube of which can be decorated with engraving.
Players of the ney in Iran place the rim between their teeth, which produces a warmer and more powerful tone; this more difficult technique is a 19th-century development, apparently inspired by the Turkmen tüydük. The ney is the only wind instrument in the classical Persian orchestra, but its melodic and rhythmic resources fit it equally for solo performance. The great ney tradition is preserved at Esfahan, where its repertory (radif) includes pieces reserved exclusively for it.
Various popular forms of the instrument are known, made of wood, reed or metal and with various vernacular names, for example the Baluchi nel, Turkmen tüydük and Kurdish simsal.
The ney of Azerbaijan is 60 to 70 cm long, and also made of wood, reed, brass or copper, with three to six finger-holes. The player holds the instrument obliquely, with its head in the corner of his mouth. It is now rare; once it was common, particularly as a shepherd’s instrument.
The Turkish ney is played in classical fasıl (art music) and is an important member of the ensembles that play at the ceremonies of the Mevlevi order of Sufis founded by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī. It is similar to the Arab nāy in construction but has a wooden cap to facilitate blowing and tone-production.
The term ‘nāy’ is the generic Arabic name for several folk flutes as well as the specific term for the reed flute used in Arab art music. The classical Arab nāy consists of an open-ended segment of ‘Persian reed’ (Arundo donax) with six finger-holes in front and one thumb-hole; the edge of the tube at the top is lightly bevelled. The nāy tube varies in length from 32 to 81 cm and whatever its size it must contain eight nodes and nine antinodes. The reedpipe from which the instrument is made should be not less than three years old and the tube must be hard, smooth and compact; the distance between the nodes is taken into consideration. Several instruments can sometimes be made from one long reed stem.
In
Arab countries the classical nāy is made in several lengths. Each
instrument is designated by the name of its fundamental note (given by opening
the first hole): nāy Māhūr (C), nāy
Dūkāh (D), nāy Buselik (E), nāy Chargāh
(F), nāy Nawā (G), nāy Husaynī (A), nāy
‘Ajam (B
), nāy
Kardān (c), and so on. Theoretically, it is possible to have a nāy
for each semitone of a chromatic scale, and for some quarter-tones; in practice
each maker has a restricted number of models to suit the requirements of the
music played in his area. Apart from making the nāy according to
the musician’s individual requirements, there are three methods of placing the
fingerholes: this may be done by measuring (al bahr), calculation (al
hisāb) or analogy (al muqābala). The nāy is
difficult to play because the bevelled mouth-hole remains completely open, only
partly resting on the lower lip. Musicians often use different sizes of nāy
during a concert, but a virtuoso can play the three-octave range on one instrument
by altering the position of his fingers on the holes, by movements of the lips
and head, and by breath control.
The nāy is an urban instrument and the only wind instrument used in Arab art music. As part of the al-takht al-sharqi (‘oriental ensemble’) found in large Arab towns, it appears alongside the ‘ūd (lute), the qānūn (box zither) and two membranophones: the daff (frame drum) and the single-headed dunbuk. As a solo instrument it is used for improvisation (taqsīm). It also accompanies religious glorifications.
The popular Arab nāy may be made of wood, reed or metal, and has many local names including shabbāba, blūr and madruf in the Middle East and suffāra, salāmiyya, qasaba, kawwāl, juwạk or fhal in North Africa. A popular nāy does not conform to any rigorous norms. The reedpipe nāy, which varies in length from 20 to 80 cm, is not always completely straight. It can be made from one segment of reed which may include three or four nodes with a diameter that varies between 1·5 and 2·5 cm. Three to ten holes are distributed in several different ways but usually begin at the second antinode from the bottom. The upper opening may be bevelled, or it may be capped with a conical metal mouthpiece (as in the shāqūla of Dayr az Zawr, eastern Syria). The metal nāy is 30 to 40 cm long, and sometimes has a bevelled mouth-hole; it is held and played in the same way as those of reed or wood. Middle Eastern models have six finger-holes and one thumb-hole, while the North African qasaba has seven finger-holes and one thumb-hole.
The instrument is also played by the Karakalpak peoples of Central Asia, where it can be made of a variety of materials which are often described by a prefix, for example agach-nai (‘wooden nai’).
See also Arab music, §I, 7(i); Iraq, §III, 4; Iran, §II, 3.
J. Jenkins and P.R. Olsen: Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam (London, 1976), 53–4
M. Guettat: La musique classique du Maghreb (Paris, 1980)
S.Q. Hassan: Les instruments de musique en Irak et leur rôle dans la société traditionnelle (Paris, 1980)
Y. Ron: ‘The Nāy or Arab Flute’, Orbis musicae, viii (1982–3), 104–8
J. During: La musique iranienne: tradition et évolution (Paris, 1984)
A. Movahed: The Persian Ney: a Study of the Instrument and its Musical Style (thesis, U. of Illinois, 1993)
SCHEHERAZADE QASSIM HASSAN, JEAN DURING