The Ney

[Itri]

THE NEY



According to Rumi music is the language of God, and the great creator has addressed to souls through music. Hence, people can share their feelings through music without considering any nationality, language and religion discriminations. Music is the only art that can influence and seize in to humans’ souls directly. Music is a bridge to spiritual clinsing, pleasure and exalting. Furthermore, music is able to clean the rusts of humans’ soul. A soul that has not been affected by music can not rise, and gets involve with greed and deteriorates. A true music leads man to feel and perceive the infinite being. This perception brings man near to divine and causes to reach almighty. Sound of reed (ney) is the most effective part of this process.

Based on Rumis’ philosophy reed is the symbol of perfect man and explains the pain of love. Reed is a companion of human, like human it misses it roots and shares secrets with human through moan and cry. That’s why reed has been blessed by Rumis’ followers and has been considered “honorable reed”



Reeds Components

Reed

Reed is a music instrument in the shape of cylinder with open top and bottom parts.

Sound can be obtained by compressing air into Bash Pare (The upper part of reed). The compressed air produces a kind of natural vibration by passing through fibered channel. It is a wrong idea that reeds with extreme thick or thin diameters can produce a high quality sound. Some inexperienced reed players believe that very thick bamboo can produce better sound. This is a wrong approach, the ideal diameter of the reeds are calculated based on their length. These data are given in the form of tables. As much as the diameter of reed increases its outer surface gets thicker. For small reeds a bamboo with a thick diameter can not produce very high-pitched octavial sounds easily. In reed production, the most favorite bamboos are those obtained from Asi River and Saman Mountain in the Hatay province of Turkey. Besides Turkey Bamboo of reeds are produced in Nile River and in some regions of Syria too. The bamboos are used for producing reeds are selected among October and November. The cut bamboos in these months are completely grown and absorbed enough waters. They should be smooth; their barks should not be yellow and have a distance of 7-8 cm between their joints equally. The bamboo that are not grown completely and those that are very thin or have very thick fiber should not be cut. Bamboos with bright outer surface and without any spot are the most appropriate ones. Bamboos used for reeds should be measured based on a 9 joint scale on them. On 6th, 7th and 8th joints, two holes should be provided. The distance between joints will be usually decreased from root to the upper parts. In these bamboos the upper halves will be used to produce reeds. There are some bamboos obtained from roots with regular and frequent joints. These bamboos can produce high quality sounds



Parazvane

Parazvanes are rings shaped pieces obtained from mines, that are used in upper and bottom part of a reed. The thickness of Parazvane should not be more than 0, 50 mm. Its most important function is to protect the upper and lower parts of the reeds against breaking. Those parts are the thinnest parts of the reeds. Attaching Baspare should be affixed tightly to prevent air to escape. At this stage, parazvane is the part that strengthens the reed. That’s why the Parazvane should be tight and resistant. Parazvane also adds some beauty to the reed. The length of Parazvane is about 1- 1,5 cm. The Parazvane that is used in sound-box of the reeds should not be very long. In order to save the resonance of bamboo, it should be protected carefully. Since the sound-box of the reed affects the quality of the sound directly, using long metal pieces will lower the sounds’ quality. A Parazvane with a maximum length of 1cm should be used in this part. At the bottom part of the reed, a Parazvane with a length of 1,5-2 cm can be used. Gold, silver, alpaca, brass can be used in producing parazvane. Due to its resistance against oxidation alpaca is the most favorite.



Baspare (Bashpare)

Baspare is a piece that is installed on the sound-box of the reed. It can only be found in Anatolian reeds. The Baspare that is shown in the picture below was produced from buffalos’ horn. Ivory, ebony tree, box wood, derlin and fiber can also be used to produce Baspare. Ivory made Baspare can be found in some reeds remaining from Ottoman Empire period. Raising buffalo is very common in Turkey. In Afyon, Samsun, Kastamonu buffalos are more valued due to their milk and yogurt. That’s why they aren’t slaughtered for their horns early. Therefore, obtaining buffalos’ horn is very difficult. Working on buffalos’ horn on lathe in producing Baspare is a difficult job also. That is the main reason that buffalo horn is used rarely in producing Baspare. Instead of buffalo horn Derlin is used frequently since it can be found and utilized easily. Derlin is a substance that has a high quality based on the quality of sound. Derlin is a highly compressed plastic substance that doesn’t produce any sent and it is advantageous according to hygiene. Derlin, which is sold in cylinder shaped pieces, can be used efficiently on lathe to produce Baspares’ types. Fiber is also used by some reed producers, however, due to producing sent and considering cancerogen substance is not frequently preferred. Different kinds of trees are used in producing Baspare in inexpensive reeds. Among them Box-wood is the most favorite one. Different approaches are used in producing Baspare. Some producers are preferred Baspare with flat part, where as others prefer a lower part with 1-1, 5-2mm indentations. The part of Baspare that goes to the sound box on Reed is produced slightly conic. The conic part reduces the risk of fracturing the Reed. The thickness of Baspare that is inserted to the sound-box should not exceed 1mm. Dimensions of Baspare are given below.

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