Bechir Saade | Nay and other wind instruments

I am no musicologist and the following is not based on research done, although I should at some point do such a thing and get to know more broadly everything written on the subject, but here is a glance at what the nay represents to me. This text is in a constant state of re-writing. I initially thought not to include it on the website but then nothing would have been posted as I would have always refrained from writing anything on the subject given that I am always discovering aspects about the nay and its music.

The nay (or ney) is a wind instrument made of reed. In Farsi (Persian), 'ney' means actually reed, and in the Arab world, the nay is sometimes called qassaba (although the qassaba can be another instrument, which also means piece of reed). You have three major types of nays today: the Arabic, the Turkish, and the Persian. The Turkish nay was ‘reworked’ with an added mouthpiece called Baspare, and the Persian one with a Sari. Whereas the Arabic and the Turkish ones are virtually the same in their key holes, the Persian nay is slightly different in the sense that it has fewer holes and different nodes. It is to be noted though, that the Persian nay is the heir of the Turkmen nay that is also used in Azerbadjian and other Central Asian countries.

The different nays

Nays are keyed instruments. In the Arabic system, there are 7 most commonly used nays. The first is the Rast labeled in the key of C meaning that the second note from the lower register is a C (the first being a Bb). The second is the Doga in D. The third is the Boussalik in E. The fourth is the Jaharka for F. The fifth is the Nawa for G; the sixth is Husseini for A, and the seventh is the Ajam for B. One can also find musicians using the Kerden (higher C) and the Muhayyar (higher D) or the Mahur (low B). Both the Kerden and the Muhayyar are kind of difficult to play if you have somewhat fat fingers as they are tiny nays!

Sufi schools in Turkey (or in the Ottoman centre) developed the used of longer nays made easier to play with the use of the Baspare, reflecting a preference for graver sounds. Turks use different names for the nays and start way lower. Low F is called Dawud, the low G Sah, The low A mansur, The low B Kiz, the C Yildiz, the D Sipurde, the E Bolahenk.

I was always intrigued by this difference that I tried to explain at first through the idea that graver sounds are associated with meditative practices or other sufi rituals. But now I find this kind of wrong because Sufism in the Arab world use smaller neys. Probably it is our understanding of Sufism that needs to be thought over. An understanding that has been clouded by the modern predominance of Turkish schools (the latter were developed quite recently historically).

The Arabic and Turkish nay has 7 holes whereas the Iranian nay has 6, one of which in all cases is on the back and usually closed with the thumb. Each hole has practically a one tone capacity of interval so that for example, if you play a D you can easily go to D# with the sole movement of your lips and the strength of the air, and you can even go to E (depending on each hole and the instrument) if you move the instrument and blow even stronger. The thumb hole has 4 notes usually used, if using the Doga nay then these notes would be A, Bb, B3/4, and B.

Playing Technique

The Arabic and the Turkish styles are very similar; it involves putting the mouth on the extremity of the flute and blowing in a somewhat oblique direction to the tube. The air bounces on one inner side of the tube and produces the expected sound.

The Iranians (Persian) included another way by adopting the Turkoman inter-dental blowing system in the late 1700's. The modern Persian nay has an altered fingering pattern and is also of a different \number of nodes, has a different embouchure, has only 5 fingerholes and a lower-placed thumbhole than the Arab-Turkish types. The musician puts the end of the nay between his teeth and the upper jaw and directs the air with his tongue. This method produces a quite different texture in sound. Whatever the method, it takes a while (some say a lifetime), to perfect one's sound. Getting the right sound, knowing how to master pure air sounds, small variations in pitches, etc. can certainly take a while.

The Iranian blowing method can certainly be used with Arabic (or Turkish) nays. This increases the different possibilities of sound textures. As a free improviser I even go beyond these two blowing methods. However, knowing both is a must as they are very rich in acoustic possibilities.

The Nay from traditional to free improvisation

The main difference between European and Middle Eastern music, at least since the emergence of written ‘classical’ music in Europe, is the importance of improvisation. Before the import of the European music systems around the beginning of the XXth century, the Arab, Turkish and Persian world were exploring in a much more sophisticated way the art of improvisation.

The “Middle Eastern” music system is based on a set of maqamat (for a definition of maqam click here). My own understanding of a maqam is that of a melody, or simply a kind of musical 'air' that is endlessly distorted and manipulated in all directions, that is, broken into pieces. A good analogy is what Saxophonist John Coltrane did with my favorite things. Ironically, at a time when he was trying to break from a set up order, others were trying to create a narrower field of musical inquiry. Listening to nay player Amin el Buzari who lived in the beginning of the twentieth century shows just how much musicians had developed highly original and subtle styles of improvisations moving freely between maqams bending these structures at will and with great soul. Today, it is very rare to here such dexterity and risks taken in music for two different reasons: First the European idea of order that entered the music, but also the composed form becoming more prevalent.

It seems that the list of maqams found in today's music books and those used in most of the musical formations are nothing in number compared to what was found a couple of centuries ago. The naming of quarter tones (3/4 or 1/4) used in Middle Eastern music are a revealing examples of how music came to be structured. Starting from random micro variations on a single note, they started to have their own place within a scale (and thus the scale came to be known as such). Originally, today's most famous maqams have more nuanced tonal variations than quarters. As a matter of fact, the quarter as a tonal variation does not exist. The specific note, depending on the maqam is always revolving around the quarter either slightly higher or lower. But you also have slightly lower fifth and fourth, etc.

In a certain sense, the maqam is not about tonality but about modality. This is why a maqam is usually illustrated as a ladder (“Sellom” in Arabic). I’ll write more on that soon.

What about the nay in all that? Well, this instrument is full of surprises for the one who has the patience to uncover his secrets. Initially, the nay has full chromatic possibilities once one learns how to play with the amount and speed of the air required and semi-close the holes of the instrument. With good practice, chromatic changes are bypassed as the player can move down and up in perfect glissandos with no tonal stops. To master that, one needs to practice the synchronization between the amount and speed of air blown, the position of the lips, and the movement of the hands. In time, beautiful effects can be found. But these are still very discreet when played in a conventional setting. The free improviser can use this weapon in a much more elastic way. It needs to be remembered that in traditional improvisation settings the nay is mostly a supplement to the voice. The nay imitates the voice so to speak so such effects, when used try to capture the subtleties of the human voice.

Another option is polyphony. Initially, a conventional player of the nay strives to master one polyphonic effect, which consists of playing simultaneously the lower register (qarar) with the mid-level register. The same position produces the same note at one octave of interval. Once the two octaves are played together, one can hear a third sound that is very difficult to define in terms of texture (Al Mizan or Al Mejwez). Other polyphonic possibilities abound and can be mixed with a whole array of whistle tones or voice effects.

These are the most obvious tools at our disposal. One can think a vast array of other tools such as slapping (so not in the same effective way than with normal flute because of the pads), voices and other mouth sounds, using objects such as to block the end of the nay, using mouthpiece from the saxophone or other wind instruments, moving the nay in the air, etc.

The Arabic as well as the Persian blowing method can be used interchangeably. The Persian technique of blowing between the tongue and the upper teeth gives tremendous possibilities to produce air sounds along with whistle tones, polyphonic effects etc.

Other Traditional Middle Eastern Instruments
(This section will be expanded soon.)

There are many other wind instruments that are hardly known even to Middle Easterners such as the Mizmar (Zurna), the Mejwez, the Arghoul, the Sullameya, the Duduk. Today, the Sullameya (menjayra) is more known as the Kawala which name is derived from the Bulgarian instrument the Kaval (in academic circles falsely). The latter has the same oblique blowing technique as the nay and the sullameya although with different tonal intervals between holes.

The Duduk is an Armenian instrument that has nine holes, with a big mouthpiece that is in the form of a double reed. The sound of the Duduk is very deep and low in tone and it is very difficult to keep the tuning right while blowing. The Mizmar can be considered as the ancestor of the clarinet or the oboe. The Mejwez and the Arghoul, are 2 pieces of reed joined together in order to be blown together.
I will soon add more details on these instruments with a couple of interest links.