TURKISH MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Tanburs

The Tambur is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the four instruments of the basic quartet of Turkish classical music. Of the two variants, one is played with a plectrum (mizrapli tambur) and the other with a bow (yayli tambur). The player is called a tanburî.

Tamburs are made almost entirely of wood. The shell (Tekne) is assembled from strips of hardwood called ribs joined edge to edge to form a semi-spherical body for the instrument. The number of ribs traditionally amounts to 17, 21 or 23, yet examples with slightly wider and consequently fewer ribs (7, 9 or 11) can also be found among older specimens. Traditionally, thinner strips called fileto are inserted between the ribs for ornamental purposes, but are not obligatory.

Ney

The ney is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of ney players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids and actual neys being found in the excavations at Ur. This indicates that the ney has been played continuously for 4,500–5,000 years, making it one of the oldest musical instruments still in use. It is a forerunner of the modern flute.

The ney consists of a piece of hollow cane or reed with five or six finger holes and one thumb hole. Ney is an old semitic arabic word means crying from the word (naei) because its sound resembles a person crying. Modern neys may be made of metal or plastic tubing instead. The pitch of the ney varies depending on the region and the finger arrangement. A highly skilled ney player can reach more than three octaves, though it is more common to have several "helper" neys to cover different pitch ranges or to facilitate playing technical passages in other maqamat.