The Fall and Rise of the Ney: From the Sufi Lodge to the World Stage

Abstract

This article traces key changes in the public life of the ney in Turkey, a musical instrument that has had a chequered history in the 90 years since the institution of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Having survived a hostile regime in the single-party period (1923–50), today the ney is in high demand both in Turkey and in the ‘global ecumene.’ The extraordinary interest in it takes two forms: a striking growth of ney music both live and recorded, and a hunger for ney learning in Turkey's major cities. Although many factors contribute to this interest, in this paper I attribute it to the interplay between artistic developments in the music industry and the recent reinvigoration of Sufism, within which the ney and its practitioners find themselves in a new web of meanings and relationships.

Keywords:

• Ney
• Turkey
• Sufism
• Sufi Music
• Globalisation

Notes

¹ The ney also figures prominently in Arab and Persian musical traditions. The Persian nây differs from the Turkish equivalent in its structure and performance style, as it requires the use of the teeth and tongue technique. Turkish and Egyptian ney have six finger-holes in front and one thumb-hole behind.

² The full name of this organisation that provides free public training is the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Art and Vocational Training Courses (İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Sanat ve Meslek Eğitimi Kursları [İSMEK]). Similar institutions also exist in other Turkish cities under different names. İSMEK commenced its activities in 1996; see: http://ismek.ibb.gov.tr

³ In this musical context led by new aesthetic concerns, attempts to fuse the sounds of all three ‘flutes’ have occurred: see the albums Ocean (1986), Garden of Mirrors (1997) and Athos (1994) by the German composer Stephan Micus; Boomerang Dream (2009) by Avi Adir; and Enigmatic Genes (2007) by Bernhard Mikuskovics and Bernd Meyer.

⁴ Schimmel cites the story of King Midas of Gordion from the ancient Near East and an Islamic version of it found in the twelfth-century Persian poet Sanai's Hadiqat al-haqiqat in which ‘it is said that Hazreti Ali could not bear all the spiritual wisdom entrusted to him by the Prophet and told it to a lake in the wilderness, and again it was the flute that revealed to mankind some of the Prophet's deepest secrets’ (2005: 13).

⁵ Some of the key representatives of this style in the twentieth century are neyzen Hayri Tümer, Gavsi Baykara, Burhaneddin Ökte, Halil Can, Süleyman Erguner, Neyzen Tevfik, and İhsan Aziz Bey (Behar 2008: 121).

⁶ According to Ünver's (1964: 30–8) research, 99 mevlevihanes existed throughout the Empire from the sixteenth century until 1925, the year they were closed down.

⁷ After the seventeenth century, other instruments were also used in the ayins such as the ud, violin, kanun, santur, tanbur, kemençe, girift, and even the piano and cello (Gölpınarlı 1983).

⁸ The context that Tanrıkorur (2003: 30) refers to here involves the closing down of the Ottoman music institutions including the Mehterhane, Enderun and Darülelhan, and the banning of Ottoman-Turkish music teaching at schools in 1934 and its broadcasting on the radio.

⁹ Other muted genres included Kurdish and Alevi music (see Houston 2008).

¹⁰ Among Emin Dede's well-known students are Süleyman Erguner, Halil Dikmen, Halil Can, Emin Kılıçkale and Hakkı Süha Gezgin.

¹¹ In the 1990s, the members of this duo, Birol Yayla (tanbur and guitar) and Aziz S. Filiz (ney), recorded two albums (Yansımalar, 1991; Bab-ı Esrar, 1995) released by the record label Kalan Müzik. These albums were extremely influential in the popularisation of the ney, confirmed by many young ney enthusiasts during my fieldwork.

¹² Ministry of Culture: http://www.mysticmusicfest.com/2013/index-en.html#/about (accessed 17 October 2013).

¹³ This can be understood as an aspect of the renewed interest in the selected symbols of Ottoman past and their appropriation for recreating a certain version of Ottoman cultural heritage in the present. Yavuz argues that ‘this reconstruction of Ottoman identity has been at work for the last three decades and has recently been articulated in art, literature, cuisine and politics' (2009: 95).

¹⁴ Erguner's statement is available online: http://www.halalmonk.com/kudsi-erguner-become-like-a-ney (accessed 2 October 2013). Dede's response is also online: http://yenisafak.com.tr/arsiv/2002/OCAK/26/kultur.html (accessed 28 November 2013).