‘Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It does not matter. Ours in not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come.’ Mevlana J. Rumi
Ney is an oblique rim-blown flute that is popular in Turkey, Iran and countries in Central Asia and the Arab world. It has an important role in Mevlevi ceremonies of Sufism which was established by Mevlana J. Rumi.
Mevlevi ceremony
The sound of ney is said to represent the longing and the intense love for God where the human soul and the body craves for the divine. Ney, according to Sufis is the symbolic representation of human separated from his homeland which is his connection to the divine. The agony of this separation is at the core of the Sufi music and lyrics. Sufis believe that this intense longing dissolves and leads to transcendence into the divine via sama rituals involving music, chanting, whirling and spiritual ecstasy. The ney is the essential accompanying instrument in the sama rituals.
Ney master Umut Soysal playing the ney
There is now a growing number of people in Istanbul wanting to learn how to ‘blow’ the ney which is quiet a challenging instrument to master. People from all walks of life are walking on the footsteps of ney masters to ‘blow’ the ney. Note that the expression is to ‘blow’ rather than play as sufis believe that blowing the ney is a symbolic act echoing God blowing the human soul into its making.
Let’s land an ear to the ney master Kudsi Ergüner playing the ney and let him transform us to a higher realm!
If you want to learn how to play the ney, visit https://neyneva.com/.
This ney school is in Sultanahmet in walking distance to Marmaray where experienced masters of Ney lead the way.
