A Study of the Reference Pitches in Ottoman - Turkish Music Through an Analysis of Historical Neys

Abstract

Abstract Ney master Niyazi Sayın defines music as "spiritual relationship” between two sounds, when it comes to collective performance, a reference sound is needed to ensure harmony between the instruments. The situation does not change in East or West; if a performance is to be performed with two instruments, it is essential that one fits the other. However, when the number of instruments increases, different organological structures are included in this situation. The need to unite on a common pitch / frequency has arisen due to reasons such as the fact that some instruments are fixedly tuned or tuning takes hours. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the performance ability that continues in the reference of the ney instrument in Ottoman – Turkish music by analyzing the neys belonging to the important neyzens (ney artists), with an introduction starting with how European music manages this process. All the data obtained here will provide a model for researchers studying theory or period music.Keywords: Hertz, Ney, Reference Pitch, Ottoman - Turkish Music, Frequency