Signal Analysis of Ney Performances

Ney is an end-blown flute which is mainly used for Makam music. Although from the beginning of 20 century a score representation based on extending the Western music is used, because of its rich articulation repertoire, actual Ney music can not be totally represented by written score. Ney is still taught and transmitted orally in Turkey. Because of that the performance has a distinct and important role in Ney music. Therefore signal analysis of ney performances is crucial for understanding the actual music. Another important aspect which is also a part of the performance is the articulations that performers apply. In Makam music in Turkey none of the articulations are taught even named by teachers. Articulations in Ney are valuable for understanding the real performance. Since articulations are not taught and their places are not marked in the score, the choice and character of the articulation is unique for each performer which also makes each performance unique. Our method analyzes audio files of well known Turkish Ney players. In order to obtain our analysis data, we analyzed audio files of 8 different performers vary from 1920 to 2000.