The Oxhorn Mouthpiece

The mouthpiece, or başpare, of the ney is made from horn, a stable, hard material capable of many years of service. Wonderful mouthpieces can be made of ivory, but it is hard to find and pay for chunks of ivory big enough to use. Horn has a definite grain to it, and becomes lustrous when polished. No other horn except ox and water buffalo is suited to this purpose. For experimental purposes, a hard. close-grained wood such as African blackwood, boxwood, or even ebonite (hard rubber) may be used for the başpare.

Figure 3 shows the cross section of the mouthpiece with its elaborate curved bore, while figure 4 shows the orientation of the mouthpiece to the horn from which it is made. I have drawn a mouthpiece with a flange, or foot, .2" thick, the diameter of which should match the outside diameter of the cane. This foot allows the part to be easily chucked up in a lathe. Otherwise, there are no parallel surfaces to hold onto while forming the blowing edge. Mouthpieces are made with, ayaklı, and without, ayaksız, a foot. Ayaksiz is more traditional.

The peculiar shape of the mouthpiece needs some explaining. The bore is bell-shaped so the instrument may be played at different angles of attack. Closing up on the mouthpiece playing at angle closer to the axis of the bore will flatten the note. Opening up, increasing the distance from the lips to the edge, will sharpen the note. Playing the ney requires these different angles of attack.

I think that the wide flange was used originally as a kind of cheek rest. The shape of the modem mouthpiece is such that it cannot function in this manner. Older mouthpieces are often much flatter, and could be used for support The drawings in this article are based on proportions used by the only mouthpiece craftsman in Turkey, Bülent Dölen, in the Istanbul Kapalı Çarşı (Covered Bazaar).

Cutting the Cane

For selecting cane I hold up a 1/4-inch dowel to a likely stalk. I have marked node positions as red rings and fingerhole positions as black rings at the correct places on the dowel. I can easily see if the nodes on the stalk are placed so that the finger holes will not be too close to them. Using the dowel avoids chopping down many pieces of cane only to find them unusable. Once a good stalk has been found, cut it as close to the root as possible. A metal hacksaw is good for this purpose. Never try to break a cane stalk as you would a twig; it will split a long way up, invariably ruining the stalk. Also, be careful if you start to walk into a cane patch; broken and split canes produce very sharp edges. Gloves are handy; boots are more appropriate than sandals. Once the cane has been cut, leave the stalk in a shady place for a few weeks before working on it. This is enough time for the cane to dry out. If the stalk is too young, it may shrink, rendering it worthless.

Next: Trimming the Cane