The ney is an instrument of milleniums past that has become
the only wind instrument used in classical Persian, Arab and
Turkish-Ottoman ensembles. Ever since the 9th century it has been among
the rare musical instruments used in the Sufi ceremonial encounter know as the ‘samâ‘,
in which one listens to music and poetry to achieve a special inner
state, which can be defined as ecstasy or, more correctly, ‘instasi‘. From the 13th century on, it has had a particular musical and symbolic role within the Sufi brotherhood known as mevleviye or, in the West, as the ‘whirling dervishes’, which follows the example of the Sufi poet Mevlâna Jalâl-ud-Dîn Rumî (Balkh, 1207 – Konya, 1273), whose works are written in Persian.

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Kudsi Erguner (1952)
comes quite naturally to this spiritual and musical tradition. He is
the son of a family of neyzen begun a century ago by his grandfather
Süleyman Erguner (1902 – 1953) and carried on by his father Ulvi
Erguner (1924 – 1974), famous soloist of his time and director of the
Department of Traditional Music for Istanbul Radio. With more than
fifty recordings to his name and through collaborative efforts in the
fields of music, theatre (Peter Brook), film (Martin Scorsese, Marco
Ferreri) and dance (Carolyn Carlson, Maurice Bejart), Kudsi Erguner is,
alongside his brother Süleyman (1957) and Niyazi Sayin (1927), one the
most famous neyzen in the world.

Participants are required to enrol musica.comparata@cini.it
All day course, from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm