The Magic of reed flute
This breath in the Ney is fire and isn’t a sheer blow,
He who hasn’t this fire let him die and let him go.
It is the fire of love that has made the Ney demented,
And is love-desire that renders the wine fermented.
The Ney is a friend to those who lose their companions,
Our breasts are also pierced like the Ney’s divisions.
Who has ever seen an antidote and poison like the Ney?
Who has ever seen a consoling friend like the Ney?
Rhymed Translation by Türkman, 1996
(Extract of Song of the Reed – the opening lines of the Masnawi by Jalaluddin Rumi)
The Reed Flute (Ney) is Jalaluddin Rumi’s most favourite instrument; its image permeates the whole artistic heritage of the great poet and has an immense symbolic meaning.
Empty inside, a reed flute starts producing sweet sounds when filled with player’s breath. Same way a man gets his life, when achieves it as a gift with the first breath by the will of Almighty. In his works Rumi tells that human soul sufferings during the life time are similar to the holes in the Ney, and the Master turns a reed into a wonderful instrument with help of these holes. Thus a human heart in the beginning of life is a mere reed, but the life path, full of various events, turns it into a flute filled by Almighty with the music of divine love. And alas the melody of a human heart is beginning to sound and is striving to join its ultimate source (the Divine).
According to Rumi, the roof and the doors of the temple of Love were made of songs and verses. The one, whose heart hears the sounds of flute and whose heartbeat echoes in time with the heartbeat of the Universe, dances this life. The doors of the temple of Love are open to everyone…
Mesmerizing tunes of the Ney played by one of the best ney players in the world Dariush Rasouli (one of the trio “Hamdam”) are going to sound on the first day of our festival. The audience will see a joint concert by Alper Akcay (Turkey), performing ancient mystic Anatolian dances to the sounds of authentic Persian music by the trio “Hamdam” (Iran). The trio’s repertoire consists mainly of music pieces based on Rumi’s poetry. The dance and the music will tell us how the magic of art infuses the world around with colours of joy and inspiration. Refined combination of Jalaluddin Rumi’s poetry, sounds of ney, Iranian daf and Kurdish lute will charm the audience, as indeed – music is the world beyond, the strings of life itself.
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