Nai (pan flute)

The nai (archaic: muscal) is a traditional Romanian diatonic pan flute used in a lot of genres.

Structure

The nai has usually at least 20 pipes made of bamboo or reed. They are arranged in a curved array, allowing a greater speed of play. Generally the longer, lower pipes are on the right. The pitch of each pipe is adjusted with beeswax; usually nais are tuned in G for Romanian folk music, or in C for classical. Traditional Romanian pan flutes have tubes with varying diameters which go from wide to narrow as you go up the scale, to maintain the volume/length ratio of the tube and therefore produce the best consistent tone quality.

Famous nai players

• Fănică Luca
• Damian Luca
• Gheorghe Zamfir
• Simion Stanciu
• Radu Simion
• Damian Drăghici
• Nicolae Pîrvu
• Dana Dragomir
• Constantin Moscovici

References

• Zamfir, Gheorghe (1975). Traitė Du Naï Roumain: méthode de flûte de pan. Chappell S.A. ISBN 88-8291-286-8.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nai.

• The "Romanian" Nai?
• panflute.ca Kevin Budd's Pan Flute pages
• June Chikuma / Pastorale Records

This page was last edited on 7 January 2024, at 15:18