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.