http://www.discoverturkey.com/english/kultursanat/b-h-mey.html. This is from a really great website with lots of info and MP3s to hear as well.
Here’s the Mey, those reeds look quite Keenan/Furey wouldn’t you say?
I mucked about with making a smallpipe/shawm out of an elder branch. Didn’t really happen!
Wow ! there is a same kind of instrument in JAPAN too. But sounds different. Some time this instrument sounds like UP!!
http://www2.edu.ipa.go.jp/gz/m-wgk1/m-huk1/m-wnd6/IPA-wgk240.htm
you can see some mpg movies
Hichiriki sounds much more musical than the mey. 
djm
The core of this instrumental tradition is the Armenian duduk. See
The Turkish mey and the Korean piri appear to be derivatives. The duduk is said to go back a couple of thousand years; it plays the same iconic role in Armenian culture that the pipes do in Scotland and Ireland.
I once bought a mey in Istanbul. I later met a guy who played the sax and he could get some fairly impressive noises out of it. I’ve got a couple of piri, and believe me it’s even harder keeping the reeds going than ion uilleann pipes. These large-reeded instruments seem OK for countries that have stable climates, but in a place where the humidity varies I suspect you’re better off with a small reed, or a single-bladed reed as on a modern clarinet
Ross
The Chinese have the same instrument, and a very rich tradition of accessible music for it.
It’s called guanzi, literally “tube.”
http://www.asza.com/iguan.shtml
http://www.melodyofchina.com/06instruments/guanzi.html
(This one has a demo clip.)
Once, I was giving an uilleann pipes “performance” (“ensoo”) at the Japanese junior high school where I used to work. I was showing the kids the various parts of the pipes and said “It’s a bit like a hichiriki” when I was describing the chanter. Afterwards, one of the other teachers came up to me and said, “You know, it really does sound a bit like a hichiriki. Unfortunately, I don’t think many of the students know what a hichiriki is.”
The fundamental difference between the hichiriki and uilleann pipes is that Togi Hideki, one of Japan’s best hichiriki players, drives a Ferrari, whereas none of Ireland’s top uilleann pipers drive Ferraris…
David–Very interesting info about the guanzi. I was aware that the Chinese had a bombarde-like shawm that was used extensively in weddings and things , but I had never heard of the guanzi before.
Dudouks seem to be one of those insturments that you’ve probably heard even if you haven’t heard of them (like UPs…). Several film soundtracks (such as Last Temptation of ]Christ) feature them extensively. Martyn Bennett did a bit of crazy stuff on dudouk on his “Bothy Culture” album.
Paddy Moloney does drive a Rolls Royce.
Hey Guys Yeah I met Togi-san years ago at UCLA and he plays ALL the Go-Gaku (Imperial Japanese Orchestra) he plays ALL the instruments in that ensemble AND he is a very witty, charming, and enthusiastic musician. I never rode with him in his Ferrari, just an old Toyota Carolla, ANY way he told me that the origin of this Go-Gaku (or Ga-gaku) group was that the musicians came from China, a thousand years ago, and that some of their decendants still play for the Emperor, Shinto ceremonies, and Funerals. So it’s thought by some musiclogists that if you want to hear ANCIENT Chinese music, you have to listen to Go-Gaku. As to the Mey, Duduk, Balaban,Kuan,Piri,Hichi-Riki, and other names to numerous to mention,the Classic Greek name for the instrument was the MONAULOS or single Aulos. The “regular” Aulos (or Auloi) was a pair of pipes, played in the mouth with circular breathing, just as mey..etc.. players do to-day. It is thought that this is one of the few WESTERN ideas/objects that traveled EAST along the Silk Road arriving 500AD? or perhaps earlier,and the double reeded SO-NAH or shawm arrived later 1000AD? So Uilleann reeds with floating collars, ala Keenan and Furey,ARE NOT NEW, but perhaps a REDISCOVERY, as part of the search for the PERFECT REED. Oh and I showed Paddy my mey reed with floating collar “Jeez would you look at that?” said Paddy. So keep thinking and channeling the reed ZeitGeist!
who knows what reeds lurck in the hearts of men? Sean Folsom
Hey Mr. Folsom!
Sounds like Paddy and Finbar came up with a bit of parallel evolution there. Maybe in some corner of the world there’s guys playing reeds with wire collars ala Northumbria?
The Imperial Japanese Orchestra sounds like a cushy gig! I read about how a primo shakuhachi will set you back 5 grand. Jeezus!
Carmel? Is the mayor still a cigar chomping jazzophile Oscar® winner? PUNK!
Sadly, a lot ot the old Chinese-descended Gagaku families are dying out, apparently.
Five grand for a primo shakuhachi? Try closer to ten grand, Kevin. 1.8-foot bamboo tubes coated in a lacquer derived from poison oak don’t come cheap.
Yeah Kevin The Kuan reeds from China have a fixed position wire collar (3 strands) and come in a range of sizes, the largest are 1/2 the size of the Mey reeds, some are Arundo fragmites and others are Arundo donax (the famous Duduk of Gasparian fame) shaved, wetted, and collapsed into shape. Clint Eastwood was only Mayor of Carmel for 2 years, back in the 1980s, and yeah, he’s very keen on jazz, and his hilltop estate is opposite the Quail lodge complex on Carmel Valley road. I’ve never met him, but my Dad and he went to the same Castlemont High School in Oakland California (different years of graduation) and my Dad hung out with him at the Carmel Village Theatre and heard tales of Hollywood…Speaking of Shakuhachi (notched end blown flutes ,related to the Quena-quena and the Xaio (or Ch-ao), have any of you heard of Monty Levinson’s Inexpensive Shakuhachis? He measured up the Really Good instruments, and had a precise mandrel made out of a BENDABLE PVC, then puts it down the Bamboo tube and fills the space around it in with black EXPOXY giving the same results as the ground up rock and poison oak laquer
the people in Ni-hon carefuly carve out (in the right places) in a time consuming manner, even the special bamboo for the flutes only grows on a few small islands and the supply of this is limited/controled. However, Monty located a supply of the same bamboo in China, and did an end-run around that too. I bought my Shakuhachi from him in 1990 for $200. He lives on a hilltop near Willits, California with his Japanese wife and their children. Monty told me that Rod Cameron and Micheal Hubert helped him with the technical stuff measuring and mandrel turning (think about the similarity of the bumps and hollows of a Good Uilleann Pipe Bore and the same in the bores of Shakuhachi) They are hard to play well though, and I much perfer the Chinese Xaio at a fraction of the price and of a smaller bore diameter, for ease of playing. I usual hold up all 3 notched end blown flutes with the So. American Quena-quena to the left, and say"Thor Hyrdahl was RIGHT! There WAS contact across the Pacific Ocean before the Europeans! Here’s the Flute proof, China,Japan, and Bolivia!" Sean Folsom