Kaval: Bulgarian musical instrument

 Kaval is a chromatic end-blown flute that is traditionally used all through the following countries, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine, Greece, Southern Serbia, Romania, Moldova, and Armenia. The kaval is linked primarily to mountain shepherds all through Balkans and Anatolia. The kaval is fully open at both ends and can be played by blowing on the shepherd edge of any end. This musical instrument is constructed to have 8 playing holes, which is 7 in the front and 1 in the back of the thumb and is usually four more fingerless intonation holes near bottom of the kaval. Kaval being a wooden rim-blown flute, it becomes more like the Ney of the Arab world. Aside being made from wood, kaval can also be manufactured from the horn of a water buffalo, metal and even plastic. Any kaval that is produced without joint is usually fixed on a wooden holder that is protecting it from getting twisted and helping to keep the wall oiled. According to the key, the kaval can be in the high register (C, C#), middle (D, H) or low (A, B). In the chromatic scale, the kaval can play is meant to play two octaves and a fifth to produce a warm, melancholic and pleasant sound.

source: shopbulgaria.com

            The kaval is originally believed to be associated with mountain shepherds throughout the Balkans and Anatolia and in the book Kaval: Traditional Folk Melodies for Balkan & Anatolian Folk Flute, musician Pat MacSwyney suggest that the kaval spread with the yoruk which is from the Taurus Mountains of the southern Anatolia into southern Balkans of southern Europe.

            The kaval is known to be open at both end and to be able to play this musical instrument you have to blow on the sharp edge of one end. The kaval is built with 8 holes and usually 4 more near the bottom of the kaval. These holes are not there for the playing of this instrument rather they are there to help in the determination of the lowest tone’s pitch and timbre and are also made to improve the tone and intonation. In Bulgaria, these holes are known as “devil’s holes”. They believed that while the shepherd is sleeping the devil came in and bore a hole in the shepherd’s kaval, yet, instead of killing or making the kaval to malfunction, the holes became an enhancer to the kaval thus thwarting the devil. When playing this musical instrument, the player holds the kaval with both hands at an angle of about 45° from the body with the four fingers of the one hand covering the lower holes while the other upper three holes and thumbhole are covered with the other hand and the mouth covers ~¾ of the end.