Zurna and def
The outdoor pair that no Kurdish wedding can do without.
The zurna, a piercing double-reed shawm, and the def (davul), the great double-headed drum, are the outdoor voice of Kurdish celebration. Played always as a pair, they announce weddings, lead the govend and can be heard across a whole village, which is exactly the point: this is music as public announcement, older than amplification. Every region has its zurna-and-def repertoire of dance tunes and processional airs, and the best players are hired celebrities of the wedding season. Their sound, more than any other, is the sound of a Kurdish summer.