Intro Song in Petra Documentary

Question

So, there is this documentary called "Petra: the lost city of stone". At the very beginning, you immediatly here the narrator speaking with a background music. I'm not a music expert, i cannot even identify the instrument used in the beginning of the video. But, it sounds like some sort of weird flute to me, or something similar. It is at the very beginning of the video, the first soundtrack/music you hear, while the narrator is starting to speak. Does anyone know the title of this song? I've searched and found nothing.

If you don't know it yourself, could you then please tell me which instrument is used. Thnx.

Here is the link to the documentary:https://youtu.be/6xQaEZbVras

Answer 1

Hard to pick the sounds out, as it is mixed down low. But given the setting, it is likely to be a ney, which is an end-blown flute. The "weirdness" of the sound probably comes from the use of what are (to most Western ears) unfamiliar intervals - microtones somewhere less than a semitone. More technical details on the ney here.

Of course, it could also be a synthesised clip from a sound library, to give "local colour". But the instrument imitated is likely to be a ney. If there was a link to full credits of the documentary, it might be possible to dig further, but answering questions about accompanying music for films etc often hits the wall, as music is often not named or attributed as it is bought in bulk from libraries.