musique traditionnelle turque

 

MUSIQUE TRADITIONNELLE TURQUE

PIECES INSTRUMENTALES

TURKISH TRADITIONAL MUSIC

INSTRUMENTAL PIECES

Disques Ocora, ORTF, 1971, OCR 56

The general editor for this publication was Charles Duvelle (1937-2017) who created Ocora in 1960. He was a musicologist fascinated by Africa where he recorded thousands of hours of music in the field from 1961. He launched his own label in 1988 under the name of ''Prophet'' dedicated to African music.

Bernard Mauguin wrote the notes for this album (French and English) which features great names of the Turkish tradition such as Ulvi Eguner or Cinuçen Tanrıkorur. Side A has four tracks about the makam segah as it is the rule in concert to explore one single makam by different musicians and  give the listener as many interpretations as there are soloists. Unfortunately we don't know who plays the ney on track A1. Three neyzenler were present : U. Erguner, Akagündüz Kutbay and Doğan Ergin.
Side B has three tracks where all the musicians perform together. 

I'd like to mention a short story about A. Kutbay (a member of the Mevlevi order) I heard from Jean-Claude Chabrier I think (see the post about M. Sabsabi) ; Kutbay was a member of the classical Turkish orchestra attached to the national radio in Istanbul. As the orchestra was about to play one day, the musicians playing string instruments asked Kutbay to give them a note from his ney in order to tune up. He did so and died immediately after. What a better death could a musician dream of ? It was in 1979 and he was 45.

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Turkey I

 TURKEY I

A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT / UNESCO COLLECTION

Edited for the International Mucic Council by the International Institute
for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation

Commentary in English, French, German

 Bärenreiter Musicaphon, BM30 L 2019

Published between 1966 and 1971 this first LP about Turkey is the 19th album of this wonderful series numbering 32 LPs altogether. The German label was founded in 1960 and issued other colllections like An Anthology of African Music. Some albums have been reissued by Rounder but the 2 LPs about Turkey are not.
The general editor was the French musicologist Alain Daniélou (1907-1994). He sometimes wrote the presentation texts but here it is Bernard Mauguin who wrote the commentary and who also recorded the musicians.

Turkey I features the music of the Mevlevi whose role is to bring the performers/believers to a state of mystic exaltation. Track 1 is a long prayer sung in Persian by the outstanding singer Kani Karaca. Track 2 is a taksim/improvisation by the ney but it is not precised who between Halil Can, Ulvi Erguner and Niyazi Sayin is the performer. Then the other tracks feature the full ensemble of the singers and the musicians until the last track which concludes with a taksim of tanbur by Necdet Yaşar.

Only the notes in English are posted here.

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MUḤAMMAD ABŪ NAṢṢĀR

 MUḤAMMAD ABŪ NAṢṢĀR / YĀ AHL SANꜤĀ’

PEOPLE OF SANA'A! 

BURJ AL-ꜤUŠŠĀQ, no date, 268

This is one of the tapes I got from a friend who spent a few years in Yemen for his studies about the 18th century  Yemenite poetry. As usual I can't read the titles; the information above was given by this friend.
Abu Nassar is a singer and ud player who sings in the tradition of the capital Sana'a. This kind of music is performed at home with friends and everybody (meaning here men) chew some qat for hours. The qat is believed to have been imported to Yemen in the 14th century from Eastern Africa and has been cultivated in Yemen ever since. The lyrics are often old poetry. The influence of Eastern Africa or even Indian Ocean might give this music its specificity. Here Abu Nassar is accompanied by the sahn a copper tray and other percussions.
There are seven songs; thanks to Leonidas for providing the titles in his comment.

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