Sunday, June 27, 2021

RUHI SU


RUHI SU 

VOLKSLIEDER ÜBER DEN KRIEG/EPOS AUF DEN BEFREIUNGSKAMPF

FOLK SONGS ABOUT THE WAR/EPIC ON THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY

Pläne, 1986, 88508

Mehmet Ruhi Su (1912-1985) was one of Turkey's most famous voices. He was born in Van in Eastern Anatolia in Armenian country just before the genocide. Stories go that he was born in fact to Armenian parents but after his parents died in 1915 he was raised as a Muslim.in an orphanage.
He was known for his support to the Communist Party and was jailed between 1952 and 1957. He worked for the opera and the radio in Ankara. After his release he started to sing on his own in the Sixties and recorded his first album in 1972. Some people say that it was he who brought the traditional repertoire to the attention of the intellectuals of the time. After the coup in 1980 by the army he fell ill but coudn't go abroad for appropriate care and died because of it.

This LP was issued in Germany and it seems it has never been reissued on CD while most of his records are available on line.
All the lyrics of the songs are either traditional or composed by N. Hikmet. One is attributed to Pir Sultan Abdal. The music was composed by Ruhi Su. The lyrics in Turkish are translated in German.
Theses songs are about different wars (the First World War, the war against the Greeks in 1922) but also about other kinds of wars (the Song of Change by Pir Sultan Abdal) against social and politcal oppression, poverty, , etc...
All the songs are sung one after the other without any break. 


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