Music, Culture & Creativity

"Final Project”

Güneş Yakartepe

409201203

This article was written for the final project of the Music, Culture & Creativity course.
The purpose of writing this article is to reveal the creation process of a music composed for
the final project and the imagery it contains.

When music is examined in terms of instrument usage; It is seen that it was written for
Ney, Kanun, Three String Kemençe and String Quartet. In other words, Turkish Music
Instruments and Western music instruments were used together. The instrument groups
mentioned above are arranged as two groups according to their ethnic origin. First group
(Turkish Music Instruments); more consonant intervals in terms of instrument usage. The
main target is not only to use kanun, violin and ney with their usual instrumental features, but
also to create different colors by using them with timbre techniques such as soft noise. In the
second group, besides the characteristic usage styles, maqam lines was also used. The two
instrument groups are constantly being changed in terms of usage patterns and new timbre
richness is sought.

In instrumentation, Ney and Kanun instruments are considered more complicated

compared to kemençe, violin, viola and cello. These instruments differ in terms of timbre
from other instruments that we can include under the name of string instruments. At the same
time, since these instruments are similar to flute and harp in terms of structure and timbre,
they also took on the duties of these instruments. The examples are arpeggiandos in the harp
part and contrapuntal line in the flute part. In other words, the composer did not limit the
instruments according to their places of use, but promised a free world to those instruments.
In this way, it aims to get much more efficiency from the instruments and to reveal different
timbres.
 In this music, the Composer has tried to go beyond some taboo concepts. The first of
these taboos that the composer focused; It is the prejudice of a performer who plays a Turkish
Musical Instrument against the signature such as sharp, flat. The result of this judgment; A
performer cannot combine a piece of music from every tone. At the same time, instrument
makers do not plan a maqam to be performed in all frets. Although this is a situation that does
not restrict the use of instruments in Turkish music, it is a very restrictive situation for music
written with the set theory principle. Therefore, in this Utopian World, performers are
expected to set aside their habits. The second of the taboos is to break the prejudice of
classical music performers against maqam music. For this reason, microtonal sounds selected
from maqam music scales for western music instruments are also used in the work. As a
result, in the utopia that is desired to be created, performers are expected to leave their taboos
behind.

The utopian world in this music; two communities that have never communicated
before are conceivable. These ensembles are also associated with the previously mentioned
instrument groups. In order to create a language with each other, these two entities have to
both protect their individual identities and create a language that they can use in common.
That is why the two beings must first get to know each other. The composer determined the
native languages of these communities as set theory and maqam music. Here, a new utopia
has been tried to be created by using these two sources. However, while creating this utopia,
both sides have made quite concessions from themselves. Sets lose their properties from time
to time and turn into modes. The points where it transforms into modes are actually the
common point where it meets with maqam music.

The emotion that is wanted to be expressed in this music is actually love. But that love
is hidden deep in the music. At the same time, the theme that comes in the 13th measure in
kemençe is the love theme of the music. This theme was never transposed, although it
continued to evolve as the music progressed. The fact that it is not transposed depicts the
stability of the feeling of love. This theme is also related to both modal and set theory. Music
constantly repeats itself with the movements of symbolic motifs. These movements also
symbolize the perfect mathematics of the universe.
 As a result, in this music, it was desired to create a new utopia by overcoming the
taboos of the performers and the physical limits of the instruments. The intersection point of
the Eastern world's search for the boundaries of the universe on earth and the Western world's
search for the secret of the universe in complexity is the center of the utopia created by this
work. This is where the name of the music comes from: “Lyrical Dissonance”.