New Recordings of Turkish Classical Music

Author(s): Walter Feldman

Source: Middle East Studies Association Bulletin , December 1994, Vol. 28, No. 2
(December 1994), pp. 181-184
Published by: Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23063616

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MESA Bulletin 28 1994

New Recordings of Turkish Classical Music

Walter Feldman, University of Pennsylvania

WHILE THE REPERTOIRE of the Mevlevi dervishes has been documented by

several Turkish and foreign LP, cassette and CD recordings, the corresponding
secular performance cycle, the courtly fasil, has had virtually no commercial
recordings in its integrity. Only individual items have appeared, usually per
formed by large mixed choruses, reflecting the Turkish aesthetic of the 1950s-80s
rather than a "traditional" performance. Many Turkish recordings do present a
genre known today as "fasil," but these represent the music of Istanbul nightclubs
from ca. 1880-1950, not of the Ottoman court.
The courtly fasil was a cyclical concert format which had the following
structure at the beginning of the nineteenth century:
1. instrumental pe$rev
2. instrumental taksim (improvisation)
3. vocal takstm
4. first beste or kar
5. second beste
6. agir sema't
7. one or more <jarki
8. yuriik sema 'i
9. saz sema't

The pe^rev is the instrumental genre introducing the fasil. It emerged out of
the instrumental pishrow of medieval Iranian music, which had become defunct
by the later eighteenth century. It is therefore a distant relative of the Uz
bek/Tajik forms soqil and pe$raw which share a similar Iranian origin. Since the
mid-eighteenth century the Turkish pe$rev has developed along highly distinctive
lines, employing mainly the long usul (rhythmic cycle) patterns, which may have
thirty-two, fifty-six, eighty-eight or even longer compound periods stretching to
well over a hundred beats per measure. Thepe$rev is composed in four sections,
called hane, usually with modulating makams in each one. A ritornello, called
teslim, helps to unify the composition.
The kar was the dominant vocal form of Iranian, Transoxanian and Turkish
music during the sixteenth century. It had employed several short to medium
usuls. The texts were (and are) always in Persian, but this poetic text coexists
with a non-textual groups of syllables known as the terennum, which are set
precisely to the composed melody. The kar became rare in Turkish music after
the middle of the eighteenth century.
The beste was considered the most significant element In the fasil] from the
early seventeenth century until the last third of the nineteenth century Turkish
composers were judged mainly on their success in creating bestes. Bestes use
most of the long usul patterns employed by the pe$rev, but their compostional
structure is otherwise quite different. The beste is created out of two essential
parts, a basic melody, called zemtn, and a modulating section, called miyan. The

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 MESA BULLETIN 28 1994

first, second and fourth stich of the text (which might be a gazel or a murabba")
is set to the zemtn, while the third stich is set to the miyan. In addition many,
but not all bestes employ a terennum section, which sometimes functions as a
long ritornello. Texts of the beste are always in Turkish. The compositional
structure of the agir sema't and the yiiriik sema T resemble that of the beste, with
the important distinction that they may only employ the short usiils aksak sema "i
(10/8) or sema'i (6/8) or the "heavy" (agir) versions of these, 10/4 and 6/4 for
the former. During the late eighteenth (or early nineteenth century) the agir and
yiiriik sema't forms were borrowed by Syrian art music.
During the seventeenth century a popular urban form known as §arki had
become adopted by the Ottoman elite, who began to write elegant versions of the
simple strophic tiirkil poetic form. For over two centuries it was the center of a
less formal style of performance, along with vocal and instrumental improvisa
tions (taksim). During the nineteenth century it became fashionable to create
small cycles (takim) out of $arkis with contrasting rhythms, always beginning with
the slow agir aksak sema'i ( 10/4) or agir aksak (9/4), or sometimes sengtn
sema'i (6/4). Such a takim of $arkis might be performed between the agir and
yiiriik sema'i during the fasil, or else as an expanded cycle interrupted by vocal
and instrumental taksim improvisations. As the courtly music declined in the later
nineteenth century the §arki was adopted by the modern nightclub (gazino) where
it became the central genre of the nightclub fasil. While the nightclub fasil usual
ly closed with urban dance genres, such as longa and sirto, the courtly fasil
always ended with a saz sema'i, which had a structure similar to that of the
pe$rev, set to the short aksak sema'i usul (10/8). The saz sema'i seems to have
entered Syrian and Egyptian music in the later nineteenth century, where it be
came a major genre of the waslah cycle. These Levantine saz sema'is were
either local compositions or, more often, stylistically altered versions of both the
courtly and the nightclub Turkish saz sema'is.
The current series is an attempt to document the Ottoman courtly fasil perfor
mance practice and repertoire, employing two of the most highly regarded classi
cal (klasik) vocalists. Of course one should not exaggerate the degree to which
these performances can claim to be "traditional" (geleneksel). What is currently
regarded as klasik has many elements of the traditional, but the absence of a
recognized standard for the courtly vocalist since official Ottoman patronage
began to decline in the last third of the 19th century, plus the sharp separation of
secular and religious vocal styles beginning with the Turkish Republic (1923),
have allowed several socially and individually based styles to predominate.
This series gives pride of place to the performance style of Ms. Meral
Ugurlu (b. 1939), regarded as the leading female vocalist in Turkey. Ms. Ugurlu
is a truly great representative of the female Ottoman vocal style as it has devel
oped in this century. Her voice is warm and caressing but avoids sentimentality.
She is able to reach into the upper range, especially in the modulating section
(miyan) of the beste form, with a full voice which is never shrill or intonationally
vague. The rhythmic subtlety of her phrasing and ornamentation within strictly
metrical compositions are breathtaking.

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MESA Bulletin 28 1994

Viewed as a total performance it must be observed that this series is par

a radio "tradition" in which the vocalist totally dominates the instruments.
accompanists' tracks are dubbed over the vocal track; this lessens the excitem
of the relationship between singer and accompanists which characterizes a
tional Turkish performance. Fortunately on the fifth cassette Ms. Ugurlu
accompanied by an ensemble led by the udist Cinu?en Tannkorur, and the
and instrumental performances were recorded simultaneously. The results are
more musical than any of the other recordings. The performance of
Allaeddin Yava§ga (b. 1926) on cassette no. 3 allows the listener to appreciate
singing of one of the foremost classical male vocalists of the second half of
twentieth century, who is also a noted authority on the repertoire. While
interpretations are on a very high level, there is no doubt that his voice was
supple on the radio recordings which he made ten to twenty years ago.
The recordings all are drawn from the courtly fasil and $arkt repertoire of
nineteenth and sometimes the eighteenth centuries. The cassettes are accompa
by small booklets which contain biographies of the two performers, parag
length biographies of all composers, and texts of the vocal items, all in Turk
only. The repertoire is the following:

Cassette no:
(1) a. Ferahnak Fash (Ismail Dede Efendi d. 1046, Dellalzade d. 1869, Zeka'i
Dede d. 1897)
b. Ferahnak Takim
(2) a. Mahur Fash (Ebubekir Aga d. 1759, Eyyubi Mehmed d. 1850)
b. Evgara Fash (Kiigiik Mehmed Aga d. 1800, Ismail Dede)
(3) a. Beste-Isfahan Fash (Ebubekir Aga)
b. Biiziirk Fash (Sadik Aga d. 1815, Sultan Selim III d. 1808)
(4) a. Suzidil Fash (Tanburi Ali d. 1902)
b. Segah Fash (Zaharya d. 1740?, Dellalzade, Itri d. 1712)
(5) a. Diigah Fash (§eyhiilislam Es'at d. 1753, Tabi Mustafa d. 1750?, Haci
Faik Bey d. 1891)
b. Muhayyer Takim

All of these fasils and takims of $arki represent the core of the currently per
formed classical Ottoman repertoire, most of which were documented and pub
lished either by Rauf Yekta Bey in the 1920s or by his successors in the Istanbul
Municipal Conservatory in the 1950s. Only the fasils performed by Dr. Yava§?a
on cassette no. 3 show significant variation from the published versions. It is not
clear whether these represent an alternative transmission or his own variations
created when he performed these same pieces on his radio fasil program on
Istanbul Radio in the early 1980s. For the connoiseur perhaps the greatest treat
is the Diigah Fash on cassette no. 5 which combines superb vocal and instrumen
tal performances with an erudite repertoire created in this series of related
compound makams (terkib) which became fashionable in the eighteenth century
and were little developed since then. A careful listener will observe that the

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 MESA Bulletin 28 1994

nature of the model combination is significantly different in almost eac

recorded items in the Dugah fasil.
The instrumental component of the fasil performance is not accorded
cient recognition. Taksims are generally few and rudimentary, except for
kanun taksims, of Erol Deran on tapes no. 1 and 2, and the ud takstm of
Tannkorur on no. 5. Thepe§revs are usually abbreviated, and their perfor
are generally uninspired. This reflects the radio and concert performance
of the last thirty years whereby the total musicality of the performanc
ficed for the professional prestige of either the vocalist or the choral co
Even with the above criticisms this series should be recognized as a
accomplishment which allows a wider public to enjoy and study the fines
cal Ottoman repertoire performed by the finest contemporary voices. On
suggest that English, French or German translations of the biographies
increase the value of this enterprise.

Turk Musikisi klasik Eserler Serisi. No. 1, 2, 4, 5: Meral Ugurlu (vocalist) N

Alaeddin Yava§?a (vocalist). Five sixty minute cassettes. Artistic direction: Yusuf
Produced by and available from: Kubbealti Akademisi Kultur ve San'at Vakfi, Peykh
no. 3, (Jemberlitag/lstanbul, Turkiye (Turkey). Also available from AEG Sema Va
P.O. Box 1775, 217 Milford Street, Salisbury, MD 21802

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