First days in Turkey
Door: Liselotte
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Liselotte
07 Juni 2011 | Turkije, Izmir
Hello everyone,
After 4 days of driving (and travelling by ferry), we passed the border of Turkey on Saturday evening. On Sunday we set off for Canakkale, a small city across the Marmara Sea, so on the Asian side of Turkey. Canakkale belongs to the Aegean region of Turkey; the west coast. In this region, folk music and dance traditionally belong to the ‘zeybek’ culture, a proud cultural manifestation centred around the resistance to the reigning classes. I hope I will grasp the meaning of this rich culture a little bit after staying in this region for a while, observing and interviewing musicians (and maybe dancers).
In Canakkale, we found some Turkish music classes in a kind of shopping hall. The first teacher was a music shop keeper teaching ud and Turkish classical music to a girl; the second one, Akif Mungan, was specialised in Turkish folk music and teaching a series of small children the baglama (long neck folk lute) and the folk music repertoire. He was also the conductor of the Turkish Folk Music Choir of Canakkale. Interesting is the life story of this teacher: originally from Diyarbakir in the South East of Turkey, he went to Ankara to work at the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) as a baglama player, and later settled in Izmir and recently in Canakkale, where he went on teaching the baglama. However, his ‘real’ or second job seemed to be the military; his speciality was repairing air planes.
His life story is quite representative for most of the musicians I met in Turkey. Almost everyone of them once migrated from one region of Turkey to another. In Canakkale and Izmir I met many musicians and other people originating from Central or East Anatolia. Apparently, they or their family came to seek their fortune in the third largest city of Turkey: Izmir (around 5 million inhabitants).
Izmir has a well-known Turkish music conservatory, belonging to the large Ege University (ca. 30.000 students), situated in the Bornova city part. Yesterday we went to see the professor of Turkish Music History, Hakan Cevher. He is specialised in Turkish classical music, but also has knowledge about the folk music of Turkey. He was willing to help me and even suggested becoming my co-supervisor, but I think I will leave that offer aside. His approach is not compatible with my research planning for the coming three years.
Rather than an academic vision or discourse, I am looking for real manifestations of Turkish folk music. Of course the vision of the academic on Turkish folk music and its meanings and functions is important, and I will integrate these visions in the whole of the discourse of my research. But the main aim of my trip to Turkey, is 1) to observe how Turkish folk music manifests itself in different social and regional contexts of Turkey and 2) to find out what the meanings and functions of this manifestations are (for the musicians, for the audience and for the person who employs the musicians).
A cosmopolitical city like Izmir is very similar to other large cities like Istanbul and probably Ankara (although I didn’t visit Ankara yet). The ‘türkü bar’ I visited last night, doesn’t differ so much from the türkü bars I visited in Istanbul. The similarities with the Turkish music cafés in Belgium are even striking. There is no big difference between a Turkish folk music café in Izmir, Istanbul and Ghent. The appearance (interior design of the café including traditional Turkish ornamental elements) as well as the atmosphere (being together with friends, drinking a glass of wine or tea), and the performed music (often one singer accompanying himself on the baglama, singing music from the traditional folk music repertoire in a modernised style, and so-called ‘özgün müzik’, a kind of socially engaged, left-wing protest music in an idiom close to the folk repertoire but containing more influences of western popular music) are very close to each other.
Last night I wrote down my observation of the whole ‘manifestation’ of Turkish folk music, I recorded the music which was live performed and played back during the breaks, and I interviewed three involved persons: the singer, a 22-year-old student from Ege University Conservatory, someone from the audience, a 28-year-old teacher and the manager of the bar, himself a poet who attends many poetry festivals.
I hope I will be able to encounter other kinds of manifestations of Turkish folk music in this region. The manifestations in Izmir itself will probably be similar to the ones I already experienced in other cities, like Istanbul or Ghent.
Today we will visit some villages of Izmir, maybe we will find other folk music manifestations. Probably tomorrow we will go to Kusadasi, where a zeybek festival will take place during this period. And maybe we will be able to attend a wedding at the end of the week.
I’ll keep you updated!
Liselotte
After 4 days of driving (and travelling by ferry), we passed the border of Turkey on Saturday evening. On Sunday we set off for Canakkale, a small city across the Marmara Sea, so on the Asian side of Turkey. Canakkale belongs to the Aegean region of Turkey; the west coast. In this region, folk music and dance traditionally belong to the ‘zeybek’ culture, a proud cultural manifestation centred around the resistance to the reigning classes. I hope I will grasp the meaning of this rich culture a little bit after staying in this region for a while, observing and interviewing musicians (and maybe dancers).
In Canakkale, we found some Turkish music classes in a kind of shopping hall. The first teacher was a music shop keeper teaching ud and Turkish classical music to a girl; the second one, Akif Mungan, was specialised in Turkish folk music and teaching a series of small children the baglama (long neck folk lute) and the folk music repertoire. He was also the conductor of the Turkish Folk Music Choir of Canakkale. Interesting is the life story of this teacher: originally from Diyarbakir in the South East of Turkey, he went to Ankara to work at the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) as a baglama player, and later settled in Izmir and recently in Canakkale, where he went on teaching the baglama. However, his ‘real’ or second job seemed to be the military; his speciality was repairing air planes.
His life story is quite representative for most of the musicians I met in Turkey. Almost everyone of them once migrated from one region of Turkey to another. In Canakkale and Izmir I met many musicians and other people originating from Central or East Anatolia. Apparently, they or their family came to seek their fortune in the third largest city of Turkey: Izmir (around 5 million inhabitants).
Izmir has a well-known Turkish music conservatory, belonging to the large Ege University (ca. 30.000 students), situated in the Bornova city part. Yesterday we went to see the professor of Turkish Music History, Hakan Cevher. He is specialised in Turkish classical music, but also has knowledge about the folk music of Turkey. He was willing to help me and even suggested becoming my co-supervisor, but I think I will leave that offer aside. His approach is not compatible with my research planning for the coming three years.
Rather than an academic vision or discourse, I am looking for real manifestations of Turkish folk music. Of course the vision of the academic on Turkish folk music and its meanings and functions is important, and I will integrate these visions in the whole of the discourse of my research. But the main aim of my trip to Turkey, is 1) to observe how Turkish folk music manifests itself in different social and regional contexts of Turkey and 2) to find out what the meanings and functions of this manifestations are (for the musicians, for the audience and for the person who employs the musicians).
A cosmopolitical city like Izmir is very similar to other large cities like Istanbul and probably Ankara (although I didn’t visit Ankara yet). The ‘türkü bar’ I visited last night, doesn’t differ so much from the türkü bars I visited in Istanbul. The similarities with the Turkish music cafés in Belgium are even striking. There is no big difference between a Turkish folk music café in Izmir, Istanbul and Ghent. The appearance (interior design of the café including traditional Turkish ornamental elements) as well as the atmosphere (being together with friends, drinking a glass of wine or tea), and the performed music (often one singer accompanying himself on the baglama, singing music from the traditional folk music repertoire in a modernised style, and so-called ‘özgün müzik’, a kind of socially engaged, left-wing protest music in an idiom close to the folk repertoire but containing more influences of western popular music) are very close to each other.
Last night I wrote down my observation of the whole ‘manifestation’ of Turkish folk music, I recorded the music which was live performed and played back during the breaks, and I interviewed three involved persons: the singer, a 22-year-old student from Ege University Conservatory, someone from the audience, a 28-year-old teacher and the manager of the bar, himself a poet who attends many poetry festivals.
I hope I will be able to encounter other kinds of manifestations of Turkish folk music in this region. The manifestations in Izmir itself will probably be similar to the ones I already experienced in other cities, like Istanbul or Ghent.
Today we will visit some villages of Izmir, maybe we will find other folk music manifestations. Probably tomorrow we will go to Kusadasi, where a zeybek festival will take place during this period. And maybe we will be able to attend a wedding at the end of the week.
I’ll keep you updated!
Liselotte
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
