Izmir and Milas

Hello again,

the plans I mentioned at the end of the previous record changed. We didn’t go to a village of Izmir, and neither to Kusadasi. We went to the Atatürk Cultural Centre of the Ege University instead, where we were informed that there is no folk dance festival for the moment in Kusadasi (say: ‘Kush-adaseh’, meaning Bird-Island). We decided to visit the Ege University’s conservatory once more, maybe we would find someone who could help us to arrange our research plans in the region. Soon we noticed that there were many more students and other people hanging around in the conservatory and its gardens than the day before. There were examinations in the Turkish folk dance department. We found two students rehearsing duo davul playing (a davul is a big drum almost always played together with a sharp sounding reed pipe, the zurna). These students lead us towards their ‘hoca’ (teacher, professor), Abdurrahim Karademir. This man started to talk to us in a quite joking manner, but soon turned out to be most helping and kind. We spent many hours in his office (Tuesday and Wednesday), looking at pictures, watching videos and listening to recordings of field work and concert performances regarding the zeybek music of West-Turkey, copying interesting dvd’s and articles to our laptop and noting everything he told us about interesting places, musicians and researchers we could try to find. The greatness of the Turkish folk music culture, but also the difficulty of choosing and finding appropriate manifestations to record, became once more very clear. We were also introduced by this kind teacher to many of his colleges, specialised in zeybek percussion and rhythms, baglama playing, singing, tulum (bagpipe) playing, baglama construction, etc. Most of the teachers were willing to play something for us, which we of course recorded, and we were even allowed to attend a singing exam.

Abdurrahim hoca found a student to guide us towards the Folklor Museum of the University, exhibiting traditional Turkish clothing (including zeybek costumes) and Turkish folk instruments. Really a nice museum, runned by a friendly retired professor of the university. After our visit of the museum, we picked up a zurna player from a village of Milas (Dibekdere Köyü), 200 km away from Izmir. This musicians and researcher, Dursun Gilgin, guided us towards his home and when we arrived, treated us with interesting information about the instrument zurna, zurna playing and zeybek music and Roma musicians, with earsplittingly loud but nevertheless very beautiful zurna playing and also with a delicious meal… Although that was the merit of his wife, of course. By the way, both his wife and the man himself are almost deaf, and I am afraid that this has something to do with the loudness of his beloved instrument…

Dibekdere is really a very interesting place. This small village (700 inhabitants) represents the largest concentration of zurna players of whole Turkey: in every house, you can find a davul and a zurna, Dursun ensured. His family, a Roma family, perpetuates the tradition of davul-zurna playing already for 300 years. This tradition is transferred from father to son; Dursun’s grandfather, his father, his sons and his grandsons were/are all zurna or davul players. The zurnas used in this tradition can be divided in three classes: the ‘kaba zurna’ (bass zurna), 54 cm long (tuned in B), the ‘orta zurna’ (medium zurna), 30 cm (D), and the ‘cura zurna’ (small zurna), 25 cm (A). Everyone makes his own reeds. A small plastic disc (‘agzlik’), placed around the reed, is used to facilitate circular breathing. Instrument length can be adapted if another tuning is desired, and the extreme loud voice of the instrument can be softened by using another type of reed. Within this tradition, existing for 3000 years according to Dursun, there is certainly room for experiment and change. Conservation and development seem to go side by side in this culture. Dursun called Dibekdere ‘the largest open air conservatory in the world’.

However, education and development is rather poor in this small village. Howsoever very rich in culture, these Roma musicians do not have the brightest living circumstances. Dursun stated that – until recently – their zurna tradition was their only source of education. The musicians’ job possibilities are limited, as their working (performing) season takes place in summer, from June until September, when they are continuously asked to play on weddings, engagement parties, circumcision ceremonies and other (private) festivities.

However these zurna and davul players seem to be respected by the Turkish people, who recognise the fact that the Roma are the best and most appropriate musicians for many occasions, academic recognition is rather small, and this is something what bothers Dursun. The current excuse that their music is too loud to listen too, is easily refuted by the arguments that a symphonic orchestra is still many times louder and that the musicians have developed less loud zurnas.

I hope that this frustration will pass away one day and me myself, I will try to contribute to the recognition and promotion of this valuable cultural manifestation. Hopefully, I will be able to use the recordings I made yesterday from the music played by Dursun Gilgin and his grandchildren, for my own artistic creations back in Belgium.

Tonight we will be attending a wedding and maybe a concert too. An exciting evening is yet to come…

Take care, all the best,

Liselotte

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Tekrar merhaba,

Türkiye’de simdiye kadar yaptigim isi kisaca özetleyeyim (en önemli kismetler).

Canakkale’de bir baglama hoca’yla görüstük, sorularimi ona sordum, verdigi dersi gözledik ve o da bizim için birkaç türkü çalip söyledi.

Sonra, Izmir’de Ege Üniversitesi’nin konservatuvarinda bir sürü hocalarla tanistik, soru sormak için bol firsat vardi ve birkaç çok güzel performans dinleyebildik. Bize en çok yardimci olan hoca kesinlikle Abdurrahim Karademir idi. O gerçekten çok yardimsever, dostu bir insandir. Bize yol gösterdi sanki. Onun yardimiyla seyahatimizin devamini planlayabildik: bize bol bol isim, yer ve iletisim bilgileri verdi.

Ayrici Izmir’de bir türkü bara da gittik, türkü icrasini da izledim ve müzisyen, barin sahibi ve kamudan biriyle röportaj yaptim. Izmir’de son faaliyetimiz Folklor Müzesini ziyaret etmekti, orada zeybek ve Ege yöresinin kiyafetleri ve çalgilarini görebildik.

Dün aksam, müze ziyaretimizden sonra, Izmir’den Milas’a gittik. Milas’in Dibekdere köyünde oturan bir zurnaci bize yol gösterdi (bizi evine götürdü). Evinde, zurna çalmasi, zeybek kültürü ve çingene müzisyenler hakkinda çok bilgi verdi ve bizim için birkaç parça çaldi zurnalarinda. Kullaklarim hemen hemen patladi ama müzik gene de çok güzeldi. Yemekten sonra torunlari da bize müzik yaptilar (davul-zurna).

Gerçekten güzel, Türkiye ve insanlari.
Bu aksam Milas’da bir dügünmüs, insallah ona katilabiliriz. Bir konser de varmis.

Görüsmek üzere, hosça kalin!
Liselotte