Milas (2)
Door: Liselotte
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Liselotte
11 Juni 2011 | Turkije, Bodrum
Hello everyone,
Our time in Milas has been very fruitful, to a large extent thanks to our hotel owner. This friendly lady, Sevil hanim, has made numerous telephone calls to get information about musical events in the town. She informed us about the wedding party taking place yesterday evening in the ‘wedding salon’ of the hotel, and about the circumcision ceremony performed in another neighbourhood of the town.
Before the wedding party started Thursday evening, we went into town for a walk. Soon we noticed violin music and decided to have a closer look. In a small, hot and humid room, two man were sitting together, the first man playing a violin and the second, an elderly man, listening while enjoying a beer. The violinist immediately proposed to play some folk tunes for us, which we registered of course gratefully. The man played and sung some old traditional tunes from the region of Milas, and the elderly man tapped with his fingers or feet, clearly enjoying the music very much. Zeybek sounds unexpectedly well on violin, the violinist informed us that the violin is a much used instrument in the traditional music culture of the region. The violin was tuned g-c’-g’-c’’ instead of g-d’-a-e’’ and neither shoulder nor chin devise was used.
This man was a music teacher without students; to our question why he didn’t have any students, he answered that it is a very difficult thing to learn to play zeybeks on the violin… Anyway, he earns his living by playing on weddings with his band and as a businessman…
On our way back to the hotel, we finally found the dvd ‘Anadolu’nun Kayip Sarkilari’ (Lost Songs of Anatolia) in one of the numerous cd en dvd shops in Milas. This is a great movie about the musical manifestation throughout Turkey, a genial combination of wonderful traditional music and a creative present-time interpretation of it.
The wedding party could take off once the electricity breakdown occurring in town was repaired. We could follow the party from the hotel balcony, which provided us a supreme view on the whole happening. As Sevil hanim explained to us, yesterday evening was the party of the family of the bride, while the groom’s side would be celebrating the wedding the next evening. This is a procedure which is often, but not always, followed. The second party is more important I think, since it takes place where the groom lives (in this case in a village of Milas), and according to the tradition the bride moves to the groom’s place.
About 300 guests were present, sitting on plastic chairs put in rows on three sides of the party court. The fourth side was provided for the musicians, in this case a keyboard player and a guitar player. The first thirty minutes, the music was western pop style without Turkish influences. After the bride (gelin) and groom (damat) joined the party, the music started to change. After a while, only traditional folk tunes were played, but of course in a very popularised (westernized) format: without microtones and with all kind of pop style harmonisations and sound effects. By the way, all the music was previously programmed in the synthesizer, and all the keyboard player had to do was adding some ornamentations or extra melodies from time to time. And singing the melody, if appropriate. Sometimes, a recording from another artist (singer) was played back. Nevertheless, this young man (28 years old) did his job very well. The guests were really happy about his (or their) performance and provided the musicians generously with bank notes.
The folk tunes were from different regions of Turkey. The largest part, nevertheless, was music from Central Anatolia (always very popular because of its exciting, dance-like character) and of course from the Aegean region. For the first time, I witnessed the performance of the traditional folk dance of the region, the zeybek dance. Although the family of the bride and the army friends and airport colleagues of the groom were no dancers, this performance greatly impressed me. We filmed everything and made lots of photographs of this dance, performed solo, in duo or in a circle. The dance movements include sinking down to the earth, jumping in the air, turning around on one or two feet, holding a bird-like position for a few moments, coming close to each other and consecutively jump away from each other. Impossible to describe, but exciting to watch and I hope I will be able to watch more developed zeybek dancing on another moment, during our stay here in the Aegean region.
We observed some other zeybek dancing today at the circumcision ceremony I previously mentioned. This kind of ceremony is an Islamic ritual, which we don’t know well. I’m not sure if this ceremony is still performed amongst the Turks in Belgium. When I’m back, I will certainly inform myself about this. By the way, the circumcision itself has taken place on year earlier, but it is common to celebrate it on a later moment, when the boy has grown up a bit more.
Since the hotel owner introduced us to the family of the boy, we were able to follow the whole ceremony, which is normally quite private, although it is performed outside on the street (in front of the home of the boy and his family). The ceremony has at least three stages, probably followed by a fourth stage – eating and drinking together with the whole family. We observed the following stages:
1) The boy and his family dance on traditional, live performed music. In this case, the music was played by three Roma musicians from Dibekdere, the village I visited before. They were family of Dursun Gilgin (cf my previous report). Two zurnas (one bass and one melody instrument) were accompanied by a davul, as tradition requires. The boy was dressed up with king-like clothes: a white mantle decorated with silver and fur, shining white shoes, a kind of crown on his head and a staff in his hand. From now on, he is recognised as almost a man, and the younger children will have the required respect for him.
2) The boy is placed on a car driven around the town, accompanied by another car carrying the musicians, the two zurnas in the interior and the davul at the exterior. We were not able to come with them, unfortunately. We didn’t bring our car to the place of the celebration… During the trip, I interviewed a senior of the family. After the return of the cars, I also interviewed the musicians.
3) The last stage we observed, was the reading (in fact singing) of Koran verses and other prayers. I think it was quite unusual for people strange to the family to watch this ritual, we felt a bit like intruders. Maybe we shouldn’t, since the family gave us the permission to observe everything. Still, I was the only women sitting in the middle of all man of the family, something I noticed only when the hoca (imam) was singing in his micro already for a while. The women were sitting in the family’s garden in the meanwhile. When a woman or girl had to show herself, she was always wearing a scarf which she put on especially for this moment… Nevertheless, it was an interesting thing to experience. The imam sung really beautifully and impressively high (reaching a high Dis’’!). Although this was certainly no folk music, and even not called ‘music’ by the Turks or Muslims, this was really an interesting part of the Turkish (music) culture I was able to witness today.
After this ceremony, we leaved Milas for Bodrum. Yesterday evening we didn't find a Turkish folk music performance, but maybe this evening we will attend a touristic show with folk music and dance... This afternoon we are going to the province capital, Mugla, where we will attend a performance by Dursun bey, the zurna player.
See you next time!
Liselotte
---
Merhabalar
Milas’taki faaliyetlerimiz çok güzel geçti. Persembe aksami bir dügün izledik, Milas’li bir kiz evenlendi ve onun ailesinin dügünü dün aksam otelimizin dügün salonunda yer aldi. Dügünde halk çalgilari yoktu ama gene de varolan org ve gitarla çok zeybek müzigi icra edildi. Konuklar zaten zeybek danslari oynadilar, bunu izlemek gerçekten çok güzeldi (biz yukaridan balkondan seyredebiliyorduk). Dün ise, otelimizin sahibi, Sevil hanim, bizi baska türlü bir dügüne götürdü: bir sünnet dügünü. Cocuk 10 yasinda, bir kral gibi davraniyordu. Calindigi müzik davul-zurna idi: iki tane kaba zurna, bir tane davul da vardi. Dibekdereli müzisyenler zaten Dursun bey’in akrabalariydilar. Evdeki tören bittikten sonra, çocuk Milas’in sokaklarinda arabayla gezdirildi, müzisyenler de yaninda kaldilar. Ondan sonra da hoca kuran okumak için geldi. Mevlüdü izlemeye de aile bize izin verdi. Ben zaten tek kadindim tümün adamlarin arasinda… biraz tuhaf bana geldi, onlara da ayni her halde…?
Aksam üstü Bodrum’a geçtik. Herkes bizim oraya gitmemizi tavsiye etti zaten. Sehire vardigimizda gene de, oradaki yasayanlar bize hep ‘bu aksam hiç bir sey yok’ dediler… Neyse bir kamping de çadirimizi koyduk ve simdi biraz dinleniyorduk… O da bazen yapilmali.
Bugünkü programimiz ise, öglen Mugla’da bir dügüne gidecegiz, ondan sonra yine Bodrum’da folklor oyunlari izleyebilecegiz. Kampingimizdeki insanlar her zaman gibi bize çok yardimci oldular.
Iyi günler, hosça kalin!
Liselotte
Our time in Milas has been very fruitful, to a large extent thanks to our hotel owner. This friendly lady, Sevil hanim, has made numerous telephone calls to get information about musical events in the town. She informed us about the wedding party taking place yesterday evening in the ‘wedding salon’ of the hotel, and about the circumcision ceremony performed in another neighbourhood of the town.
Before the wedding party started Thursday evening, we went into town for a walk. Soon we noticed violin music and decided to have a closer look. In a small, hot and humid room, two man were sitting together, the first man playing a violin and the second, an elderly man, listening while enjoying a beer. The violinist immediately proposed to play some folk tunes for us, which we registered of course gratefully. The man played and sung some old traditional tunes from the region of Milas, and the elderly man tapped with his fingers or feet, clearly enjoying the music very much. Zeybek sounds unexpectedly well on violin, the violinist informed us that the violin is a much used instrument in the traditional music culture of the region. The violin was tuned g-c’-g’-c’’ instead of g-d’-a-e’’ and neither shoulder nor chin devise was used.
This man was a music teacher without students; to our question why he didn’t have any students, he answered that it is a very difficult thing to learn to play zeybeks on the violin… Anyway, he earns his living by playing on weddings with his band and as a businessman…
On our way back to the hotel, we finally found the dvd ‘Anadolu’nun Kayip Sarkilari’ (Lost Songs of Anatolia) in one of the numerous cd en dvd shops in Milas. This is a great movie about the musical manifestation throughout Turkey, a genial combination of wonderful traditional music and a creative present-time interpretation of it.
The wedding party could take off once the electricity breakdown occurring in town was repaired. We could follow the party from the hotel balcony, which provided us a supreme view on the whole happening. As Sevil hanim explained to us, yesterday evening was the party of the family of the bride, while the groom’s side would be celebrating the wedding the next evening. This is a procedure which is often, but not always, followed. The second party is more important I think, since it takes place where the groom lives (in this case in a village of Milas), and according to the tradition the bride moves to the groom’s place.
About 300 guests were present, sitting on plastic chairs put in rows on three sides of the party court. The fourth side was provided for the musicians, in this case a keyboard player and a guitar player. The first thirty minutes, the music was western pop style without Turkish influences. After the bride (gelin) and groom (damat) joined the party, the music started to change. After a while, only traditional folk tunes were played, but of course in a very popularised (westernized) format: without microtones and with all kind of pop style harmonisations and sound effects. By the way, all the music was previously programmed in the synthesizer, and all the keyboard player had to do was adding some ornamentations or extra melodies from time to time. And singing the melody, if appropriate. Sometimes, a recording from another artist (singer) was played back. Nevertheless, this young man (28 years old) did his job very well. The guests were really happy about his (or their) performance and provided the musicians generously with bank notes.
The folk tunes were from different regions of Turkey. The largest part, nevertheless, was music from Central Anatolia (always very popular because of its exciting, dance-like character) and of course from the Aegean region. For the first time, I witnessed the performance of the traditional folk dance of the region, the zeybek dance. Although the family of the bride and the army friends and airport colleagues of the groom were no dancers, this performance greatly impressed me. We filmed everything and made lots of photographs of this dance, performed solo, in duo or in a circle. The dance movements include sinking down to the earth, jumping in the air, turning around on one or two feet, holding a bird-like position for a few moments, coming close to each other and consecutively jump away from each other. Impossible to describe, but exciting to watch and I hope I will be able to watch more developed zeybek dancing on another moment, during our stay here in the Aegean region.
We observed some other zeybek dancing today at the circumcision ceremony I previously mentioned. This kind of ceremony is an Islamic ritual, which we don’t know well. I’m not sure if this ceremony is still performed amongst the Turks in Belgium. When I’m back, I will certainly inform myself about this. By the way, the circumcision itself has taken place on year earlier, but it is common to celebrate it on a later moment, when the boy has grown up a bit more.
Since the hotel owner introduced us to the family of the boy, we were able to follow the whole ceremony, which is normally quite private, although it is performed outside on the street (in front of the home of the boy and his family). The ceremony has at least three stages, probably followed by a fourth stage – eating and drinking together with the whole family. We observed the following stages:
1) The boy and his family dance on traditional, live performed music. In this case, the music was played by three Roma musicians from Dibekdere, the village I visited before. They were family of Dursun Gilgin (cf my previous report). Two zurnas (one bass and one melody instrument) were accompanied by a davul, as tradition requires. The boy was dressed up with king-like clothes: a white mantle decorated with silver and fur, shining white shoes, a kind of crown on his head and a staff in his hand. From now on, he is recognised as almost a man, and the younger children will have the required respect for him.
2) The boy is placed on a car driven around the town, accompanied by another car carrying the musicians, the two zurnas in the interior and the davul at the exterior. We were not able to come with them, unfortunately. We didn’t bring our car to the place of the celebration… During the trip, I interviewed a senior of the family. After the return of the cars, I also interviewed the musicians.
3) The last stage we observed, was the reading (in fact singing) of Koran verses and other prayers. I think it was quite unusual for people strange to the family to watch this ritual, we felt a bit like intruders. Maybe we shouldn’t, since the family gave us the permission to observe everything. Still, I was the only women sitting in the middle of all man of the family, something I noticed only when the hoca (imam) was singing in his micro already for a while. The women were sitting in the family’s garden in the meanwhile. When a woman or girl had to show herself, she was always wearing a scarf which she put on especially for this moment… Nevertheless, it was an interesting thing to experience. The imam sung really beautifully and impressively high (reaching a high Dis’’!). Although this was certainly no folk music, and even not called ‘music’ by the Turks or Muslims, this was really an interesting part of the Turkish (music) culture I was able to witness today.
After this ceremony, we leaved Milas for Bodrum. Yesterday evening we didn't find a Turkish folk music performance, but maybe this evening we will attend a touristic show with folk music and dance... This afternoon we are going to the province capital, Mugla, where we will attend a performance by Dursun bey, the zurna player.
See you next time!
Liselotte
---
Merhabalar
Milas’taki faaliyetlerimiz çok güzel geçti. Persembe aksami bir dügün izledik, Milas’li bir kiz evenlendi ve onun ailesinin dügünü dün aksam otelimizin dügün salonunda yer aldi. Dügünde halk çalgilari yoktu ama gene de varolan org ve gitarla çok zeybek müzigi icra edildi. Konuklar zaten zeybek danslari oynadilar, bunu izlemek gerçekten çok güzeldi (biz yukaridan balkondan seyredebiliyorduk). Dün ise, otelimizin sahibi, Sevil hanim, bizi baska türlü bir dügüne götürdü: bir sünnet dügünü. Cocuk 10 yasinda, bir kral gibi davraniyordu. Calindigi müzik davul-zurna idi: iki tane kaba zurna, bir tane davul da vardi. Dibekdereli müzisyenler zaten Dursun bey’in akrabalariydilar. Evdeki tören bittikten sonra, çocuk Milas’in sokaklarinda arabayla gezdirildi, müzisyenler de yaninda kaldilar. Ondan sonra da hoca kuran okumak için geldi. Mevlüdü izlemeye de aile bize izin verdi. Ben zaten tek kadindim tümün adamlarin arasinda… biraz tuhaf bana geldi, onlara da ayni her halde…?
Aksam üstü Bodrum’a geçtik. Herkes bizim oraya gitmemizi tavsiye etti zaten. Sehire vardigimizda gene de, oradaki yasayanlar bize hep ‘bu aksam hiç bir sey yok’ dediler… Neyse bir kamping de çadirimizi koyduk ve simdi biraz dinleniyorduk… O da bazen yapilmali.
Bugünkü programimiz ise, öglen Mugla’da bir dügüne gidecegiz, ondan sonra yine Bodrum’da folklor oyunlari izleyebilecegiz. Kampingimizdeki insanlar her zaman gibi bize çok yardimci oldular.
Iyi günler, hosça kalin!
Liselotte
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
