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The
Major Turkish - American Relationships Conference at
the Stevens Institute of Technology -
May 13 - 14, 2004
http://www.stevens.edu/main/home/
Leading composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and
Rossini wrote music and used Turkish themes...
Aysegül
DURAKOGLU during her presentation at the
Stevens Institute of Technology on May 13, 2004.
Photo: Buket SAHIN
A Presentation by Aysegül DURAKOGLU
There is no question that fine arts and classical music
are loosing audiences with the rapid growth of the entertainment
industry in both countries and everywhere in the World.
In this sense, education plays a crucial role
to refine the details in cultural and artistic events
and to develop audiences and people's perception of
fine arts and music.
I would like to start my speech focusing on music and
its relation to culture in general;
then, provide a brief historical background of
the development of music in Turkey and the United States.
Music with
its form, underlying ideas, and characteristics like
melody, harmony, and rhythm is closely related to the
culture of each epoch. It has always served as a unifying element
at all levels of society and as a medium for expressing
individual and collective feelings and aspirations.
For example, in early periods music had functional
purposes to enhance religious settings, provide military
signals, or music to dance... In America, there had
been the music of
the native American Indians performed for rituals
and social events; then the music of American colonists
emerged in New England to be performed in religious
meetings, in churches and houses.
Turkish music
going back to the music of Central Asian Turkic Cultures,
was also used for the same purposes in the beginning.
As the nomadic Turkic tribes began to move to
Anatolia that had already been home to many cultures,
their music was transformed into different system, called
Makam. Makam
is the disposition of small intervals and their relation.
The melting
pot, as we refer to the United States today, could have
also been used to describe Anatolia for many years.
I would like to illustrate the cultural scene
of Anatolia with an anectode by Heredot:
" there is an Egyptian song that has
been sung in Fenike (the southern part of Turkey) and
in Cypres as ...................well..
That song reminds me the Greek song called Linos.
I wonder how this song came to Egypt? When I
...................asked
people they sad it has been sung in Egypt for longtime.
Then how it came to Greece? "
Since then,
music traveled through civilizations in Anatolia that
became a cultural bridge between the Eastern and Western
Worlds. The
cultural exchange continued in Anatolia with the Selcuks,
then the Ottoman's... Music also played a very significant
role in the social, military, and court life during
the Ottoman Empire.
Due to unfinished wars, Turkish Art Music was
often interrupted; meanwhile the Military Music performed
by the Janissary Band flourished and attracted the attention
of Europeans.
Leading composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and
Rossini wrote music and used Turkish themes.
By the XVIIIth
century, Turkish Art Music became a pure enjoyment as
an art in itself.
During the reign of Sultan Selim who was a poet
and musician himself, new makams were found and the
repertoire was properly arranged according to a new
notation system. Around the same period, the music in the
United States became secular in New England, the first
New England School of Composers emerged and started
composing instrumental and vocal music. This tradition
later continued with leading composers among them are
Mac Dowell, George Chadwick, Arthur Foote,
Charles Ives followed by others..
The introduction
of Western Music into the Ottoman Court occured in the
first half of the Nineteenth century: the first orchestra,
Musika-i Humayun, was established by Sultan Mahmud, Guiseppe
Donizetti was invited to teach Western music in the
palace, the first music school in the Western sense,
Darul-el-Han, was founded by Abdul Aziz, and Western
music became a part of social life by the end of the
Nineteenth Century.
With the establishment
of the secular Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
the year of 1923 marks a major turning point for the
development of Western and Turkish Polyphonic Music.
The primary goal of Turkey's leader , Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk, was to create an integrated society that
blends traditional values with an overlay of Western
civilization.
Western music was added to the curriculum and
later became the main focus in schools; conservatories
and orchestras were founded; and, young musicians were
recruited from the conservatories to study abroad on
scholarships. After their return to Turkey, they conducted
research on folk music, made surveys on the modal and
rhythmic structures of Turkish melodies, and recomposed
them with the norms of Western music. The first generation
of modern composers, called Turkish Five established
music institutions and trained many students. The efforts of that generation were initially
directed tpwards the norms of European music.
Aysegül
DURAKOGLU with Murat Memet NEJAT during
the conference on May 13, 2004 at Stevens' Howe Hall.
Photo:
Marta CURRY
The first cultural exchange in the contemporary music
area between the United States and Turkey happened at
the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
The first
cultural exchange in the contemporary music area between
the United States and Turkey happened at the Columbia-Princeton
Electronic Music Center. Turkish composers, Bulent Arel and Ilhan
Mimaroglu, were invited as recipients of the Rockefeller
scholarship and worked there as innovator, instructor,
and composer along with the leading American composers
like Ussachevsky, Milton Babitt, Edgar Varese and others.
I was born
in Turkey and had the priviledge to have my early music
education by some of these composers in the music schools
founded after Ataturk. Although I became a professor at the Istanbul
Conservatory right after my graduation, I always had
the urge to go abroad and study music in the Western
World. So, I came to the United States to pursue my graduate studies
on a scholarship by the Turkish Government.
When I look
back, I think I had an excellent education in Turkey;
what was missing was the exposure to contemporary music
and arts. Studying
at the Juilliard School of Music, then New York University
and being exposed to the concert scene in New York was
an incredible experience.
During my studies at NYU I became a member of
the NYU Chamber Music Society and premiered numerous
works at Merkin Hall.
My experience in the contemporary music area
made me realize and appreciate the works of Turkish
composers and include their music in my programs.
In 1998, I
founded the Chamber
Music Society, Musica Mundana, with the mission of embracing audiences
through the music of different backgrounds and times. So far, we have performed music of Turkish, Middle Eastern,
American, and Mediterranean composers in various events.
Most recently,
we presented the music of Turkish composers in celebration
of the 80th Year of the Turkish Republic, at the Merkin
Concert Hall. Our concert was sponsored by the Turkish
Ministry of Culture and Tourism and their office in
New York. And, I am very proud to say that we had
an extraordinary response by our audience.
There has been
a growing interest in World Music in the United States
and so far the music of Turkish composers has been greatly
appreciated. However, in the area of contemporary music,
American composers just to name a few like John Cage,
Milton Babitt, Elliot Carter, George Crumb, Morton Feldman,
Ned Rorem,... became leading composers in our century.
I think their music deserves to be presented
and performed in Turkey. Turkish audiences are familiar with the
music of a few American composers, among them are George
Gershwin, Samual Barber, and Aaron Copland.
There is no
question that fine arts and classical music are loosing
audiences with the rapid growth of the entertainment
industry in both countries and everywhere in the World.
In this sense, education plays a crucial role
to refine the details in cultural and artistic events
and to develop audiences and people's perception of
fine arts and music. In conclusion, I am very excited to see
the beginning of such parthnership happening between
these two educational institutions like Beykent
and Stevens.
And, I am hoping that their efforts will bring
awareness and quality in the transmission of both cultures.
-
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On Musica Mundana Chamber Society
An interview with Aysegül DURAKOGLU
--- The Major Turkish - American Relationships Conference
at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, http://www.stevens.edu/main/home;
between May 12 - 14, 2004 was
organized incorporation with
Beykent University, Istanbul; http://www.beykent.edu.tr
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