Turkish Music and Folklore Poetry - Research Paper Example

Turkish Music and Folklore Poetry Introduction “To translate [Turkish poetry] is like endeavouring to copy a miniature in chalk” (Gibbs, 38). Turkey or Anatolia, which forms the bridge between Asia and Europe, is one of the oldest inhabited regions of this world, starting from the Neolithic Çatalhöyük (recorded as one of the earliest settlements in the history of mankind) that dates to around 7500- 5700 BC. Turkey, owing to the presence of a large number of immigrants from various parts of the world, had a diverse and colourful ethnic past. Amongst the various rich cultural heritages of Turkey, one that has developed and ameliorated itself over the years, is Turkish literature, which in turn has given rise to its famous genre of folklore poetry, and subsequently, the Turkish music. Turkish literature is nearly 1500 years old, and it flourished greatly under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish music and folklore poetry both form a part of the Turkish literature, and has been extremely popular amongst the Turkish people for centuries, thus ensuring that these cultural traditions remain preserved. The oldest written records of Turkey have been found to be that of the 8th century Orhon inscriptions (in the Orhon river valley situated in Mongolia). Between the 8th and 9th century there came a new wave where literary representation was in an oral form, like the Manas epic and Book of Dede Korkut. Thus, we find that Turkish literature had two forms, the oral compositions and written books, and these two traditions remain separate from each other until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. It was only in 1923, after the republic of Turkey was created, that the two forms of literature came together to from the modern literary type. My article will explore the literature of Turkey, pertinent to Turkish music and folklore poetry. It will study to find the relation between Turkish music and its folklore poetry, while exploring the history of the music as it developed through the various ages. It will also explore and analyse relevant data in its endeavour to find out the importance of music and the role it plays within the realms of Turkish poetry. Discussion Folklore literature and music: A brief look at Turkey’s history will show us that its literary heritage can be distinctly divided into two forms. One type is the folk literature that consisted of the oral form; and the other type was the written literature form. The basic difference between the two forms was the language used. The folk literature type was predominantly oral, and remained free of Persian or Arabic influences. Here, the folklore poetry formed the main genre, and since there were no influxes from the Arabic or Persian languages, the oral form consequently developed its own characteristics, that can be marked as pure Turkish language. The oral folklore poetry was seen to be syllabic in form (quantitative verses), and its structure was the quatrain (dörtlük). In the written Turkish literature, the poems were qualitative in nature and their structure followed the couplet (beyit). The written literary forms were more influenced by their Arabic and Persian counterparts. Under the Ottoman emperors (starting from 14th century onwards), who were great patrons of Turkish literature, the two forms (oral and written) remained distinctly separate; and with time a new language (a combination of the Persian and Arabian words that were mixed into the Turkish language) came into existence. This new language was known as the ‘Ottoman Turkish’ and was quite different from the original Turkish language. Writing in this language formed a new literature altogether, and came to be known as the “Divan literature" (Hanioğlu, 33-35). Both Turkish folklore literature (composed orally in authentic Turkish language) and the divan literature (amalgamation of 3 languages), had an intimate connection with Turkish music. Almost all the poems in both the literature types were written to be converted into songs. The Turkish folk poems were interminably bound to the Turkish folk songs, while the lyrics from the Divan literature poems were used in Turkish classical songs, like kasîdes and gazals. Development of Turkish folklore poetry and its relationship to music : Walter Andrews had once commented that, in Turkey “almost everyone, from ruler to the peasant, from the religious scholar to the rake and drunkard, aspired to be poet” (Andrews et al., 4). Poetry forms an intrinsic part of the Turkish life, and almost all forms of conversations, speeches and stories are interspersed with quotations from various well known poems, Turkish or from other parts of the world literature. The folklore poetry, that has been popular in Turkey from times immemorial, has been influenced by the Shia and Sunni traditions of the Islamic religion. This form of poetry was developed by the travelling bards who were known as the ‘asyks’ or ‘ozans’. These minstrels or bards travelled all over the country and recited the poems to the common people at the various bazaars, roadside cafes and caravanserais. Such poem recitations were, more often than not, musical renditions of various stories, legends, and folktales of yore; and were accompanied by various musical instruments, like the baglama. At the time when education and culture were a forte for only the rich and the noble classes, these bards managed to preserve old folklore poetries by simply memorising them, and made them popular by singing these poems to the generally illiterate common people. These bards passed on their knowledge to their students orally, and this tradition continued till the seventeenth century. It was only during the nineteenth century that an in-depth and systematic study into the subject of folklore poetry was made, and by twentieth century most of the old oral Turkish folklore poems had been copied and preserved for future references. This study managed to save from extinction one of the best jewels of the Turkish literature, that was fast disappearing with the Europeanization of Turkey, after it became a republic in 1923. Since the poems sung by the Turkish bards were oral, most of their authors have remained anonymous. However, from the various nineteenth century studies into Turkish folklore poetry, some well known names have emerged, like Şeyyâd Hamza, Yunus Emre, and Sultan Veled. They were renowned poets of the 13th century Turkey, and flourished during the pre-Ottoman era. It has been said that after Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey in 1297 declared the Turkish language as the official mode of communication in Karamanid state (the most state of Anatolia), it was then that the Turkish folk poetry started flourishing in these regions. The later period (seventeenth to nineteenth century) famous bards were Dadaloğlu, Karacaoğlan, and Köroğlu. Dadaloğlu, a nineteenth century bard, is referred to as one of the last well known asyks, before the tradition of the wandering minstrels came to an end. Turkish folklore poetry can be broadly divided into two main types. The first type was the aşyk/ ozan form that was influenced to some extent by religion, though completely secular in nature. The second form was completely religious in nature, and originated in the various religious gatherings of the Sufi saints and the Shia religious order. In the first type, the ‘asyks’ or the ‘ozans’ (the wandering minstrels or bards) that were responsible for its preservation and spread, came under the religious influence of the Sufi saints, probably during the thirteenth century. Many of them became dervishes, and started a trend of incorporating various spiritual and ethnic aspects into their folklores, giving it a religious dimension. Soon a second type of folklore poetry came into circulation which was known as the tekke. Unlike the former asyk/ ozan type that were predominantly oral poetries, the tekke poems had been well documented by the Sufi brotherhood, and thus better preserved (Abazov, 60). Both the types of folklore poetry were similar in nature, in the sense that, both forms were written expressly to be sung, in large gatherings, religious or non-religious. Thus, from the above discourse it stands out very clearly that Turkish folklore poetry of all forms was an intrinsic part of Turkish music. The poems were in most of the cases written, so that they could be sung in large gatherings by the wandering asyks and by the religious saints or Sufis. Thus, we can say that the folklore poems and Turkish music within the Turkish literature, complement each other and they have a common source of origin and a common path of development, through the centuries. Here we will take a closer look at Turkish music to further illuminate the enduring connection between the two. Turkish music, its history and development over the years: The history of Turkish music goes long back into the eleventh century, when the Seljuk Turks captured Persia and Anatolia. Over the centuries, with influences from the various immigrant groups and changing dynasties, it had acquired certain characteristics that were a combination of Turkish folk music, Byzantine music, Persian music, and Balkan music. These various forms can be broadly divided into two major groups. The first form is the authentic Turkish music, which can be said to be the music for the common Turkish people. The second one can is the Ottoman music, which was a modified form of the byzantine music. As an author opines “Turkish music has been the product of inspiration...whereas ottoman music has been imitative and perpetuated by conscious action. The first is the music of our culture, the second of our civilisation” (Gokalp, 24). Turkish classical music that was sung in the courts and mosques, was monophonic in nature, and consisted of rhythmic (usul) and melodic (maqam) patterns that were woven in an extremely complex and variant manner. The Turkish folk music, in comparison was much simpler, though it also had the varying maqams and the complex rhythms within it. Turkish folk music was also predominantly monophonic in nature; with certain exceptions, as was heard when accompanied with the musical instrument baglama and in Black Sea kemance, when it was homophonic in nature. Turkish music in its pure form is thus reflected predominantly in the Turkish folk music, and is the song of the common man, that reflects his emotions, his sentiments, and his thoughts. To some extent, the court music during the Ottoman rule (till about the nineteenth century), that reflected love and emotions more eloquently than the folk music, also managed to preserve the classical form, which can be counted as authentic old Turkish music. All other versions that we see today are amalgamated versions, especially the later modern forms that appeared during the nineteenth century (at the same time the wandering bards disappeared, taking with them the original Turkish poems and songs), largely reflect western (European and American) influences in their form and note (Araci, Between Empires   Orientalism Before 1600). Since the folklore poems were sung by the wandering bards and the Sufi saints, Turkish music like its poetry, was characterised by the master to student transfer of the songs through memorisation. Owing to this tradition, many of songs have lost their original version; while many more were completely lost and forgotten completely or even if partly remembered, were modified by the students. Thus, present researchers have come across many poems/ lyrics that have their modes and rhythms indicated, but the melody completely lost. Mecmua-I Saz u Soz, a 17th century piece by Ali Ufki, is considered to be the first piece to have been found with notations. “Traditional Turkish folk poetry is inseparable from Turkish folk music, because the folk poet are accustomed to perform their poems, accompanied by a string instrument which they play; so a folk poem is always sung by its creator...folk poets share a common repertoire, adopting the music to their verses or vice versa” (Tura, 156). So it becomes clear that Turkish poetry and authentic Turkish music (folk) is inseparable. In fact, it has been suggested that Turkish folk music that reflects Turkish folktales and real life stories, have developed through song competitions between poets who were also balladeers (Erderner, 36). Earlier we had noted that classical songs like kasîdes and gazals that developed mainly in the Ottoman palaces and mosques, had originated from the Divan literature poems. Thus from the above discourse we can easily conclude that Turkish music in its authentic form developed synonymously with Turkish folklore poetry. In fact Turkish music and Turkish folklore poetry are two synonymous terms, and one simply reflects the other. Both Turkish music and the folklore poems play an important role in each other’s renditions, since each remains incomplete without the other. Songs and music formed the medium, through which the wandering bards and the Sufi saints popularised the folk poetry, which spoke of the varying human emotions. Conclusion A brief glance at the history of Turkish music and folklore poetry provides enough evidences to show that the folklore poems were mostly written to be sung by the authors themselves, at various social and religious gatherings. Thus, it was a folk poem that was transformed into a song, by the very author. These poems/songs were spread far and wide by the asyks or the wandering bards, and were transferred from the master to the student orally. The written form of poetry that formed the divan literature was also used as lyrics for the Turkish classical songs, sung at the Ottoman courts and at the mosques. Thus, undoubtedly, Turkish music developed from the folklore poetry and the two terms are synonymous with each other. Works Cited Abazov, R. Culture and Customs of Turkey. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2009. Print. Andrews, W. et al. Eds. Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. Print. Araci, E. Between Empires   Orientalism Before 1600. Trinity College, Cambridge 12-15 July, 2001. Web. 8th November 2010. http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/empires/prognotes.htm Erderner, Y. The Song Contests of Turkish Minstrels: Improvised Poetry Sung to Traditional Music. London: Garland Science, 1995. Print. Gibbs, E. A History of ottoman poetry. Edited by Edward Granville Browne. Printed for the trustees of the "E.J.W. Gibb Memorial" and published by Luzac, 1967. Print. Gokalp, Z. The Principles of Turkism. Netherlands: Brill Archive, 1968. Print. Hanioğlu, M. A brief history of the late Ottoman empire. Princeton University Press, 2008. Print. Tura, Y. The Rebirth of Traditional Arts in Modern Turkey, in Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Forum (Ya Tai chuan tong yi shu lun tan yan tao hui lun wen ji, 2000.10.9-12). National Center for Traditional Arts, 2002. Print. Read More