Classical Turkish Music Theory Basically, Makam structures are built on two main musical elements.These are the sound material reflecting the world of sounds of a culture and the “melody making tools” in charge of organizing this material according to the aesthetic preferences of the community. The melody making tools has been transmitted up to now through the Makam Theory. The sound material organized by the makam structures are mainly objectified by the traditional instruments. Therefore the traditional instruments constitute the second visible sign of the sound memory of the community besides of the written musical theory. These two signs supporting the melodies in the common memory tell the historical story of the Anatolian culture underlining traditional music as one of the most representative cultural elements of the people who have been sharing this geographical area. The effort of Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians to discover the cosmos through music or vice versa, Ancient Greeks’ perdection of the depths of human soul through the guidance of rationality and music, the search of the Byzantine melodies for the Eternal Beuty, the ancient secrets transferred to Ottoman to further illuminate the world, the losses and additions to this tradition through time, the cultural reforms involving the musical changes, the new music of the Turkish Republic are all among the striking episodes of this story.

The extensive amount of knowledge transmitted through this heritage fluently exhibits the importance of the music tradition in understanding the past and conceiving the future. The concept of traditional music had also witnessed the evolution of the art consept or the passage of music from requirement to art; for city culture in particular. This process created two concepts which had interactively evolved: art music and folk music. Among the traditional music genres in Turkey, Art Music or what is called Turkish Classical Music and Folk Music stand as two inextricably linked structures which are still active. These styles require an integrated approach both in research and performance, for the simple reasons that both genres are depending on the same basic structures of Makam and Usul, both have been being transmitted on memory until now and acceptance of new inventions by their ruleebase is conditioned by the borders established by this transmission. Cities constitute the centers where these two genres meet most extensively through the Ottoman and Turkish Republic periods. Additionaly, a rich dance culture effectively interacted with the large variety of musical genres in the cities evoked the creation of one of the richest repertoires of world music culture in Anatolia.

It means thirth position in Persian. Segah maqam has one of the combined maqam in Turkish music and nearly 800 works have been composed up to now. It takes place on the 12 th position in maqam sequence. It is the ancient maqams and when you listen segah music it gives you strong spiritual feelings and a noble gloom sense of sadness. It is formed by the combination of ascending segah fifth on segah pitch with a Hicaz fourth on Eviç pitch. It is one of the combined maqams that its scale can be described within an octave. In terms of good defience ratio ( Nisebe-i Şerife) it can be considered as inconsonant (mütenafir). Segah pitch is the drone tone of maqam and neva, the third degree in the scale, is the dominant. Segah maqam usually has been assending melodic structure. Sometimes it is also possible that the melodic structure is commenced with gerdaniye fret.

Frets that the segah maqam uses in the middle octave are: Segah, Çargah, Neva, Eviç, Gerdaniye, Sünbüle, Segah(high pitch) Songs, folk songs, chants, marches are composed by this maqam. Coma flat symbol for Segah and Dik hisar fret, Bakiye sharp symbol for Eviç fret are put in its key signature. Other neccessary accidentals are shown in the measures op the piece. Yedeni is a Kürdi pitch. Perhaps,we can say that ıt means playing in Rast maqam which has the tonic in segah pitch..

THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD “UD” AND THE HISTORY The word “ud” is originally Arabic and it is derived form “al-oud”, meaning aloes- wood tree. The prefix “al” is a proposition which the Turks have discarded and transformed the word “oud” (consisting of the Arabic letters eyn, waw, dal) into “ud”, for the letter “eyn” is not suitable to their throat structure. The Western world has met the oud in-between the 11 th -13 th centuries, during the Crusades and has taken the oud along with them to Europe. Afterwards, they have named this instrument as luth (Fr.), lute (Eng.), laute (German), liuto (Italian), Alaud (Spanish), Luit (Dutch), all beginning with the letter “L”. The word “luthier” meaning instrument maker is also derived form the word “luth”. It is indeed a very quick and a wrong decision to claim that ud is an Arabic instrument, due to to origin of its name. Actually, the Arabs have seen this instrument for the first time in the hands of Turkish workers who have came to Baghdad from Khorasan in the 7 th century. Although the Arabs named it “el-oud” due to its soundboard made from aloe wood (aloexyion agallocum), the instrument is no other than the thousand-year old Turkish Kopuz where the Turks have adopted this shorter name instead of the original one. As a matter of fact, beginning with the Huns, there was no Turkish army that did not have kopuz players. The ud consists of five fundemental components: the body, the soundboard (belly, chest or face), the neck (fingerboard), the pegbox and the strings.

. THE PLECTRUM The ancient plectrum of the ud which used to be made from the wing of a young male eager has now left its place to both flexible and strong plectrums made from plastic of good quality with a length of cm, a width of 6 mm and a thickness of mm. These plectrums have their tips rounded parabolically and are polished with felt.

THE KANUN The Kanun is a Turkish stringed instrument similar to the Zither. The word Kanun is translated ‘canon’ or ‘law’ in English and is considered the basic Turkish instrument. There is an evidence that the Kanun has been in use continously since the ninth century. It is commonly believed that the Kanun was invented by the Turkish scientist Farab who lived between the years The Kanun has a trapeziodal shape with an average length of 38inches (83.6 cm) at its long side, 13.5 inches (29.7cm) at the short side and a width at 16.5 inches (36.3cm) gradually tapering to 4 inches (8.8 cm) at the narrow end. There are an average of 26 different notes (possibly up to 30 notes), and for each note there are two or three (mostly three) strings for a total of from 74 to 81 strings. The total range is up to 3.5 octaves.

Makam Makam in Classical Turkish Music is the basis for the production of melodies, defining their relationship to pitch. The organization creating the melodic skeleton of the Anatolian Music, shaped in patterns of rhythmic structures called Usul, so that compositions are usually identified by a combination of Makam and Usul. Usul Anatolian Music is the concept of time organization as a basis for musical pieces. Usul consists of a sequence beats having different values and stress in terms of long and short. It is possible to mention a specific rhythmic template in Usul which always has the priority in terms of enlivening the melodies.

Taksim An instrumental improvisation based on a certain Makam, currently perfomed as an prelude to a tune in that specific Makam. It’s original meaning is “division” as these solo pieces were used as separation between orchestral pieces in a suite. Türkü A very general term used in Turkish music for folk songs belived to be shaped up and transmitted within an anonymous memory process. These tunes developed on the specific usul and makam structures of Turkish music based on Anatolian Music Culture and usually preserve both the antecedent and the precedent models of their structures in their body.

Zeybek Zeybek were an interesting group: part outcasts and bandits popular in their communities, part irregular soldiers. Researchers still don’t agree on their origin, the etymology of their name and how their identity was maintained in existence through their own culture. Zeybek prospered throughout West Anatolia when the Ottoman Empire’s authority began to weaken, from the 16th and especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. Zeybek had a considerable social influence and established the character or music, dance and costume traditions of the Aegean. After fighting in the Independence War besides the regular Turkish army, the Zeybek identity disappeared as a social group, but zeybek songs and dances, products of a culture that survived for hundreds of years, are still popular and are performed at every opportunity. Many of the dances are improvised; almost all of the common makam are used in Zeybek Music whose rhythm is based on the aksak, ağır aksak, oynak, evfer, and ağır zeybek usul.

Sirto The etmology of the word sirto has been traced back to Greek origin. It is mainly a historical dance type with participation of both men and women, whose performance tradition is continuing at present in Greece, but extinct in Turkey where however its rhythm is still played. It is based on three or four main motifs, the first being always repeated at the end (ABCA). Sirtos are usually composed in Nim-Sofyan usul. Often after the first exposition there is an intermediate taksim, with the same usul structure in the background. Longa Similar to Sirto in structure and performance, the etymology of Longa goes back to Latin. Longa has been a traditional dance from as well as its accompanying music in Romania but its dance tradition is completely lost in Turkey, so that the present time it is known as a bright, dynamic kind of instrumental music form, which is usually played at the final part of Fasıl, a suite built on different music forms of Ottoman Classical music, with increasing tempos.

Hicazkar sirto (tanburi kadi fuat efendi) Makam Hicazkar Usul Nim Sofyan Tanburi Kadı Fuat Efendi ( ) was considered to be the most talented tanbur, kemençe and lavta player of his time. He has been the closest student of Tanburi Cemil Bey, internalizing to a great extent his master’s performance and composition style. Hicazkar Sirto is the most well known of the few compositions he left in his tragically short life: the melancholy character of the piece seems to describe the gloomy shadow of Tanburi Kadı Fuat longing for his master Tanburi Cemil along the narrow streets of İstanbul. Nihavend taksim Outlining the intervals of Nihavend and its melodic line with a series of graceful movements over the range of tanbur alternating with more rhythmically complex passages, this taksim is a perfect introduction for the following piece.

Nihavend sirto (hasan özçivi) Makam Nihavend Usul Nim Sofyan The violinist and composer Özçivi has been an important figure in the traditional music of Adana-Hatay region before moving to İstanbul and becoming later well-known as a violinist in the Ankara Radio Orchestra of Turkish Radio and Television. He is also a talented composer many of whose lyric compositions are very mature in melodic structure. This refined, modern day sirto reflects the elegant dynamism of this dance form together with the specific character of makam Nihavend.

Hicaz saz semai (Göksel baktagir) Born in Kırklareli in 1966, Göksel Baktagir began his music education at the age of eight under the supervision of his father Muzaffer Baktagir. He graduated in 1988 from ITU State School of Art for Turkish Music where he was registered in A year later, he started his graduate study at the same school. In the same year he was appointed as the kanun player to the State Turkish Music Group of İstanbul which was under direction of Tanburi Necdet Yaşar. During this period, he gave concerts in England, France, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland and Türkmenistan with the Necdet Yaşar Ensemble and with various other groups.

Çeçen kizi (tanburi cemil bey) Makam: Hüseyni Usul: Nim Sofyan A famous dance melody, known as Cemil Bey’s composition, but most probably his reinterpretation of a tune collected from folk musicians operating in İstanbul at the end of the 19th Century. The melody is found all over the Balkans and the Middele East, due to the popularity of Cemil Bey: it’s considered the most representative song of Lesvos and many other variants are being performed currently.

Nihavend longa (kevser hanim) Kevser Hanım ( ) was born in İstanbul. She studied on violin and piano at Darülelhan, which is the first Turkish Conservatory. Than she began teaching violin at the same school. Nihavend Longa is the most common song of her’s.