Cantemir: Music in Istanbul
and Ottoman Europe around 1700
The world of Cantemir arises in the crossroads of Western
and Eastern thought, in the collision of Europe with the Ottoman Empire,
and at the junction of Byzantine culture with Islamic theology. Our recorded
recital celebrates the wondrous life of Prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723),
a royal Moldavian linguist-encyclopaedist-composer who through curious
fate spent 22 years as a diplomatic guest of the Ottoman court. While
Prince Cantemir’s continuous presence in the orbit of four successive
ruling Sultans must have furthered a harmonious relationship between the
Ottoman Court and his father, the Moldavian Voivode, Cantemir himself
clearly preferred music to politics, and was sufficiently gifted to play
his way to fame as the greatest of classical Turkish musicians.
The life of Cantemir perfectly embodies the contrasts and culture
flows of his world. At the time of his birth, Moldavia, his homeland,
--which later became part of Romania, -- was governed by the Ottoman Turks.
Since Cantemir’s father, a valiant warrior-King, could only rule
his native land as a vassal of the Ottoman Sultan, young Dimitrie was
sent at age 15 to Istanbul to insure Moldavia's ‘loyalty’.
From his arrival in 1688, the young Prince distinguished himself by a
sincere interest in learning in all its forms. As a well-supported royal
guest, Cantemir (or Kantemiroglu, as he called himself) became
as highly regarded for his hospitality as well as his intellect. His prodigious
facility in languages such as Latin, Turkish and Arabic expanded his Byzantine
Greek education and allowed him to converse and study broadly.
Immersed now in a recently secularized society that valued
Classical music as a primary element in public life as well as a high
form of religious expression, a society that expected almost all children
of dignitaries to pursue the study of music, Cantemir was inspired to
study the tanbur, a long-necked Turkish lute. As his command of the historical
Ottoman repertoire and theory grew, his talent for playing classical Turkish
music also became widely known. His teachers in music, who must have taught
him kemençe (fiddle) as well, were respected Greek musicians. Cantemir
also cultivated relationships with other noble Christians, and befriended
French, Dutch and Russian ambassadors, visitors and emissaries. Even in
the cosmopolitan environment of Istanbul, the near constant stream of
international luminaries through his life gave his palace ‘a mysterious
aura’.
Working as a scholar almost as often as he played, Cantemir
developed a unique notation system to document his music study. His treatise
Edvâr, a major contribution to musicology that is only now taking
its rightful place, preserves 352 works (315 pesrev and 37 semâ’î)
known in his time. His original compositions in innovative style continued
to be popular for decades after his departure from Istanbul, and even
now some tunes in oral tradition are still ascribed to Cantemir. His style
as expressed in the complex multi-part classical forms and often long
rhythmic cycles of the Classical pesrev and saz semai forms, while
firmly grounded in Ottoman melodic traditions, seems tinged with European
harmonic notions and occasional ‘western’ turns of phrase.
Cantemir returned to Moldavia only twice during his long
years in the Ottoman world. His return in 1691 lasted two years until
the death of his father briefly put Cantemir onto the throne for a miserable
term of three weeks. Removed by the Turks and returned to Constantinople,
Cantemir resumed his music studies. When his elder brother became Moldavian
ruler, Cantemir became his envoy to the Ottoman court. In 1699, he again
returned to Moldavia, marrying a Wallachian princess in order to have
a future claim to rule the adjacent Kingdom along with his own.
In 1710, the Ottomans trusted Cantemir to assume rule
in Moldavia. The beautifully wistful and bittersweet Saz Semai in makam
Neva (Tr. 10) is the legendary composition Cantemir supposedly performed
on tanbur for the Sultan at his nomination to rule. But soon after he
was installed, Cantemir, feeling his position to be untenable in a time
of war, betrayed the Sultan by secretly negotiating to help Tsar Peter
of Russia ‘liberate’ Balkan Christians from Ottoman rule.
When Tsar Peter’s campaign through Moldavia was defeated, Cantemir
avoided capture by the angry Turks by hiding for days in one of the Tsarina’s
carriages. Eventually the Cantemir family with their Moldavian loyalists
and Greek courtiers were able to join the retreating Russian army, travelling
into exile.
During the twelve years Cantemir lived in Russia as advisor
to Peter ‘the Great’, he wrote extensively as an orientalist
and scholar. Musically, he assisted in the translation of Byzantine liturgy
for the Russian Orthodox service, while his daughter Maria became well
known as a harpsichordist in Russia, performing the ‘Italian’-flavored
European classics favored by the upper classes. Although Cantemir was
ordered by Tsar Peter to adopt European-style daily dress, he reportedly
delighted in dressing up on holidays, occasionally staging nostalgic Turkish
tableaux atop his parade float, costumed as a Vizier and reclining under
a canopy with ‘Turkish’ attendants. With father/daughter performing
skills ranging from Moldavian dance tunes to Ottoman and European classics,
one can imagine common ground as well as contrasts in the private concerts
of the Cantemir family, where the Turkish tanbur could meet instruments
of the harpsichord family and many other imports from Europe known in
both Ottoman and Russian courts.
Our program presents some of the finest works of Prince
Dimitrie Cantemir (Kantemiroglu) in the varied contexts of his
cultural world. Cantemir’s compositions are typically cast in pesrev
or saz semai form, consisting of several sections (hane) with a ritornello
(mülâzime or teslim) repeated after each.
We perform Centemir’s Classical Ottoman compositions
preceded by taksim preludes, a new improvisational genre in the time of
Cantemir; and where appropriate, we also explore modal relationships in
experimental collective taksim improvisations, a contemporary experiment
in preluding pioneered by Ïhsan Özgen. In dervish Sema (devotional
music played for dance), the pesrev would commonly follow the unmeasured
taksim prelude as a formal metered prelude set in a major usul (i.e.,
a rhythmic cycle of more than 15 beats). At the conclusion of the dance
with its traditional music, another pesrev or saz semai may be played.
In addition to his compositions, we also present traditional
Moldavian tunes such as Cantemir might have heard back home at his wedding.
and European alla Turca reflections of Ottoman music played in Baroque
style. The continuing significance of Cantemir as a force in Eurasian
composition and performance is shown through recent compositions by Yalçin
Tura of Turkey and Lou Harrison of the United States, honoring a remarkable
life that continues to resonate.
Linda Burman-Hall
Prior to Dede Efendi, lyrics of most compositions belonged
to Divan poetry (Ottoman classical school of poetry). Dede Efendi also
used his own poetry, as well as folk songs, as lyrics for his pieces.
As a modal innovator, he created the Sultanî-Yegâh, Neveser, Saba-Bûselik,
Hicaz-Bûselik, and Araban-Kürdî makams. While expanding Turkish traditional
music with his secular and religious works, Dede Efendi also wrote pieces
with the influence of Western music that he heard in the Palace.
New Music Composers
Lou Harrison, (1917 - 2003), who studied with Henry Cowell
and Arnold Schoenberg, was an internationally celebrated artist whose
works are widely performed and recorded. An innovator known for his devotion
to the distinctive tonal systems, instruments, ensembles and forms of
Asian musics, Harrison is remembered for his creative use of early European
tuning systems in compositions for historic and innovative instruments.
In addition to his work in composition and instrument design, Harrison
was at various times active as a conductor, painter, author and poet,
calligrapher and font designer, and as a teacher and critic. His works
were commonly interdisciplinary. He taught at colleges such as Black Mountain,
San Jose State, Mills, Reed, University of Southern California, and Stanford.
He received two Guggenheim Fellowships and a three-year Phoebe Ketchum
Thorn Award, and was also honored with grants and awards from the Rockefeller
Foundation, Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Late in life he
was presented with the 41st MacDowell Medal of Honor for his distinguished
contributions to the field of music. As a multi-talented composer-innovator,
he was the subject of several films and book-length studies. 'In Honor
of Prince Kantemir', here arranged by Linda Burman-Hall to feature the
Turkish instruments that inspired its composition, is based on the scale
d - eb - f - g - a - b - c - d, with a rhythm cycle of 26 beats, divided
5 + 5 + 7 + 9.
Yalçin Tura, (1934), a well-known Cantemir scholar,
recently published a full transcription of Cantemir’s “Book
of the Science of Music” and wrote a Concertino for kemençe
and 5 baroque instruments in honor of Cantemir during Summer 2000. He
has been on the music faculty at the State Conservatory of Turkish Music
in Istanbul since 1976, where he is director and head of the department
of musicology. Mr. Tura studied violin with Seyfeddin Asal, harmony with
Demirhan Altuõ, and counterpoint and composition with Cemal Resid
Rey. Besides music, he also studied philosophy, pedagogy, and archeology
at Istanbul University. A large portion of his compositions consist of
film and stage music. His compositions comprise traditional Turkish makams
(modes), jazz, folk, and symphonic musical elements. Mr. Tura won many
awards for his compositions, which include two symphonies for large orchestra,
sinfonia da camera, concertos for violin, viola and cello, toccata for
orchestra, adagio for strings, works for violin and piano, string quartets,
a ballet, and a melodrama. ‘Concertino for Kemençe and 5
Early Instruments’ was written in honor of Cantemir during Summer
2000, when Tura completed his edition of Cantemir’s book. The second
movement is composed in saz semai form, in hüseyni makam (mode) with
one strain in Saba makam, and in aksak semai usûl, a rhythm cycle
of 10 beats, divided 3 + 2 + 2 + 3.
Performers
Ihsan
Özgen (kemençe, tanbur, co-director), is a self-taught
musician, composer and teacher of the Classical Ottoman music of Turkey.
Although he performs on a variety of stringed instruments including kemençe,
tanbur, lauta (Turkish lute) and violoncello, his fame is mostly associated
with his performance on kemençe and his improvisation of melodic
taksims. Through these broad performing activities, he has been able to
develop innovative lefthand and bowing techniques for the kemençe.
Ïhsan Özgen’s distinguished career includes decades of
international performance in Classical Ottoman and recently with Bosphorus,
composed of musicians from Turkey and Greece playing mixed a repertoire
of Turkey and other Balkan and Middle Eastern traditional music, and the
Anatolia Ensemble, an international ensemble which creatively explores
the music of Asia Minor. Özgen is currently instructing stringed
instruments playing techniques and history at the Istanbul Turkish Music
Conservatory. He is the leading specialist and foremost interpreter of
the works of Tanburi Cemil Bey, the outstanding creative composer of early
20th century Turkey. His recordings are available on several Turkish labels
and most recently on the American label devoted to Turkish classical music,
Golden Horn. At the time of this recording, Özgen was Regents’
Lecturer in the UCSC Department of Music.
Linda
Burman-Hall (early keyboards, percussion, co-director) although
perhaps best known as a performer of historic keyboard works, regularly
performs a wide range of music, from works of the medieval mystic Hildegard
of Bingen to world premieres of experimental works and new music. She
currently teaches at University of California - Santa Cruz. She has performed
in the United States, Europe and Asia as well as for National Public Radio.
In contemporary music, she has performed with artists as diverse as Steve
Reich, Pauline Oliveros and Meredith Monk, and has commissioned, premiered,
recorded, transcribed and/or edited new music by contemporary Indonesian
composers, and performed several first recordings of works. As a specialist
in music theory and performance, she holds degrees from the University
of California, Los Angeles and Princeton University. Linda is also active
as a musicologistethnomusicologist, with parallel career activities in
early music performance and in Asian music research. She is founder and
artistic director of Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, a nationally recognized
early music producer. Her most recent recordings include 17th Century
French solo music on Wildboar and an all Harrison solo recording on New
Albion, as fortepiano and harpsichord concerto soloist with period orchestras
on Centaur, and as director of other ‘crossover’ Lux Musica
projects on the Kleos labels.
Lux Musica (Lars Johannesson - flute and piccolo, David Wilson
- violin and viola, Amy Brodo - viol, Mesut Özgen - lute, early guitar,
percussion, and Linda Burman-Hall, harpsichord, virginal, percussion,
director) is an ensemble of virtuosi dedicated to presenting
interesting and beautiful works from the Enlightenment, drawing on a versatile
combination of historical flutes, violin or viola, violoncello or viola
da gamba, and historic keyboards with percussion. Since its beginnings
six years ago, Lux Musica has served as a core ensemble of Santa Cruz
Baroque Festival, and presented concerts throughout Northern California.
Ensemble projects have focused on the music of J.S. Bach, François
Couperin, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, often contrasting Classical chamber
works with parallel traditions of instrumental folk music. Lux Musica’s
signature debut recording in 2000 was ‘Haydn & the Gypsies:
Music in Style Hongrois’ (with violinist Monica Huggett). A humorous
CD ‘Classical Cats’ followed in 2001. ‘Celtic Caravans:
The Road to Romanticism’ (with soprano Julianne Baird) is scheduled
for release in 2004, all on Kleos Classics.
Producer: Ates M. Temeltas
Recorded on November 25 & 26, 2000 in Santa Cruz, California
Recording Engineer: Eliot Bates
Mixing &Mastering: Eliot Bates
m/iq Productions, Berkeley, California, 2002
Graphic Design: Siir Özbilge - ilerix.com
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