Can't Turkish Art Music be a World Music?

"Be quiet now, crazy heart, divane heart..."

"It was a wind, I thought it would pass, but it turned out to be a hurricane, my darling..."

"Have we come to see each other or have you forgotten? You're not coming..."

How beautiful our songs are. Most of them are about love.

We call it Turkish art music. But for some reason there is no saz from our ancestors among the instruments used in its performance. 

In fact, it is mostly performed with instruments developed in the Middle East and the West. 

For example, there is the violin, kanun, oud, tambour, darbuka, clarinet, def, maybe piano in some orchestras, even guitar, bass guitar, tumba and many other western musical instruments are used in many of them.

It has recently become very popular to set up a big orchestra for a great music feast. Turkish art music is actually very nice even with a single oud, but naturally the performance of a big orchestra is of much better quality.

Of course, there are also our artists, especially the ladies. They are all very valuable Turkish art music performers. Each one of them is a star. Some of them are even more than stars, they are suns of art.

The history of Turkish art music starts in the 10th century, but I don't know when it entered the Ottoman palace. In the early 16th century, there was a change in pitch and this is called a kind of renaissance in Turkish art music. This period lasted until 1512, when Yavuz Sultan Selim took the throne.

It's also called classical Turkish music, but it's more of a blend of different cultures, as is the essence of Anatolia, that is, Middle Eastern and Turkish culture blended together on the basis of Islamic Sufi music. 

I don't know about you, but I love it very much. Especially the taksims at the beginning of the song, they are my favorite. I dive right in.

The main difference from Western music is that the pitches are different, in other words, our music has intermediate sounds that Western music doesn't have. And of course the maqams. 

Makams are sound sequences. Sources say there are more than 600 maqams. Today, although about 200 maqams are known to be recorded, only about 50 of them have been used more recently. 

I don't know if it is because some of the old maqams are quite heavy in tone, but it means that over time our musical taste has focused on certain maqams. We don't use some very old maqams anymore.

Actually, we have all heard the names of the maqams:

Kurdili hicazkâr, nihavendin, uşşak, hüzzam, rast and so on. They usually announce the makam in the announcement of the song before they start singing.

In other words, ours are not simple scales like the European ones in C major and C minor. Each one has a different tempo, and the sound patterns are complex enough. Tempos are called usul in the language of music, they have names like aksak, semai, curcuna. 

Sometimes I am amazed, despite having such a rich repertoire of songs, despite having so many valuable performers, songwriters and composers, for some reason Turkish art music is not very popular in the world outside the Middle East and the Turkish geography. There are nearly 19 thousand songs in the TRT archives, I wonder how many songs are not included in the archives? 

In surveys conducted in Turkey, let alone in the world, the percentage of people who like listening to Turkish art music does not rise above 30-40%. 

Even though some of our people's taste in music is more Turkish folk music, for some reason it is mostly Turkish pop or western music. I don't count arabesque and tavern music, which are sometimes on the tip of the tongue, although there used to be quite a lot of people addicted to them in the past. I don't know how it is nowadays.

Anyway, no one in the surveys says they only listen to Turkish art music. But there are many who say they only listen to pop. In other words, Turkish art music seems to be of secondary importance compared to other types of music in the eyes of our people.

I think this situation is very sad. 

After all, even though it originated in the Middle East, if we consider all the time that has passed, we can say that Turkish art music has become our own music. It has become our own culture over the centuries.

Just as the West has spread its music all over the world through cultural imperialism, wouldn't it be beneficial for us to introduce our culture to the world through cultural exchange, if not imperialism?

Okay, especially TRT's music channel takes the lead with its broadcasts for this music to be listened to in our country, but shouldn't our artists also make an effort to open up to the world? 

What is the reservation? 

Can't they find sponsors for big organizations?

Or are they afraid that they won't be appreciated? 

Are they afraid that no one will like it and we will be disgraced?

Or are they afraid that concerts around the world won't bring in any money, so they don't want to get involved at all?

Okay, let's look at the state side of the problem. 

Don't we have a ministry of culture? 

Why doesn't the ministry of culture organize such an event around the world? 

Can't such concerts be organized at least in Turkic republics or Middle Eastern countries as part of the cultural embassy? Even if we organize them in our neighbors, it would be a start.

Sorry, I forgot that we had problems with almost all of our neighbors. 

Our minds are only on what is going on in the political arena these days, nobody thinks about such issues.

Here is a political question for you: 

Can you see what the wrong policies of the government have brought us to? OK, the old ones couldn't think, but couldn't organizations have been organized in the last twenty years to introduce our music to the world?

I think we have a lot of work to do after the change of government. 

We need to reorganize everything. 

I think we need to give priority to Mustafa Kemal's principle of peace at home and peace in the world.

Although we have such a beautiful culture, I think it's unfair to other people in the world that we don't share this culture with the world.

Anyway, I'd better open a YouTube channel and treat myself to some classical Turkish music this evening. Think, think, think.

Tell me who calls, who calls, 

Who

Who's looking for you, who's looking for you. seeks the unfaithful? 

If I don't see you for a day, I'll be heartbroken. 

If I didn't have this love, 

If my heart didn't burn like this, 

Love and regards to everyone from Moscow