 |
İstanbul gets symphonic trilogy from Malay, Örter and Karataş
Among these projects, a new one that aims to portray İstanbul through music was unveiled late last month: the “İstanbul 2010 Trilogy.” The project is not directly affiliated with the İstanbul 2010 process, although it consists of three separate musical works that have originally -- and separately -- been prepared for İstanbul 2010. These three works, all of which have an international character and are worthy of being put into collections, complement each other.
The three-CD album includes the first-ever guitar concerto by a Turkish composer, two symphonies and one symphonic new age work. The project brings together music composed by Turkish musicians Hasan Cihat Örter, Tuğrul Karataş and writer-publisher Murat Malay, who was also the album's producer. The album, released by MEM Productions, did not receive any sponsor support and is an independent effort.
Three special works
The first CD in the set, Örter's “İstanbul'da 7 Gün” (Seven Days in İstanbul), depicts the city through the days in a week. Each day is presented through a separate song in the instrumental album, which features jazz elements. The second CD, Karataş's “Anatolian Symphonic Suite & Anatolian Guitar Concerto,” includes Turkey's first ever guitar concerto. International award-winning Georgian guitar virtuoso Kako Vashalomidze will play the “Anatolian Guitar Concerto” live in an upcoming concert, with date and location yet to be announced. The third album in the set is Malay's “İstanbul Symphony & Bediüzzaman New Age” (Wonder of the Era). The symphony, suitable for performances by big symphony orchestras, is made up of seven suites, and it shows İstanbul as a modern, developing city. The work also incorporates a number of anonymous Turkish themes. Malay worked with Georgian opera singer Vahdang Makalatia in the new age composition on the CD.
Malay says the trilogy came about via a series of coincidences and surprises. Malay met Karataş, who has lately dedicated himself solely to music and started living a reclusive life, through a score he composed based on a poem by 13th century Sufi poet Yunus Emre. Together they developed this composition into a four-suite symphony dedicated to Yunus Emre. In the meantime, Malay also contacted Örter to ask him to play guitar on a recording of one of his songs. These contacts and ventures led the three musicians to places they did not actually plan to go. “Our spirits more or less suited each other's spirits, and our sharp, opposing stances managed to bring us together on the same front. We were each like rockets locked onto our targets and were determined to advance, whatever the circumstances. We sometimes flew high and sometimes landed, sometimes we would play with fire and at times we would freeze, but whatever the circumstances, we never thought of giving up,” Malay said, recalling the process of preparing the album.
The three musicians call the “İstanbul 2010 Trilogy” a “symbolic sapling which, with its deep roots, will help prevent Turkish music from being eroded.” Malay expects that the followers of their tradition, younger generation musicians, will in time “form a small forest around the sapling we planted.”
“That is what my path crossing with these two world-class musicians means to me,” Malay says.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| The modern ‘Great Game’: women’s role and status | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
| KATHY HAMILTON |  |
||
| Random acts of violence | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Adding insult to injury in Uludere | |||
| NICOLE POPE |  |
||
| Shifting responsibility | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| ‘Errorism’ | |||
| ORHAN MİROĞLU |  |
||
| ‘Strategic vision’ | |||
| ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ |  |
||
| Turkey through Amnesty International’s eyes | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
