Ottoman Classical Music | Kudsi Erguner and Bîrûn Ensemble 2016 | Terirem in the IV Plagal Mode

Details

Description

“Terirem in the IV Plagal Mode” (Maqam Rast)
Composer: Petros Lampadarios (1730-1778). Source: Grigorios Protopsaltis (1777-1821), “Kalophonikon Irmologion”, Istanbul, Theodoros Paraschou Fokaeys, 1835: 48

The concert ‘The Greek Composers of the Ottoman Maqam’, directed by Kudsi Erguner was held at the conclusion of the fifth Seminar of the series ‘Bîrûn’. The seminar takes its name from the Ottoman term referring to the “outside”, the “periphery”, opposed to the inner part of the sultan’s palace (Enderûn). As Kudsi Erguner explains: «Until the 19th century Ottoman classical art had developed in the Enderûn and among the Ottoman elite. Today there is no longer an elite in the palace and the art of music has migrated to the Bîrûn, where once more has found its devotees. In this sense, Venice is an ideal place for the history of the past to become the history of the present».
Participants in the Seminar were young professional and semi-professional musicians who were awarded scholarships to work with Erguner for a week in San Giorgio, studying performance of manuscripts of the Classical Ottoman musical tradition. As written by Erguner: «Purpose of the Seminar is to enable the participants to explore the variety of Ottoman art music. Unfortunately, because of a misconception, today this legacy is still called ‘Turkish classical music’. But it is actually the classical music of many different peoples who shared a common history within the Ottoman empire».

This video presents a ‘terirem’. In presenting this genre, Giannis Koutis writes that terirem are vocal compositions based on nonsense syllables like terirem, terete, anena, tititi, tototo that are used to create, or prolong, melodies in compositions known overall as ‘kalophonikon’, a term derived from the combination of kali (‘beautiful’) and phoni (‘voice’), anthologies of musical compositions considered among the best in terms of melodic development and which require great vocal abilities on the part of the singer. It is thought that the terirem are the most interesting part of a composition, both because of their melodic development and the freedom they give to the composers, unrestrained by the limitations of a set text they could elaborate their melodic ideas as they wished, thus showing off their compositional skills. After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople (1453) it was mainly the terirem, and the respective kalophonikon, that expressed the nature of Byzantine ecclesiastical music, its emotional intensity and made the musical patrimony of Byzantium known. Far from being isolated in its sphere, Byzantine ecclesiastical music was influenced and enriched by the musical worlds around it. In this sense the terirem may be considered a fine example of the freedom and dynamism of this exceptional liturgical art.
This terirem is composed in maqâm rast, a mode considered the base of the Ottoman modal musical system. This is absolutely in line with the theory of Byzantine music, which considers the IV plagal mode as the foundation of the system. This analogy cannot be considered casual, because Byzantine music is one of the sources of Ottoman classical music. This particular terirem, part of the Byzantine liturgical repertoire still in use, is among the most well-known compositions by Petros Lampadarios (1730-1778), one of the most important composers of Orthodox liturgical music, also very active as a composer of Ottoman secular music.

A CD-book of the concert was published within the IISMC series ‘Intersezioni musicali’ in cooperation with the publisher Nota.
https://www.notamusic.com/prodotto/i-compositori-greci-del-maqam-ottomano/

Ensemble Bîrûn 2016: Kudsi Erguner (ney, musical director), Ahmet Altinkaynak (ney), Emine Bostanci (kemençe), Michalis Cholevas (yayli tanbûr), Ayberk Coşkun (‘ûd), Giovanni De Zorzi (ney), Nurullah Ejder (kanûn) Safa Korkmaz (vocal), Giannis Koutis (vocal, ‘ûd), Reza Mirajalali (târ), Nikos Papageorgiou (vocal, tanbûr), Jacobus Thiele (percussion)

Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 19 March 2016
More info on this event: http://www.cini.it/en/events/birun-ottoman-music-workshop-greek-composers-in-classical-ottoman-music
Video: Simone Tarsitani

http://www.cini.it/en/foundation/institutes-and-centres/comparative-music-studies