Examples From Our Instrumental Music

Instrumental music, which has been overshadowed by vocals in almost every period of Turkish music history, should be considered as noteworthy given its content. Gazi Giray Han in the 16th century, Ali Ufki, Kantemiroğlu and Selim III in the 17th and 18th centuries are the first to come to mind among the musicians who provided important services in the field of instrumental music with their compositions and collections of instrumental works. “Peşrevs” and “saz semais” composed for the beginning and the ending of classical fasıls that continued until the 19th century, and “taksims” - impromptu intervals by an instrumentalist before the peşrev - formed the most popular, classical, and ancient forms of saz (instrumental) music. In addition, works in formats such as medhal, zeybek, dairy, play air, sirto, and longa began to take their place in saz music repertoires. Our instruments, primarily used to accompany the human voice in our music, were used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Tanburi Cemil Bey as solo instruments or in ensembles with other instruments without the need for a company to give concerts and to play on commercial records. This period is of great importance for the development of instrumental music. Composers such as Tanburi Büyük Osman Bey, Tanburi Cemil Bey, Şehzade Seyfeddin Efendi, Hüseyin Sadeddin Arel, Sedad Öztoprak, Şerif Muhiddin Targan, Refik Fersan, Hasan Ferid Alnar, Reşat Aysu, Vecdi Seyhun brought important works from different perspectives to our 19th and 20th-century instrumental music. In this concert, which we prepared as the Istanbul Historical Turkish Music Ensemble, Turgut Özüfler (kanun), Ömer Aşcıoğlu (kemençe), and Ahmet Yağmur Kucur (tanbur) will perform instrumental works in various forms from composers of different periods.