[Theme music begins]
Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
For more than 600 years, the Ottoman or Turkish Empire governed much of the Mediterranean and Western Asia; longer than the Roman Empire lasted in the region. Ottoman culture left a huge impact on the arts, from architecture to opera, that reached far west into Christian Europe and beyond. This hour, we continue to explore this with a look at how Turkish traditional music has influenced the approaches of early music groups today. So many European instruments have West Asian origins, and their earlier versions have an even closer relationship to those still used in Turkish and Arab music traditions. Later in the hour, our featured recording comes from the Pera Ensemble with Mehmet Cemal Yeşilçay & Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli.
[Theme music fades at :59]
MUSIC TRACK
Jerusalem La Ville des deux Paix (Jerusalem: City of Two Peaces)
Hesperion XXI, Jordi Savall
Alia Vox 2008 | 884385253745
Disc 2 Tr. 8 Warrior’s March (4:45)
An Ottoman warrior’s march performed by Jordi Savall and Hésperion XXI on their recording “Jerusalem.” Military music was some of the first Ottoman music to influence European musicians during the wars of the sixteenth century.
In 1964, Thomas Binkley and his Munich-based ensemble Studio der Frühen Musik recorded their first volume of songs from the Carmina Burana, a thirteenth-century Bavarian manuscript of over two hundred and fifty poems, some with musical notation. Carmina Burana is the first album in what would become known as the Studio der Frühen Musik’s signature quote “Arabic style,” an approach to medieval music that looked to the unbroken musical traditions of Andalusia and North Africa for models of performance practice that might be relevant to extant medieval music.
MUSIC TRACK
Carmina Burana, vol 1
Thomas Binkley & Studio der Frühen Musik
Telefunken 1987 "Das Alte Werke" AWT 9 455-A
Anonymous
Tr. 4 C. B. 37: In Gedeonis area (4:30)
“In Gedeonis area” from the Carmina Burana. This performance was first recorded in 1964 by Thomas Binkley and the Studio der Frühen Musik.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, medievalists began to theorize about the impact of Arab and Middle Eastern cultures upon the European Middle Ages, particularly due to the seven centuries of Islamic rule in Al-Andalus, the region that is now part of Spain, Portugal, and Southern France. We often hear the influence of this scholarship in the performance of repertories like the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Alfonso the Tenth’s collection of devotional songs that had been compiled in recently re-Christianized Andalusia.
MUSIC TRACK
A Mediterranean Christmas
The Boston Camerata, Joel Cohen
Warner Classics 2006 | 825646256068
Anonymous/Alfonso X
Tr. 6 Cantiga No. 100, "Santa Maria strela do dia" (3:48)
MUSIC TRACK
Ortaçağ Şarkıları/Medieval Music from 13th -15th Centuries
Ensemble Galatia
IMM Muzik 2013 [ASIN B00EW7I7FC]
Tr.2: Quantos me creveren loaren (2:23)
Music from the Cantigas de Santa Maria: “Quantos me creveren loaren,” performed by Ensemble Galatia, and before that, “Santa Maria strela do dia,” Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata performed in collaboration with Karim Nagi and the Sharq Ensemble. The Cantigas, by the way, were collected on the Iberian Peninsula and compiled in the early 1290s, just a few years before the Ottoman Empire would be established in 1299 by Turkish leader Osman the First, lasting over 600 years.
As we heard a bit earlier with their Carmina Burana piece, the Studio der Frühen Musik’s 1960s exploration of various mediterranean models for the performance of medieval music kicked off a trend for interpretations of medieval music that sounded quote “middle eastern.” Binkley’s quest for models of performance processes took the Studio to Morocco, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and beyond throughout the 1960s, listening to and learning from music professionals there. Today, groups like Constantinople, Hespèrion, and others continue to explore eastern mediterranean and north african models in the performance of early repertories and to collaborate with traditional musicians. Here is Constantinople’s beautiful rendition of Caccini’s “Dalla porta d’oriente.”
MUSIC TRACK
La porta d’oriente
Constantinople, Marco Beasley, Kiya Tabassian
Glossa 2020 | GCD924501
Giulio Caccini
Tr. 1 Dalla porta d’oriente (5:01)
Giulio Caccini’s “Dalla porta d’oriente” sung by Marco Beasley with Kiya Tabassian, setar, and the ensemble Constantinople.
The idea of Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, as the gateway to the East comes from its reputation for cultural exchange as much as its physical location. In their album La porte de felicité, (the gate of felicity), Doulce Mémoire collaborated with the Kudsi Erguner Ensemble to explore music from the time of Sultan Mehmed the Second, when the neighboring city of Galata was a powerful Italian municipality, with French, Greek, Jewish, and Morisco inhabitants.
MUSIC TRACK
La porte de félicité
Doulce Mémoire, Ensemble Kudsi Erguner
Zig-Zag Territoires 2012 | ZZT314
Anonymous
Tr. 10 Danse de cleves, franchise nouvelle (2:37)
A pair of basse dances performed by Doulce Mémoire with the Kudsi Erguner Ensemble.
________________________________________
[Theme music begins]
Early music can mean a lot of things. What does it mean to you? Let us know your thoughts and ideas. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org, where you’ll also find playlists and an archive of past shows.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
[Theme music fades]
________________________________________
(1:00) Mid Break Music Bed:
MUSIC TRACK
O Jerusalem! City of Three Faiths
Apollo’s Fire, Jeannette Sorrell
Avie Records 2022 | AV2501
Improv. Daphna Mor, arr. Jeannette Sorrell
Tr. 3 Taxim (Improvisation) - Ir me quería yo por este caminico (no vocals before 1:00) (excerpt of 3:54)
(fades out at :59)
________________________________________
Welcome back… we’re looking at how Turkish traditional music has influenced early music groups today.
Jordi Savall took inspiration from the cultural diversity of the Ottoman Empire on La sublime porte, a collection named after the ceremonial gate to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Hespèrion XXI joins with traditional musicians to perform a selection of Turkish, Armenian, and Sephardic repertories from the Ottoman era.
MUSIC TRACK
La sublime porte
Hespèrion XXI, Jordi Savall
Alia Vox 2011 | 886788112858
Tr. 4 Por alli paso un cavallero (6:28)
Jordi Savall leads Hespèrion XXI on “Por alli paso un cavallero,” a Sephardic romance from sixteenth-century Smyrna, a town on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
Early music performers have been gravitating towards Turkish classical music, or makam-based traditions because the improvisational and oral nature of many Turkish and Arab practices reflects skills and techniques that later Western Classical music has largely lost. But the revival of Ottoman practices is not limited to early musicians with Western training—musicians from the former Ottoman Empire are also exploring the historical repertories behind their living traditions. We’ll hear from a Hungarian group who has recorded two collections of music from Ottoman Central Europe.
MUSIC TRACK
Ancient Turkish Music in Europe
Kecskés Ensemble, András Kecskés
Hungaroton 2014 | HCD12560
Anonymous
Tr. 7 Tuna nehri - Panegyric on Pasha Osman (3:32)
We heard “Tuna nehri” (which translates as the Danube River), a tribute to the Ottoman general Osman Nuri Pasha, performed by the Kecskés Ensemble. Next, we’ll hear dance music from the Kuruc era, an anti-Habsburg insurgency in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Hungary.
MUSIC TRACK
Music of the Kuruc Era
Kecskés Ensemble, András Kecskés
Hungaroton 2014 | HCD31088
Anonymous
Tr. 19 Tancok a Kajoni-kodexbol - Erdelyi hajdutanc (4:14)
The Kecskés Ensemble with dances from the Kajoni Codex and a traditional Hajdu dance. This group has also released an album of troubadour songs influenced by their traditional music expertise.
MUSIC TRACK
Gaucelm Faudit Songs: Troubadour music from the 12th-13th centuries
Kecskés Ensemble, András Kecskés
Hungaroton 2014 | HCD12548
Gaucelm Faudit
Tr. 6: Lo gens cors onratz (3:03)
Troubdaour Gaucelm Faudit’s “Lo gens cors onratz,” performed by the Kecskés Ensemble, with tenor Gerard Le Vot.
This hour’s featured recording comes from a group performing both traditional Ottoman music and European early music with a Turkish influence. The Pera Ensemble, founded by Turkish musicians Mehmet Cemal Yeşilçay and İhsan Özer, released their album Ballo Turco: From Venice to Istanbul, with Oehms Classics in 2016. In collaboration with soprano Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli, Ballo Turco is an exploration of the intersection of Ottoman and Venetian culture at the turn of the seventeenth century.
MUSIC TRACK
Ballo Turco
Pera Ensemble, Mehmet Cemal Yeşilçay & Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli
Oehms Classics 2016 | OC1858
Marco Da Gagliano
Tr. 11 Ballo di donne turche: Sinfonia á 3 - Ballo Grande á 3 - O felici fortunate (2:46)
Mehmet Cemal Yeşilçay leads the Pera Ensemble with pieces from Marco da Gagliano’s “Ballo di donne turche.” Next, we’ll hear a love song by Ottoman court musician Frenk Mustafa, who was an enslaved Italian convert and friend of Ali Ufki, notable Polish-turned-Ottoman musician.
MUSIC TRACK
Ballo Turco
Pera Ensemble, Mehmet Cemal Yeşilçay & Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli
Oehms Classics 2016 | OC1858
Frenk Mustafa
Tr. 13 Mecmua-yi saz ü söz: Murabba (5:20)
A murabba or love song by Frenk Mustafa. Performed by the Pera Ensemble and Mehmet Cemal Yeşilçay on our featured release this hour, Ballo Turco: From Venice to Istanbul.
[Fade in theme music]
Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.
Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.
The writer for this edition of Harmonia was Chelsey Belt.
Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Wendy Gillespie, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.
[Theme music concludes]
