Paper Proposals

Dear Pierre Debois,

I would like to participate in the Morocco/Assilah International Conference on Music in the World of Islam to be held between 7-11 August, 2007.

The topics I can present are as follows:

REPERCUSSIONS OF THE MUSIC REFORMATION IN TÜRKİYE (Music and Politics/Music and the State)

Since the overthrow of Janissaries in 1826, and the establishment of Musika-i Hümayun (Royal Military Ensemble) in place of Mehter (Imperial Band of the Janissary corps), musicianship in Türkiye is divided into two camps: Alla Turca (Maqam Music tradition) & Alla Franca (Western common-practice music). The final century of the Ottoman Empire saw the precarious duality and even occasional suffusion of both styles. The reinstatement, in 1911, of Mehter, and the opening, in 1917, of Dar Al-Alhan (House of Melodies) gave further indication that tradition and westernization could very well coexist side by side. However, with the foundation of the Republic in 1923, Mehter was once more disbanded, and, by 1926, Maqam Music education had been abolished from Dar Al-Alhan. This manoeuvre by the Jacobinist revolution was in line with Ziya Gökalp's Turkism doctrine, which stated that modernized Turks ought to abandon the sickly Oriental music descended from Byzantine based on quarter-tones, find their authentic culture in unadulterated Anatolian Folk melodies, borrow their new civilization (twelve tones and classical harmony) from the Occident, and reach a synthesis on national music via the coalescence of rural ayres with Western polyphony. As a further outcome of Gökalp's spurious conjectures, Kemalists banned Alla Turca radio programmes between 1934-1936 in preperation for the institutionalization of a nationalistic opera tinged with newfangled notions of pentatonism reminiscent of the nomadic origins of Turks. In opposition, Rauf Yekta, premier musicologist from Türkiye and pioneer of the 24-tone Pythagorean tuning in effect, developed the argument, that Oriental music did not utilize quarter-tones, possessed, rather, subtle nuances of pitch that did not preclude harmony, was the refined complement of Folk music, and was just as national. While he could neither swerve the ruling elite nor convince Arabs to opt for his views in the Cairo Congress of 1932, his successors, Hüseyin Saadettin Arel and Suphi Ezgi, propagated his ideas, modified his tuning with the assistance of Salih Murat Uzdilek, constructed a music theory bearing their names, and launched another campaign in defense of the battered maqam tradition. Arel's nomination as director to Istanbul Conservatory (Dar Al-Alhan) in 1943 turned the tables in favour of Turkish Maqam Music. Although he could not rescind the ban on the education of monodic Turkish Music instruments, Arel nevertheless commenced lessons on the new theory and authorized the accomodation of a permanent ensemble of traditionalist musicians charged with performing scores churned out daily in conformity with the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek System. His disciples, exploiting fears of cultural degeneracy aroused by the megalopolitan emergence and spread of Arabesque after 1960s, gained government support, and founded, in 1976, the first Turkish Music Conservatory based on the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek System. This was a forerunner to similar conservatories to come, whose forthwith acceptance of the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek methodology was obviously in retaliation against westernized conservatories in their lingering animosity towards Alla Turca and unquestioning veneration of twelve-tone music from overseas for the past several decades. With the 1982 constitution adopted after the 1980 military coup, all music schools were integrated into state universities. Thus, the quinquagesimal cultural fracture in Turkish Music has been officially ratified by the state and continues to split and antagonize practitioners today.

79-TONE TUNING FOR TURKISH QANUNS AND MAQAM MUSIC (Music and Society/Performance Contexts today and their changes since the Cairo Congress of 1932)

An original 79-tone tuning developed and implemented on a Turkish qanun by the author has been acclaimed in traditionary music circles in Türkiye. The benefits of the 79-tone tuning on Maqam Music theory were demonstrated on a custom-tailored qanun built by the renown Turkish luthier Ejder Güleç and found general acceptance among famous qanun players such as Ruhi Ayangil, Erol Deran, and Halil Karaduman. The tuning is, in fact, a voluminous temperament providing satisfactory representation of maqam perdes (pitches/pitch-clusters) as well as the means for consistent transposition of maqam scales over all degrees, yielding a cornucopia of maqam/key modulations. Furthermore, the system extends immensely the frontiers of practicable microtonal polyphony. A tolerable maximum of 8 cents error is allowed in the approximation, among other things, of common Just Intonation intervals, the 24-tone Pythagorean Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek System, and the 24-tone equal Arabic System. The tuning comprises a closed-cycle quasi-equal 12-tone subset suitable for Western keyboard polyphony. It is also possible to extract a closed-cycle 29-tone subset, if the 46th degree (the fifth step of the diatonic major scale) is considered fine-tunable (that is, flexible) as much as 7 cents down. Transcription of maqam scales are accomplished through the employment of Sagittal Notation created by George Secor and David Keenan. The mixed version of this microtonal staff notation requires, aside from familiar sharps and flats, only three additional accidentals to be learned in the case of 79-tone temperament. Additionally, a 79-tone Virtual Qanun with realistic sample sounds has been programmed by Uğur Keçecioğlu, and features the Sagittal system of notation aside from user-definable mandal (qanun lever) configurations.

ULTRATONAL PIANO (Musical production/Contemporary creation in the spirit of the tradition)

A design conceived by the author enables all acoustic pianos to be retuned automatically and instantaneously on demand. Special pressure units are installed in place of the pinblock that houses the tuning pegs, wind the strings as would the pins, and allow fine control of string tensions, yielding unprecedented resolution of pitch. Light-speed frequency measurements of the vibrating string lenghts are accomplished via an ingenious device invented by the author called the Doppler Tonometer. A silent operating electric-powered compressor & pumping mechanism feeds pressure into and drains pressure from the units. The distribution and maintainance of pressure is regulated by a master console with an LCD touch-screen horizontally positioned before the piano keyboard. An integrated computer system allows the storage and application of scale presets, precise manual pitch calibrations, beat frequency calculations, and beat ratio analyses. The design elevates any ordinary piano from a 12-tone Western instrument to an Ultratonal music workstation limited only by the prevailing Halberstadt keyboard construction. And even this may easily be overcome by the quick alteration at the touch of a button of scale subsets prepared in advance. By all indications, Ultratonal Piano makes an ideal reference instrument for teaching and performing the maqamat, hence, traditional music in the world of Islam.

Cordially,
Ozan Yarman

Doctorate Student
Department of Musicology and Music Theory
Turkish Music State Conservatory
Istanbul Techical University
TÜRKİYE