CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Nevzat Akpinar Ensemble

Zankel Hall
Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 8:30 PM

Nevzat Akpinar Ensemble

The Nevzat Akpinar Ensemble, comprising members of Berlin's large Turkish and Kurdish communities, makes its US debut, performing the folk and ritual music of the Alevi, a mystical Sufi order; intricate baglama (lute) and vocal music from various regions of Turkey; dance music of central Anatolia; and original compositions.

The Berlin in Lights festival is made possible by a leadership gift from the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.

Major funding has also been provided by Mercedes and Sid Bass, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from Martha and Bob Lipp, Fundación Mercantil (Venezuela), and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional funding provided by Axel Springer AG, GWFF USA Inc., and the Jerome Robbins Foundation.

Program Notes:

ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS ON
NEVZAT AKPINAR ENSEMBLE

In this precarious and embattled era, it is easy to find broad generalizations in the media about Muslims who have emigrated westward. But it’s far less common to actually have a glimpse into the vivid traditions and rich heritage of one of these communities.

This concert by the Nevzat Akpinar Ensemble, a group of Turkish and Kurdish musicians who now make their home in Berlin, is an opportunity to explore the musical and cultural wealth of the Alevi community, a small minority within Turkey and Islam itself. Although Alevi beliefs and practices have enormous range, their tradition, in its broadest terms, technically belongs within the Shia branch of Islam and emphasizes a personal and mystical relationship to God that is not unlike the teachings of Sufism.

With incredible skill and great sensitivity, the group sings and plays a number of plucked string instruments within the baglama family. Along with performing a variety of secular music from across Turkey and original compositions, the group’s repertoire includes music from the Alevi tradition, including selections from the semah ritual and the mystical love songs known as deyis.

Anastasia Tsioulcas is a New York–based music critic who writes for Billboard, Gramophone, and Songlines magazines, as well as others.

Notes on the Program

ALEVI MUSIC AND KURDISH SONGS OF TURKEY
As throughout the Near and Middle East and Central Asia, regional styles of music abound in Turkey. While the West has become familiar in recent years with classical Turkish music and, in particular, with the music associated with the Mevlevi (Whirling Dervish) ceremonies, folk music and music associated with other religious ceremonies is less well known.

If a single instrument were to represent Turkish folk music, it would be the baðlama, a lute also known by the generic term saz, which literally means “instrument.” The baðlama is descended from the kopuz, a generic term for various string instruments favored by the Turkic tribes of Central Asia and introduced to Anatolia from the 10th century onward by asik-s, itinerant poets and troubadours. The baðlama comes in a variety of sizes; the two largest instruments, the divan and tambura (sometimes known vernacularly as bozuk) have long necks with up to 26 frets. The instrument favored today by the Alevi and Bektashi, related mystical Sufi groups, is a short-necked lute with 19 frets and three courses of strings usually arranged 3-2-2. Symbolically, the instrument is understood to represent Imam Ali (the Prophet’s son-in law): the resonator represents his body, the neck his sword Zulfikar, and the frets the12 imams of Shi’a Islam. There is also a smaller three- or six-stringed instrument known as the cura. The word baðlama derives from baðlamak (to tie)—referring to the instrument’s frets that are usually made of gut and tied behind the neck. Tuning varies according to the region.

The baðlama can be played with or without a plectrum. When the strings are strummed with the fingers, the method is known as selpe, and the style varies according to region. For example, among the Turkmen communities of the Aegean, musicians tend to add a percussive element by hitting the body of their instrument, while the Alevis use a gentler style. Traditionally, the body of the baðlama was carved out of solid mulberry wood, but today it is more commonly made out of strips of juniper wood bent and glued together. The sounding board is made of spruce, and a hardwood known as kebelek is used for the neck.

The Alevis make up about 20% of the Turkish people and have historically been considered heretical by the Sunni majority. As their name implies, they trace their lineage to Ali, whom they, like the Shi’a of Iran, consider to be the rightful heir to leadership of the Faith. It is not monolithic and is often presented as a religion of reason and wisdom that stresses education, promotes personal and public honesty, and is compatible with secularism. Alevis consider themselves to be the true preservers of Turkish culture and, at the same time, believers in Kemal Ataturk’s vision of the modern Turkish secular state. Because of poverty, lack of employment opportunities, and political and religious persecution, many Alevis, along with Kurds, emigrated to Western Europe, particularly Germany, from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Alevis follow the path of Sufism, and music plays an important role in their religious ceremonies that are referred to as cem or ayin. The ceremonies are led by dede-s, descendants of holy lineages who settle disputes and maintain peace and harmony. Mystical songs accompanied by the baðlama are performed, and ritual dance (semah) plays an important role. Many dede are renowned poets/minstrels (asik or ozan) who maintain the tradition of Turkish-vernacular sung poetry composed by such masters as Yunus Emre (ca. 1238–1328), Pir Sultan Abdal (ca. 1480–1550) and Kul Huseyn (17th century). The repertoire includes deyis (songs of mystical love), nefes (mystical hymns), duvaz (hymns in honor of the 12 imams), mersiye (laments mourning the martyrdom of Hussain, the Prophet’s grandson), miraclama (songs relating the Prophet’s ascent to heaven), and semah (ritual dances). The dances are performed by couples and employ line and circle formations. There are many regional variants of semah, but the most important and widespread are the Dance of the Forty (Kirklar Semahi) and the Dance of the Cranes (Turna Semahi). In the former, the gathering of 40 saints refers to the moment after the Prophet’s ascension, when he beheld the manifestation of Divine Reality in Ali. The Dance of the Cranes refers to the ancient shamanistic legacy of the Turkic tribes.

To the Kurds, the world’s largest nation without a country, cultural identity is the essence that fuels the struggle for survival. Music is integral to Kurdish identity—and there are few places on earth where it has more meaning, as an assertion and expression of a culture. Historically, too, music plays a central role in Kurdish society. In a land of mountains and high plateaus, music has for centuries been the means of oral transmission of chronicles, epics, and lyrical poetry, as well as the language (because it was not taught in schools and was officially forbidden in Turkey).

The music tells of the joy and sorrow of everyday life, gives rhythm to the labor of the field, magnifies myths and erotic rapture, and helps the listener to relive the tales of the wars and insurrections that still punctuate the life of the Kurds. The Kurdish prince Salahaddin—the Saladin of the Crusades—is one of the principal heroes whose exploits feature in epic songs. Traditionally Kurdish folklore is transmitted by dengbej (bards), stranbej (minstrels), and chrokbej (storytellers), usually from families of musicians.

The repertoire of the stranbej includes epics and songs of unrequited love as well as erotic poetry, which is passionate and direct despite the restraints of Islam. Singers are judged by their creativity, the beauty of their poetry, and their ability to stir emotions. There is also a strong body of work songs used to accompany spinning wool and weaving rugs, or the threshing, winnowing, and herding that is part of agricultural life, or the shearing of sheep and the birth of lambs that punctuates nomadic life. In addition, music is central to weddings, births, funerals, and feasts.

Nevzat Akpinar Ensemble
The Nevzat Akpinar Ensemble makes its US debut, performing the folk and ritual music of the Alevi, a mystical Sufi order; intricate baglama (lute) and vocal music from various regions of Turkey; dance music of central Anatolia; and original compositions. The ensemble is composed of members of Berlin’s large Turkish and Kurdish communities that are all of Alevi background.

The group features seven of Berlin’s finest performers on baglama, the predominant stringed instrument of Turkey. Considered a sacred instrument, the baglama is used in religious ceremonies of the Alevi, a Sufi order that boasts 20 million followers in Turkey. It is particularly associated with itinerant poets or troubadours known as asik, whose unorthodox beliefs have often landed them in trouble with the religious and political mainstream.

The members of the ensemble are baglama players / vocalists Nevzat Akpinar, Haydar Kutluer, Kemal Hür, Hasan Kuzu, Erdal Güncü, Gökhan Sarpkaya, and Veli Sahin, and vocalist Imam Cetin.

The group is under the direction of composer-musician-teacher Nevzat Akpinar, who was born in 1968 in Sivas, Central Anatolia, and moved to Berlin, Germany, in 1980. He studied with the baglama virtuoso Talip Oezkan, Turkish composer Tayfun Erdem, and Henning Schmidt. In 2002, he completed his studies in Comparative Music Science, Turkologie, and Music Science at the University of Berlin. His compositions were performed in the ’90s by the Mosaic ensemble, with which he performed baglama duets with Kemal Hür. As a baglama player, he toured Europe with Mikas Theodorakis and Zuelfue Livaneli, and participated in the The Abduction from the Seraglio under the direction of George Tabori. He made two recordings with Zotos Compania, a Greek-German-Turkish band. As a composer, he has written solo pieces for baglama, works set to Turkish poetry, and chamber music. He composed Johann Dede, a work for string orchestra, oboe, baglama, and choir, which was performed by the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. Together with Haydar Kutluer he directs Baglama Muezik, a baglama school in Berlin.