"bio":"<h2>Anatolian Anonymous Folk Balads</h2><p>In Anatolia there is a tradition of folk songs that belong to different regions of this land. The songs are anonymous and have reached to this day through ashiks, singers and archives that were prepared during the first decades of the Turkish Republic. The themes of the songs vary depending on the geographic region of the peninsula but typically gives information about village life, nature, position of women/men in the society, family life, immigration and longing for the loved ones. This is a valuable heritage which transforms through time and different voices. </p>"
},
{
"name":"Yunus Emre",
@ -405,6 +406,13 @@
"time":1,
"bio":"<h2>İlhan Mimaroğlu</h2><p>İlhan Mimaroğlu (1926-2012) was a pioneer composer, music critic and writer from Turkey. Even though he moved to New York already in 1959 he kept his close relations with Turkey. He studied musicology in University of Colombia where he followed classes by Paul Henry Lang and Dogulas Moore. He starts teaching in the same university after getting his master degree in electronic music. He worked with Tülay German for the album ‘Tract: A Composition of Agistprop Music for Electromagnetic Tape’ with verses from Nazım Hikmet and Mahir Cayan, Bertold Brecht, Karl Marx and many more. He also made ’To Kill a Sunrise and La Ruche” which is a ‘requiem for those shot in the back’ referring to political executions all around the world.</p>",
"url":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/AWEKfWzO-_c"
},
{
"name":"Merve Kılıçer",
"group":4,
"id":"merve",
"time":1,
"bio":"<h2>Merve Kılıçer</h2><p>I added myself to this map because my artistic production feeds from these artists you see on the map and my practice aims to carry forward some of the works that were produced in the past. You can visit two projects in my portfolio which connects to this research that I had started for my MFA (Master of Fine Art) degree. The project ‘Volitional Volutions of Volatile Waters’ is an on-going project and aims to create a physical meeting/sharing space. The Project ‘Fresh Myths Different Times’ is a collaborative work we produced with Rotterdam based artist from Turkey, Ulufer Çelik. You can learn more at www.mervekilicer.com</p>"
@ -72,10 +72,10 @@ In Anatolian lands, when the majority of people converted to Islam, it influence
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, the folk of Anatolia, comprised of different ethnicities and cultures, came together in order to save the land from Western colonizers and to fight the War of Independence with the leadership of Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. After negotiations with the invaders were complete and reforms were made through new laws (abolition of the Sultanate, terminating religious tariqas,<sup>11</sup> changing the alphabet and traditional clothing, etc.) the republic settled in order to start a new secular state (Ayvalıoğlu, 2012). The intention of forming a new country in Anatolia led the new state to evolve through nationalistic ideologies, ones which gradually eliminated the diverse fabric of the land. This politic was reflected in the themes of its anthems and torch songs that narrated epic stories about the war of independence and glorified the Turkish nation. With the arrival of new sound recording technologies (gramophones, phonographs) and communication lines (telegraph, radio) these ideologies quickly propagated throughout the country. However, despite the first radio broadcast airing in 1927, it was not until after the 1950’s that radio and the nationalistic propaganda it conveyed was able to reach all regions of central Anatolia.
</p>
<p>
The Westernization in music had already started in the last decades of the Ottoman Empire with European notation techniques being introduced to archive songs composed in the palace. During the first years of the new republic, the aforementioned radio broadcasts also had an important role in spreading the reforms of Westernization and educating the rural (folk) population. Even though Turkey was a so-called free republic, located at the crossroads of East and West, its urgent need to catch up with new technologies and the remaining debts of the Ottoman Empire rendered it vulnerable to cultural colonization.</p><spanid="textkaracaoglan"><spanid="textmuharrem">With the aim of defining the identity of “national music” from 1926 until the end of the 1940’s, trips were organized to archive (notate and record on vinyl) the cultural production in Anatolia. The archived content was used to teach Western-educated Turkish musicians to perform folkloric tunes that were broadcast on a few of the radio programs that transmitted folk music. At times, these programs invited Ashik figures to play live.</span></span><spanid="textasikV">Ashik Veysel, one of the most famous Ashik of the late Ottoman and early republic times, was the only Ashik with Alevi roots to be played on the radio. Even though in the 1930’s he was given the title of “milli şair” (national poet of the state), his Alevi roots were still not recognized. In the 1940’s Veysel was teaching children to play cura12 at several “Village Institutes” spread throughout Anatolia. <sup>13</sup> There it’s said that he encountered Ruhi Su and many other musicians and intellectuals from Istanbul.</span>
The Westernization in music had already started in the last decades of the Ottoman Empire with European notation techniques being introduced to archive songs composed in the palace. During the first years of the new republic, the aforementioned radio broadcasts also had an important role in spreading the reforms of Westernization and educating the rural (folk) population. Even though Turkey was a so-called free republic, located at the crossroads of East and West, its urgent need to catch up with new technologies and the remaining debts of the Ottoman Empire rendered it vulnerable to cultural colonization.</p><spanid="textkaracaoglan"><spanid="textmuharrem">With the aim of defining the identity of “national music” from 1926 until the end of the 1940’s, trips were organized to archive (notate and record on vinyl) the cultural production in Anatolia. The archived content was used to teach Western-educated Turkish musicians to perform folkloric tunes that were broadcast on a few of the radio programs that transmitted folk music. At times, these programs invited Ashik figures to play live.</span></span><spanid="textasikV">Ashik Veysel, one of the most famous Ashik of the late Ottoman and early republic times, was the only Ashik with Alevi roots to be played on the radio. Even though in the 1930’s he was given the title of “milli şair” (national poet of the state), his Alevi roots were still not recognized. <spanid="textruhisu">In the 1940’s Veysel was teaching children to play cura12 at several “Village Institutes” spread throughout Anatolia.</span><sup>13</sup> There it’s said that he encountered Ruhi Su and many other musicians and intellectuals from Istanbul.</span>
</p>
<pid="textasikA">
The cultural production of those years can serve as a record of the political climate around the new republic. Starting from the 1950’s, Western-educated musicians like Ruhi Su, Tülay German, Sümeyra Çakır and Fikret Kızılok started combining folkloric tunes and themes with popular Western instruments and methods in order to stay connected to their roots. While Tülay German adopted folkloric songs into jazz tunes and collaborated with Ashiks that migrated to the city, Fikret Kızılok went to study with Ashik Veysel in Anatolia and made records with the songs of his mentor. This new approach was the result of the emigration of Anatolian folk (especially the minorities) to big cities to work in factories or study at universities and technical schools. Universities became the meeting point for Western-educated city youth and the Anatolian youth who were brought up with local traditions. This possibility of exchange created a synthesis of ideas, traditions and culture that then shaped the left- or right-winged political groups joining together in solidarity. The socialist movement of 1970’s Turkey was influenced by the neighboring Soviet Union, and it sided with the Kurdish and Alevi minorities who already had a history of disobedience and resistance through their preservation of cultural production, which propagate ideas of equality (Aysan, 2013). These leftist groups were showing resistance to the economic sanctions of the United States who had been providing financial support to Turkey. <spanid="textneset">The folkloric music helped to create a bridge between urban intellectuals, factory workers (in Turkey and Europe) and farmers of the rural areas.</span></p>
The cultural production of those years can serve as a record of the political climate around the new republic. Starting from the 1950’s, Western-educated musicians like Ruhi Su, <spanid ="texttulay">Tülay German, Sümeyra Çakır and Fikret Kızılok started combining folkloric tunes and themes with popular Western instruments and methods in order to stay connected to their roots. While Tülay German adopted folkloric songs into jazz tunes and collaborated with Ashiks that migrated to the city, <spanid="textfikret">Fikret Kızılok went to study with Ashik Veysel in Anatolia and made records with the songs of his mentor. </span>This new approach was the result of the emigration of Anatolian folk (especially the minorities) to big cities to work in factories or study at universities and technical schools.</span> Universities became the meeting point for Western-educated city youth and the Anatolian youth who were brought up with local traditions. This possibility of exchange created a synthesis of ideas, traditions and culture that then shaped the left- or right-winged political groups joining together in solidarity. The socialist movement of 1970’s Turkey was influenced by the neighboring Soviet Union, and it sided with the Kurdish and Alevi minorities who already had a history of disobedience and resistance through their preservation of cultural production, which propagate ideas of equality (Aysan, 2013). These leftist groups were showing resistance to the economic sanctions of the United States who had been providing financial support to Turkey. <spanid="textneset">The folkloric music helped to create a bridge between urban intellectuals, factory workers (in Turkey and Europe) and farmers of the rural areas.</span></p>
<pid="textatilla">
Şenlik dağıldı bir acı yel kaldı bahçede yalnız <br>
O mahur beste çalar Müjgan’la ben ağlaşırız <br>
@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ Bitmez sazların özlemi daha sonra daha sonra<br>
Sonranın bilinmezliği bir boyut katar ki onlara <br>
Simsiyah bir teselli olur belki kalanlara<br>
Geceler uzar hazırlık sonbahara<br>
/<br>
/<br><spanid="textahmet">
The carnival has dispersed only a bitter breeze remained in the garden <br>
That Mahur tune plays Müjgan and I keep weeping<br>
Friends are gone the feast has ended old thrills are no more nor is the haste<br>
@ -103,12 +103,12 @@ As they left it all went dark before the evening came<br>
The longing of the curas will not end then and then<br>
The obscurity of the afterwards adds a dimension to them<br>
And perhaps they become a pitch-black solace for the ones left behind<br>
Nights are getting longer preparation is for the fall<br>
Nights are getting longer preparation is for the fall</span><br>
<br>
Atilla İlhan, “Mahur”<sup>14</sup>
</p>
<pid="textasikM">
The resistance included many intellectuals and cultural workers who persistently retold the political history of their land through poetry. Musicians who adopted folkloric traditions used these same methods to pass on this knowledge and started to compose contemporary poetry into songs. <spanid="textnazim">Poems of leftist intellectuals like Nazım Hikmet,<spanid="textahmedA"> Ahmed Arif, Atilla İlhan and many more continued to be composed for decades by famous musicians in response to the local and global politics.</span> Still today young musicians, jazz soloists, rappers and pop singers voice the songs of famous Ashik figures or folkloric ballads in various styles and spread the voices of the Anatolian folk around the world (see, for example, the works of Selda Bağcan, Erkin Koray).</span></p>
The resistance included many intellectuals and cultural workers who persistently retold the political history of their land through poetry. Musicians who adopted folkloric traditions used these same methods to pass on this knowledge and started to compose contemporary poetry into songs. <spanid="textnazim">Poems of leftist intellectuals like Nazım Hikmet,<spanid="textahmedA"> Ahmed Arif, Atilla İlhan and <spanid="textbuyuk">many more <spanid="textezhel">continued to be composed for decades </span>by famous musicians in response to the local and global politics.</span><spanid="textceylan"> Still today young musicians, jazz soloists, rappers and pop singers voice the songs of famous Ashik figures or folkloric ballads in various styles and spread the voices of the Anatolian folk around the world </span>(see, for example, <spanid="textselda">the works of Selda Bağcan</span>, Erkin Koray)</span>.</span></p>
<p>
These songs carry not only the melodies and world views of important intellectuals but also the struggle and pain caused by political exiles, imprisonments, torture and executions in different stages of the history of Turkey. I would like to think of the telling of history through poetry and song as a cycle of growth that happens in our collective consciousness, and suddenly surfaces in moments like the Gezi Park Occupation. In this perspective, the spirit of Gezi Park is an accumulation of ideas and methods that flow through different streams of knowledge. It gets carried forward at moments and spaces of interaction by the audience, culture workers, and the creators who translate it to their era. </p>
