Ottoman classical music
Ottoman classical music is still appreciated today in Turkish society. It was first inspired by Arab-Persian music, then its own identity was shaped from the 15th century, reaching a peak of creativity in the 18th century. The themes that inspire it are often closely related to religion, the army, love and war. Bringing together elements from the countries annexed by the Empire, Ottoman music was the source of a true musical identity. After a break imposed by the Kemalist Revolution, it was redeployed in the second half of the 20th century. Although Atatürk appreciated Ottoman classical music, he had it banned from broadcasting, advocating its replacement by European classical music. This music was gradually transformed into lighter entertainment music, which survives in a watered-down form in today's popular music, but which can be considered an extension of "updated" Ottoman music.
Kudsi Erguner has introduced the Western public to Ottoman art music. He is also a virtuoso of Sufi music and of the ney (reed flute of the whirling dervishes). The dervishes are religious, of the mevlevi order, a Muslim Sufi order, who use mystical dance to commune with God, and whose ceremonies are totally bewitching. Sufism is a doctrine dating from the eighth century, which has always cultivated secrecy and occupies a special place within Islam. The members of this order are called whirling dervishes because the movements of their dance are similar to those of a spinning top. The Whirling Dervish Tekke, Mevlevi Tekkesi in Turkish, has a small museum displaying a number of objects and musical instruments. This is the only place in the Sufi establishment open to visitors. Every last Sunday of the month, you can attend a traditional whirling dervish ceremony. Another possibility is the Hodjapasha Cultural Center which also offers a traditional show mixing dance and hypnosis, which allows to better understand this particular spiritual approach.
Traditional music
Traditional Turkish folk music has been enriched and diversified by the influence of the cultures of Central Asia, the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Europe. In contrast to the urban and elitist environment in which Turkish classical music was born, folk music is the product of the rural world in which it developed. We will mainly remember artists such as Şivan Perwer, Koma Ahmed, Kamkars and Ciwan Haco, as well as the now famous Kardeş Türküler, which has the originality of singing in Kurdish, Armenian, Turkish, Laze, Zaza... while covering Assyrian, Anatolian, Alevi, Yezidi or Arabic melodies. A true hymn to tolerance and harmony between peoples. Turkish folk music has been fed from two main sources: the creators of türkü and the âşık. The creators of türkü sing the songs that are performed in celebratory ceremonies, special rituals, religious ceremonies and in funerals, all over Anatolia. They sing them repeatedly and modify them and add new words and thus create new songs that are called türkü. While the âşık (lovers, passionate, taken in the mystical sense) are itinerant singers who most often accompany themselves on the saz, the most common long-necked cordophone in Turkey. Since the early 20th century, the term "ozan" has been used more than "aşık" in Turkey. But the name "ozan" is used to indicate all those who recite verse. Fasıl, a type of sung and rather elaborate Ottoman semi-classical music, is performed by normally Gypsy, sometimes Rumanian (Istanbul Greeks) orchestras. It is often used as an accompaniment in the famous meyhane, where customers do not hesitate to dance and sing after a few glasses of rakı. To capture some of the essence of one of these history-laden places and have a unique experience, head to Tarihi Cumhuriyet Meyhanesi, a distinctive meyhane founded in the 1920s that specializes in its seafood dishes and features live traditional Turkish music. Newspaper clippings in the lobby, framed photographs and traditional music will immerse you in the Turkey of yesteryear for an evening.
You can discover local instruments in Galip Dede Caddesi, a street better known by its nickname of Music Street. Between the Galata Tower and Tünel Square, the windows of musical instrument stores follow one another. On a few hundred meters, it is possible to admire and test a multitude of instruments in about forty stores. Acoustic and digital piano stores, luthiers, accessories, etc., you can find everything in this street. This is where you can discover the impressive variety of local instruments: stringed instruments (such as the kementché, a kind of rebec, a small viol from the Black Sea region, the bağlama or the calabash violin.), stringed instruments with plectrum (pick) including theut (lute), the tambur (mandolin), the çenk (harp), the kanun and the santur (two kinds of zither). You will also admire wind instruments such as the zurna (clarinet or wooden oboe), the çifte (doubled), the ney (reed flute), the country flute (shepherd's chanter), the tulum (musette), the bagpipes, the harmonica and the accordion, or percussion instruments such as the darbouka (earth and skin percussion), the bass drum, the kudüm, and the def (tambourine).
The Istanbul Music Festival is the main summer music event, offering classical, traditional and jazz music. Its organizers program performances in a variety of venues, from concert halls like İş Sanat or dedicated opera houses like the Süreyya Cultural Center, to more surprising ones like the Neve Shalom Synagogue, the Church of St. Anthony of Padua, and even the platforms of Sirkeci Station, the famous terminus of the Orient-Express. Although the city is not as well equipped with modern music halls as some of its European counterparts, it can count on some of its historical buildings to host concerts in very good conditions. This is particularly the case of Saint Irene, a Byzantine church dating from the 6th century with excellent acoustics, which regularly hosts classical music concerts.
Turkish jazz
As for jazz, which shares with traditional Turkish music a sense of improvisation, the scene is abundant. Among the many current talents, let us quote the group Taksim Trio, the saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin, the percussionist Okay Temiz, or the pianists Aydn Esen and Fazil Say. The latter, a talented young improviser who challenges the codes of classical music, is also passionate about jazz and founded his Worldjazz quartet. For jazz lovers, Bova has an interesting program in a relaxed and warm atmosphere. Highly recommended, especially since admission is free. And the IKSV Jazz Festival in July is not to be missed.
The arabesque
At the end of the 1970s, driven by the recently emigrated populations of rural Anatolia, a new style appeared in the highly urbanized areas. This patchwork music, which has been called arabesque, a kind of world-music before the word even existed, mixes the influences of classical and popular Turkish music. Its lyrics, handling hidden meanings and parables, evoke lost loves, speak of stories of honor or the sufferings of the people. The voices are also very tragic, no need to understand the lyrics to grasp the distress of the performers that oozes from the station... It can be heard in bars on the side of Aksaray, Tarlabaşı and Istanbul's underbelly; it is ubiquitous in the dolmuş (collective buses) and was banned for a time by the military in the 1980s. This music exerted a real supremacy in the years 1990-1995. One of the undisputed stars of arabesque is Ibrahim "Ibo" Tatlıses, who owes his success to his instantly recognizable voice. Urban Turks who, in public, claim to dislike this style of music, however, recognize an attachment to Ibrahim Tatlıses, whose talent has transcended social barriers.
From Turkish pop to underground rock
Pop music has been one of the main branches of popular music in Turkey for almost fifty years. The great star of Turkish pop song is Sezen Aksu (born 1954), who led the way with her hit Hadi bakalım. She has managed to judiciously combine elements of traditional and electronic music. A music that ignites the dance floors, while looking for its influences in the Anatolian, gypsy or even Hindu repertoire. While staying on top, she has helped countless young artists to break through. Not content with writing her own lyrics, she is behind many of the successes of the younger generation. The labels were all established here, where the Turkish pop artists also live and work, which began to develop in earnest in the mid-1980s. In 1993, others followed such as Özlem Tekin, but no one has eclipsed the Star to this day. The recurring themes of her songs are love, sentimental disappointments, nostalgia, but she also sometimes addresses more social themes. Musically, it is a clever mix of more or less Arabic sounds, modern electronic music and easy to remember and hum choruses. Most of the pop artists release an album and have to be satisfied with a few months of fame, before falling into oblivion and being replaced by a new clone. Baris Manço was the most famous Anatolian rock artist until the 1990s. After his death in 1999, the villa where he lived was turned into a museum that explores his life and artistic production. The Kultur Merkezi Baris Manço also offers small exhibitions and concerts, with the participation of students from the State Conservatory of Istanbul University.
In Istanbul, music production shifted after the Gezi events (June 2013 protest movement against the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) and the numerous attacks perpetrated in Ankara and Istanbul by the Islamic State and the TAK Kurds. Before that, artistic life was taking its course in Istanbul. Then, all of a sudden, Istanbul was removed from the touring itinerary of Western artists. For several years, concert hall managers were forced to program bands from Turkey. This local scene has its emblematic bands. Kurban, with its fresh and catchy rock, is one of the pillars of the local scene. The band toured Turkey for years but broke up in 2018. More internationally known, Athena is an iconic band that even represented Turkey at the 2004 Eurovision contest. Its first album Hooligan in 1998 had made the effect of a bomb in a musical landscape dominated by the pop. Combining Turkish vocals, ska rhythms and punk power, Athena succeeded in establishing herself as the ska reference in Turkey. One of its songs has become the anthem of the national basketball team. More underground, the band Rashit is one of the few punk bands in Turkey. Hailing from Beyoğlu, which they sing about in their debut album, Telaşa Mahal Yok, it is not uncommon to run into Rashit in this neighborhood, which they still love, and which remains the nerve center of a certain counterculture. Also worth listening to, MVÖ (Mov ve Ötesi), strongly influenced by bands like Radiohead, very popular among young Turks, but also the band Manga, the precursor of Turkish rock Gokhan, the band Duman, Gripin and SeksenDort, or Mabel Matiz. Some rock musicians have gone back to the folk repertoire for their influences. The band Altin Gün, an alliance of Dutch musicians and Turkish singers, released their first album in 2018, On, a tribute to the Turkish folk tradition with strikingly modern music. The band covers familiar tunes, standards that have been passed down for decades, to which the musicians add their psychedelic rock touch.
Keep an eye on the program of Babylon, the mythical Istanbul venue that has seen a great line-up of indie rock and alternative music stars, to discover this whole scene. The Zorlu Performing Arts Center, accessible from the Taksim metro, also offers concerts every night.
The theater
Despite a major socio-political crisis, Istanbul offers a wide and varied range of theatrical performances every night. With their ten stages, located on both the European and Anatolian shores, Istanbul's municipal theaters allow the public to see classic plays, from Shakespeare to Greek tragedies, via Chekhov and Ibsen, but also plays written by Turkish playwrights. Several festivals punctuate the artistic season. The main one is the Istanbul International Theatre Festival every November, a major event that brings together companies from all over Europe. Because of censorship and the taboos imposed on television, many directors and scriptwriters have chosen to refocus on private theater. The country has recently seen the emergence of new companies and venues such as GalataPerform, Tiyatro Medresesi and Kadıköy Theatron, which are looking for new theatrical forms and working to develop them. The alternative scene has also developed with the desire to change the narrative forms of theater and redefine its essence. Independent theaters such as Seyyar Sahne, Altidan Sonra Tiyatro and Mek'an Sahne are engaged in this artistic process.
