Deniz Kızı Eftelya - Kadıköylü (1998) (REUP)

Deniz Kızı Eftelya Bio.:

Eftalya was born in 1891 in Istanbul and died in the same city in 1939. She is the daughter of a Greek-born Ottoman army officer by the name of Yorgaki Efendi, who was also a music lover or an amateur musician. About her teachers in music and how she became a trained musician, we do not know. "Deniz Kızı", which means "mermaid", was her epithet by which she was known throughout her musical life. The epithet has an interesting story. When she was a very young girl. Eftalya and her father used to hire a rowing-boat very frequently in the hot summer evenings in Buyukdere, a village along the European side of the
Bosphorus, and had pleasure excursions during which she sang throughout the evening. Being unable to see her face and figure out where the voice was coming from but could only her enchanting melodies, the people living in the coastal village ascribed the epithet "mermaid" to the singer of those nocturnal songs, which mysteriously and beautifully reverberated in the darkness of the night. And as a professional musician she started to sing under this name. The Greek-born Turkish kemençe player Aleko Bacano's very famous song ("Gel, ey denizin nazlı kızı" / "0, come, you coy mermaid…..") on the makam acemaşiran has been dedicated to Eftalya. This song is also included in this CD (No.21), performed by Sabite Tur, another master female singer of Turkish music.

Deniz Kızı flourished when she was only a teenager and made her dêbut in the cafe chantants of Galata, a cosmopolitan district of old Istanbul. Due to her beautiful voice, and also to her physical beauty she became a well known and sought-after singer within a few years.

Eftalya gave numerous concerts at a time when it was not customary for muslim women to sing publicly. She sang to a great number of Path6. Columbia, and His Masters Voice 78 r.p.m. Records. She is probably the first female singer who has sung to records in Turkey. Her popular fame increasingly grew as the gramophone spread through the provincial small towns of Anatolia. She also gave a series of concerts abroad. Eftalya was naturally a talented musician. She could sing all kinds of songs pertaining to all genres of Turkish music: classical songs of the elite Ottoman music, both urban and rural folk songs, and also entertaining pieces which now may be regarded as the early examples of Turkish pop music. Although she was a Greek-born musician, her diction was faultless. Eftalya was married to Sadi Işılay, a prominent violinist of the twentieth century Turkish music.

The Mermaid was a legendary singer whose memory is still alive. Though she has left an unforgettable name, we do not know enough about her life. The present CD gathers together the best examples of her performance. Deniz Kızı is now for the first time on a Kalan CD.

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