Melih Güzel - Sounds Of Anatolia

TRACKLIST:

1. Askaroz Deresi (Ey Trabzon) / 3:41
2. Çamdan Sakız Akıyor / 3:56
3. Giydiğim Aldır / 2:33
4. Karahisar Kalesi / 3:01
5. Tavas Zeybeği / 3:52
6. Efelerin Efesi (Yörük Ali) / 3:08
7. Ankara Zeybeği / 2:38
8. Neveser Pasticcio / 3:23
9. Buselik Pasticcio / 4:51
10. Nikriz Pasticcio / 2:17
11. Anadolu Teması ve Çeşitlemeleri - Ak Koyun Tema / 1., 2., 3. varyasyon / 5:06
12. La (A) Hüseyni Dizisi Üzerine Deyişler / 8:02
13. Yolculuk (Tren) / 2:37
14. Kent Gürültüleri (Gece) / 5:15
15. Gece Yürüyüşü / 1:59
16. Hoş Gelişler Ola (Marş) / 3:41

BIOGRAPHY

Born in İstanbul, Melih Güzel was introduced to the music and guitar while he was at junior high school. Music meant more than an interest to him; it was his passion, so he continued studying. After graduating from Marmara University' s Music School, he went on to the same university for post-graduate education and got his master’s degree thanks to his thesis entitled Adaptability of the Turkish Music Tunes and Scales to the Guitar. Thereafter he attended several workshops and master classes held by visiting guitarists to continue studying the guitar.

Playing many recitals as part of several musical events during his education, Melih Güzel performed outstanding works of the guitar repertoire as well as his own compositions or arrangements, he also played said works at various tv and radio programs.

Although more focused on the classical guitar, Melih Güzel never severed his ties with rock, jazz and folk, became a member of City Theatre Company’s orchestra for a long time playing at such musicals as Evita, Lüküs Hayat, Kuyruklu Yıldız Altında and Grease, and found the opportunity to work with the most famous singers, musicians and conductors of Turkey. He also composed the scores of a number of musicals for children, including Akıllı Soytarı and Küçük Nasreddin, staged by City Theatre Company.

Melih Güzel has been teaching guitar at both public and private schools since 1988. He tutored many guitarists, ensured his students to perform chamber music and orchestral works, and developed some “guitar education methods”. In the present he is teaching guitar at the Music Division of Pera School of Fine Arts, training and conducting the Pera Segovia Guitar Orchestra, working on his doctorate thesis, and studying and researching computer-supported sound, music and note activities.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

From the Stone Age to the present, music always persisted to be the single common language of the world. And this common language can be spoken best through universal instruments. One of said instruments is guitar, whose origins date back to Hittites who lived in Anatolia.

Folkloric and formational development of the guitar indicates how it identified with various peoples’ cultures. In terms of a simpler definition, strings attached to a fretted neck of a wooden body appears under the name of guitar, sitar, dutar, tar, bağlama, ukelele, Hawaiian guitar, etc. These instruments brought their own folkloric values and genres to the regions they were introduced to.

Turkey occupies a distinguished position in terms of the diversity of its folkloric and traditional values. Anatolia housed a high number of civilisations over the centuries, so that a wide cultural mosaic emerged. Although globalisation is eroding many regional and folkloric values in the recent years, Anatolian people still try to preserve them. Even today, there are different playing, singing and dancing styles in the Anatolian regions. Anatolian people still sing folk songs and dance while sowing seeds, harvesting or fishing, or at weddings, festivals, mourning, greetings, etc. İstanbul, where the East meets the West, is an extraordinary metropolis feeding the artists, the Turkish music and folkloric culture, and the Western music with its academic and rational point of view.

Artists who aim to reach a universal level in culture, arts or music owe their success to as much their individual intelligence and culture as their perception of their national and traditional values. It is evident that the folk culture and music had a positive impact on the art of music in the last two centuries. From a global point of view, it is an undisputed truth that the Turkish folk music influenced the polyphonic Turkish Art Music, contributing new flavours to it, so much so that the so-called Nationalist Movement emerged in the history of music.

The movement had a further impact on composers who wrote around the guitar. The composers who achieved to put their countries on the world map of art and to express their national identities all adapted this approach: Glinka, rimsky-Korsakoff, Bartok, Granados, Turina, Lobos, Erkin, Saygun, etc.

Since the guitar repertory is repeating itself today, guitar interpretations of several folk music genres are favoured at least as much as the Renaissance, Baroque or Classical works, because many conservatories and musical contests in the worldwide encourage studying and performing such works.

Turkish music has very rich sources and values. Its unique syncopated rhythms scale-based progressions and tunes, widely different song forms and playing styles are evident at first sight. Turkish music is perfectly suitable for the guitar, but the lack of sufficient adaptations is the biggest problem. Now is the time for the Turkish music to take place beside the Spanish, Mexican or Brazilian works taught or performed at conservatories, guitar recitals; now is the time for a Turkish folk song, zeybek or uzun hava to take place beside a choro, bulerias or huayno.

Although this project was based on the findings and grounds I described above, the songs in this album were created within a natural process, as a result of a guitarist who is interested in composition who runs on the advantages on living in İstanbul.

Melih Güzel

WORKS

FOUR FOLK SONGS

Askaroz Deresi – Ey Trabzon (1985): It is a 5/8 traditional song from the Black Sea region. After an introduction of four bars, the main theme begins. Its harmony is based on four and five intervals peculiar to the bağlama with “basso continuo”. After part B, a 12-bar improvisational section comes.

Çamdan Sakız Akıyor (1988): A traditional song from the region of Elbistan. The main theme is played at four and five intervals, then it is repeated with “tremolo”. It continues with “counterpoint”.

Giydiğim Aldır (1990): It consists of a melody and a counter-melody. The former is played with bass strings, the letter is with treble strings. The format is reversed in the second part.

Karahisar Kalesi (1990): It is a festival song from the region of Afyonkarahisar. Its harmony is based on a send-up to the “Bossa Nova”, a famous style of Brazil, with ties to the Anatolian rhythms, containing major and minor seventh and ninth chords. After the introduction comes the main theme, the song continues with small rhythmic changes.

THREE ZEYBEK SONGS

Tavas Zeybeği (1993): A traditional song from the town of Tavas, city of Muğla, it is a typical 9/4 Aegean region song. To emphasize the zeybek dance, the plucking and hitting techniques of the bağlama, corresponding to the “rasguado” and “golpe” techniques for the guitar, were used.

Yörük Ali (1991): Yörük Ali Efe was a local hero who fought the enemy during the Redemption War, and this song is a requiem for him. Contrapuntal and chordal polyphony are used together here. The guitar techniques employed here approximate the Turkish folk music. For the sake of the “zeybek” dance form, an improvisational section was added.

Ankara Zeybeği (1992): It is a choreographical “zeybek” dance performed by the peasents of Ankara. This version is based on a horizontal polyphony. The arpeggios were written approximating the bağlama.

THREE ALLA-TURCA BAROQUE PASTICCIO

These three pieces emphasize the similarities between the Baroque harmony (counterpoint, basso continuo) and the Turkish-Ottoman Music’s structure, which appeared more or less simultaneously, by means of the guitar’s properties, harmony and sound.

Neveser Pasticcio (1992): Some horizontal polyphonic tunes were written for the neveser scale of Turkish music. It has three sections.

Buselik Pasticcio (1994): A monophonic theme is played in the Buselik scale, then the same theme is developed with such harmony techniques as “counterpoint”, “canon” and “imitation”. Then the main theme is repeated again, approximating the “teslim” section of the Saz Semai sessions.

Nikriz Pasticcio (1993): Its main theme develops on the nikriz scale, polyphony is provided with the Baroque forms of “canon” and “invention”: “arpeggio” techniques peculiar to the guitar are approximated to those of the traditional Turkish instruments.

VARIATIONS ON AN ANATOLIAN MELODY (AK KOYUN) (1991): After the introduction and main theme, the first variation is played with the “flageolet” technique, in octave harmonics. The second variation is played with “arpeggios” and “contrabasso”. The third variation is played with the “tremolo” technique.

PHRASES ON THE HÜSEYNİ SCALE IN A (1989): Containing various techniques, this piece establishes conections between the bağlama technique of plucking, hitting, etc. And the guitar arpeggios of “rasguado”, “golpe”, “tambura”, etc. Some phrases are played with "basso continuo". After the main theme comes an improvisational section devised like an "uzun hava" on certain themes; then th“ main theme is repeated, and the piece ends with the “Hüseyni” scale.

THREE CITY SONGS – IMPRESSIONS OF THE CITY

These pieces reflect some impressions I had on life in the metropolis. Some modal musical ideas are expressed in an avant-garde style.

Journey (Train) (1988-95): The sound of a train is heard in the distance, it gradually approaches, enters the city, calls at several stations, has various impressions, and goes away.

City Noises (Night) (1994): A reflection of various noises I heard at a sleepless midnight at a friend’s house in Beyoğlu, a famous district of İstanbul.

Night Walk (1992): A reflection of the feelings, mixed with fear, I had from night people I encountered during a long walk along Moda coast of İstanbul. Two different melodies are played without obscuring each other, bass notes are in the background.

Hoş Gelişler Ola (March) (1998): It begins with an approximation of a military March based on the tabalet technique, followed by “counterpoint” and vertical harmonies.

All the compositions and arrangements belong to Melih Güzel.