Periodic Reporting for period 5 - Integrating Turkish (Beyond East and West: Developing and Documenting an Evolving Transcultural Musical Practice)
Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-07-31
In 'Beyond East and West', the central problem being addressed is the demand for musicians from different traditions to be able create successful transcultural collaborations. Taking Turkish-Western transcultural work as a particularly challenging example, it aims to develop new musical practices that facilitate creation of music that is not of East or West, but simultaneously above and beyond both. Beyond East and West breaks down the steps of creative collaboration and reconceptualising processes necessary for successful collaboration between musicians from the very different traditions of Turkish makam—a tradition in which an enormous amount is transmitted orally—and Western (Eurogenetically)-trained musicians. It draws on the PI’s experience of previous 15 years in Turkey working with makam musicians, in particular his 2012 opera Mevlana-Say I am You. With its multi-level, workshop-rehearsal-performance model, the project hones techniques for creating effective transcultural collaboration. This resulted in the public presentation of two new transcultural operas on the Istanbul Music Festival in 2016 and 2023.
The reasons transcultural collaboration is important for society are perhaps self-evident: from a broad perspective, using art as a metaphor, we address one of the most pressing issues in society today: finding ways to speak across cultural divides. In the immediate sense, contemporary musical practices themselves are significantly enriched.
The overall objectives of BEW were to offer a new models and resources for transcultural composition, provide key tools and training to musicians from both Western and makam backgrounds to work together transculturally, while opening doors for deeper understanding of Turkey’s exquisite musical traditions. These tools were developed through a methodology which demanded intensive workshops for participating musicians, and cross-fertilising approaches to learning. Principles are then ‘proved’ in the form of two new transcultural chamber operas, with findings consolidated in a team-authored book.
The reasons transcultural collaboration is important for society are perhaps self-evident: from a broad perspective, using art as a metaphor, we address one of the most pressing issues in society today: finding ways to speak across cultural divides. In the immediate sense, contemporary musical practices themselves are significantly enriched.
The overall objectives of BEW were to offer a new models and resources for transcultural composition, provide key tools and training to musicians from both Western and makam backgrounds to work together transculturally, while opening doors for deeper understanding of Turkey’s exquisite musical traditions. These tools were developed through a methodology which demanded intensive workshops for participating musicians, and cross-fertilising approaches to learning. Principles are then ‘proved’ in the form of two new transcultural chamber operas, with findings consolidated in a team-authored book.
1. Chamber Opera 1: Deniz Küstü -The Sea-Crossed Fisherman (2016)
Total Music Theatre in four scenes. Simon Jones, Libretto/director. Zeynep Tanbay, choreography. NOHlab, video performance. Based on the 1978 novel of Yaşar Kemal. Premiered June 11, 2016, Istanbul Music Festival, with Hezarfen Ensemble, Turkish makam instruments and five UK singers.
2. Chamber Opera 2: Binboğalar Efsanesi (Legend of a Thousand Bulls,2023) presented on the 2023 Istanbul Music Festival https://muzik.iksv.org/tr/ellibirinci-istanbul-muzik-festivali-2023/binbogalar-efsanesi(opens in new window). Press on the event, as well as interviews with musicians and coproducers confirmed the work as groundbreaking. Binboğalar Efsanesi is the first opera featuring Bozlak, a highly dramatic singing style from south Central Anatolia widely known in Turkey but less so abroad, and in danger of disappearance. It is also the first large transcultural work including music of the Teke region, its instruments, stories of its migration, and the reed instrument sipsi in particular. Musical forms and flavours of Yörük Teke region music were at times quoted; then expanded upon in the work.
3. Makam21. Seven composers from Turkey and the UK) commissioned to draw on BEW book and video resources to compose new pieces for Hezarfen Ensemble, with klasik kemençe and ney. Results premiered on the Bristol New Music festival on 7 May, 2022; subsequently broadcast by BBC Radio 3.
4. Workshops developing transcultural practices were documented on video, (often in multiple camera angles), translated, and drawn on by Amanda Bayley for analysis of transcultural processes. Documentation will be placed in a long-term repository (RDSF) at Bristol.
5. Over 40 studio sessions (video and audio) comprising interviews and recordings of makam instruments and various vocal styles were recorded for the project book, Turkish Makam Instruments and Voices in Contemporary Music (TMIVCM).
6. The project monograph, Turkish Makam Instruments and Voices in Contemporary Music is due for publication by Routledge in 2025. At 120.000 words, and around 650 videos, it represents the first instrumentation and orchestration primer for composers and musicians on the most used Turkish instruments and a range of folk and classical makam vocal styles. This is framed by reflection on the transcultural musical processes, along with several new ideas for conceptualising often difficult-to-learn aspects of makam. A repository link where the publication and the related video material will be found in the future is: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/admin/files/temp/perm-temp-ee6a4c30-3b91-4c72-ba35-30d54a1cd30a/Makam_Instruments_and_Voices_in_Contemporary_Music_Placeholder.pdf?mimetype=application/pdf(opens in new window)
Total Music Theatre in four scenes. Simon Jones, Libretto/director. Zeynep Tanbay, choreography. NOHlab, video performance. Based on the 1978 novel of Yaşar Kemal. Premiered June 11, 2016, Istanbul Music Festival, with Hezarfen Ensemble, Turkish makam instruments and five UK singers.
2. Chamber Opera 2: Binboğalar Efsanesi (Legend of a Thousand Bulls,2023) presented on the 2023 Istanbul Music Festival https://muzik.iksv.org/tr/ellibirinci-istanbul-muzik-festivali-2023/binbogalar-efsanesi(opens in new window). Press on the event, as well as interviews with musicians and coproducers confirmed the work as groundbreaking. Binboğalar Efsanesi is the first opera featuring Bozlak, a highly dramatic singing style from south Central Anatolia widely known in Turkey but less so abroad, and in danger of disappearance. It is also the first large transcultural work including music of the Teke region, its instruments, stories of its migration, and the reed instrument sipsi in particular. Musical forms and flavours of Yörük Teke region music were at times quoted; then expanded upon in the work.
3. Makam21. Seven composers from Turkey and the UK) commissioned to draw on BEW book and video resources to compose new pieces for Hezarfen Ensemble, with klasik kemençe and ney. Results premiered on the Bristol New Music festival on 7 May, 2022; subsequently broadcast by BBC Radio 3.
4. Workshops developing transcultural practices were documented on video, (often in multiple camera angles), translated, and drawn on by Amanda Bayley for analysis of transcultural processes. Documentation will be placed in a long-term repository (RDSF) at Bristol.
5. Over 40 studio sessions (video and audio) comprising interviews and recordings of makam instruments and various vocal styles were recorded for the project book, Turkish Makam Instruments and Voices in Contemporary Music (TMIVCM).
6. The project monograph, Turkish Makam Instruments and Voices in Contemporary Music is due for publication by Routledge in 2025. At 120.000 words, and around 650 videos, it represents the first instrumentation and orchestration primer for composers and musicians on the most used Turkish instruments and a range of folk and classical makam vocal styles. This is framed by reflection on the transcultural musical processes, along with several new ideas for conceptualising often difficult-to-learn aspects of makam. A repository link where the publication and the related video material will be found in the future is: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/admin/files/temp/perm-temp-ee6a4c30-3b91-4c72-ba35-30d54a1cd30a/Makam_Instruments_and_Voices_in_Contemporary_Music_Placeholder.pdf?mimetype=application/pdf(opens in new window)
In the most general terms, the conclusions of Beyond East and West found that maximal specificity in transcultural collaboration is essential to successful collaboration and outputs. Details in the music, of the original language, and musicians’ transmission practices all need to be taken into account. The degree to which the project was relevant for and impacted both traditional makam musicians and Western practitioners was captured in interviews at various stages. One musician asserted this was the ‘first time anyone from outside wanted to actually learn the details of our music’ (post-workshop discussion, 2017).
At the same time, several principles based on project experience are applicable to wider transcultural methodology
1. Workshopping, interviews, and collaboration as essential parts of the process for any composer working transculturally. Intensive study of singing and playing techniques, ornamentation, knowledge of traditional playing and repertoire, and absorption of oral tradition aspects in workshops represent key parts of the work’s gestation process.
2. Workshop approaches which attempt to facilitate transfer and absorption of the contrasting perspectives of participants are most likely to be successful. An example of this was PI’s notation of bozlak, which, after many attempts, conformed rather closely to the style of ‘lead sheets’ scores as notated traditionally in Turkey.
3. Training of players in specific skills demanded was also important; allowing western players to attempt aspects of ornamentation using a more detailed, notation approach, alongside focusing primarily on non-notational, aurally transmitted elements and listening facilitated more meaningful exchange than if faced with completely aural transmission, while makam players absorbed aspects of Western practice such as changing meters, multiple textural layers and the possible presence of a conductor.
In conclusion: blending key understandings from recent, more general work on resonance with traditional makam framings, Beyond East and West ultimately resulted in streamlined ways of conceptualising makam tuning, as well as integration of more elements transmitted orally (‘multidimensional sound’). This complements more recent work in Turkey into the conceived identity of makam as a world-relevant language with unique characteristics. Meanwhile, Beyond East and West’s development of broadly applicable core principles and methodologies for transcultural collaboration (as outlined in the project book and shown in practice) should facilitate realisation of future work across any number of musical cultures.
At the same time, several principles based on project experience are applicable to wider transcultural methodology
1. Workshopping, interviews, and collaboration as essential parts of the process for any composer working transculturally. Intensive study of singing and playing techniques, ornamentation, knowledge of traditional playing and repertoire, and absorption of oral tradition aspects in workshops represent key parts of the work’s gestation process.
2. Workshop approaches which attempt to facilitate transfer and absorption of the contrasting perspectives of participants are most likely to be successful. An example of this was PI’s notation of bozlak, which, after many attempts, conformed rather closely to the style of ‘lead sheets’ scores as notated traditionally in Turkey.
3. Training of players in specific skills demanded was also important; allowing western players to attempt aspects of ornamentation using a more detailed, notation approach, alongside focusing primarily on non-notational, aurally transmitted elements and listening facilitated more meaningful exchange than if faced with completely aural transmission, while makam players absorbed aspects of Western practice such as changing meters, multiple textural layers and the possible presence of a conductor.
In conclusion: blending key understandings from recent, more general work on resonance with traditional makam framings, Beyond East and West ultimately resulted in streamlined ways of conceptualising makam tuning, as well as integration of more elements transmitted orally (‘multidimensional sound’). This complements more recent work in Turkey into the conceived identity of makam as a world-relevant language with unique characteristics. Meanwhile, Beyond East and West’s development of broadly applicable core principles and methodologies for transcultural collaboration (as outlined in the project book and shown in practice) should facilitate realisation of future work across any number of musical cultures.