İlhan Usmanbaş

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İlhan Usmanbaş (born October 23, 1921 in Istanbul ) is one of the leading composers of western classical music in Turkey .

Usmanbaş first grew up in Ayvalık on the coast of Asia Minor. When he was twelve years old, his brother gave him a cello, which he began to play autodidactically. After the family moved to Istanbul, he received serious cello lessons. His math teacher, a music lover, advised him to give up the career he had planned for himself: “We have enough engineers in Turkey. Instead, you should become a composer. "

After Usmanbaş graduated from Galatasaray High School in Istanbul, he began studying at the Conservatory in Ankara. His teachers included the 'Turkish Five' ( Cemal Reşit Rey , Ahmed Adnan Saygun , Hasan Ferid Alnar , Ulvi Cemal Erkin and Necil Kâzım Akses ) and David Zirkin . After completing his studies, he first became a lecturer at the Istanbul Conservatory, which he took over in 1964. In 1974 he moved to the Conservatory in Ankara in the same position.

In 1952 a UNESCO scholarship took him to the USA, where the pioneers of new and experimental music influenced him. In 1955 he received the Fromm Music Award and in 1971 was appointed Turkish State Artist. The Sevda-Cenap-And-Musikstiftung (Sevda-Cenap And Müzik Vakfı) awarded the composer their gold medal in 1993 , and he received an honorary doctorate from the Boğaziçi Üniversitesi . A lifetime achievement award was presented to him in 2004 at the 32nd International İstanbul Music Festival .

He composed almost 120 works and won more international prizes and awards than any other Turkish composer. Usmanbaş received composition commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation in the USA and received prizes at the Wieniawski Competition in Poland, the UNESCO International Composers' Tribune in Paris and the International Ballet Music Competition in Switzerland.

Usmanbaş is an experimental composer from the second generation of Turkish composers whose ideas were opposite to those of the 'Turkish Five' that preceded them. His works are characterized by freedom in formal design, whereby sound intensity is more important to him than melodic quality. He uses techniques of neoclassicism , aleatoric , twelve-tone technique , serialism and minimalism .

In addition to his work as a composer, Usmanbaş also emerged as a music writer. He is married to the opera singer Atıfet Usmanbaş .

literature

  • Harriet Smith: Turkish Delight ( BBC Music Magazine, Volume 12, No. 11, July 2004, pp. 28–33)

Web links

  • Portrait on the pages of the Turkish Ministry of Culture (Turkish)
  • Portrait with catalog raisonné at beethovenlives.net (turk.)
  • Evin Ilyasoglu: Turkish Music (accessed January 3, 2007)
  • Portrait on the pages of the International Istanbul Music Festival (Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, accessed January 3, 2007)


Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BBC Music Magazine (see lit.)
  2. ↑ Portrait of Usmanbaş ' ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) at the Turkish Music Portal
  3. ↑ List of the award winners (Turkish)
personal data
SURNAME Usmanbaş, İlhan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Istanbul