Uzun Hava

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The Uzun Hava ( long melody or long air ) is a genre of Turkish folk song that is usually performed as a soloist and accompanied by instruments. With its sweeping phrases, it stands in the tradition of the ornamented style of Islamic music and is thus reminiscent of the call to prayer called Ezan . But it is also closely connected with pre-Islamic Turkish music, as it is expressed today, for example, in the vocal pastoral calls of nomads and semi-nomads of Turkish origin . The Uzun Hava can be melancholy and passionate and includes lament and love songs, but also songs with religious or life-contemplating texts.

Regional distribution

The triangle Antalya - Erzurum - Van is considered to be the core area of ​​folk songs that can be assigned to the Uzun Hava . There are also isolated occurrences outside of this area. The songs of the Uzun Hava type are usually not referred to as Uzun Hava by folk musicians, but have differentiating names such as Bozlak , Varsağı , Maya , Hoyrat and Ağız . Some songs are also assigned to certain Turkic tribes. Examples are Türkmen bozlağı and Karahacılı ağzı .

melody

The basic sound material of the melodies corresponds to some makam of Turkish art music and is therefore similar to comparable European modes of the Middle Ages. For example, Hüseyni and Neva resemble the Doric , Kürdî the Phrygian , Uşşak the Aeolian and Rast the Ionian . Within these scales, small and very small pitches are used for ornamentation, the exact pitch of which cannot always be determined.

A Uzun Hava song usually has several stanzas that vary depending on the text, which - following the structure of the text - are divided into several phrases. For many Uzun-Hava wise men, most of the syllables of the lyrics are at the beginning or at the end of a melody phrase. The middle part of the phrase is presented almost exclusively vocalized. The singing begins with full breath and a tight voice on a high note, which is sometimes surpassed immediately afterwards. The melody of every phrase sung on one breath gradually diminishes in height and volume and fades away in a soft pulsating tone on a lower note that lies on the notes of the pentatonic scale latent in the tone material . The final note of the melody is by no means always formed from the root note of the scale. The song is not subject to a fixed rhythmic structure and allows a free rhythmic, often improvised, design dependent on the skills of the singer. Following Béla Bartók's analysis, this style is also known as the heterometric Parlando style. But it also happens that folk musicians transform a Uzun Hava into a rhythmically bound song, a Kırık Hava, or into an instrumental piece that can be used for dancing. The correct accentuations of the Uzun Hava, which are adapted to the Turkish language, for example on the final consonants of the words, are completely sacrificed in the Kırık Hava to adapt the language to a rhythmic model.

In the parlance of folk musicians, some Uzun-Hava song models are referred to as makam regardless of the underlying sound material . They are more like remembered role models, according to which new tunes are formed by improvising and composing.

Accompaniment

The singing is usually accompanied by an instrument from the long-necked lute family . On these instruments both the continuous or sometimes only hinted drone sound , as well as melodic improvisations and polyphonic preludes, interludes and aftermaths, which play around the melody heterophonically , can be realized. Often the singer accompanies himself.

Presentation style

As true folk songs, Uzun Hava are sung primarily in rural society, both in private, domestic settings and in public at all kinds of festivals or in teahouses. The way of performing a Uzun Hava depends on the type of song and its text. For example, the lamentation and death songs called Ağıt are mostly sung by women in a more reserved, less exalted manner, while the Bozak performed by the male folk singers called Aşık are designed in an expressive, dramatic style. The singers often close their eyes and hold a hand to their ear or cheek in the posture typical of this singing style. Both Aşık and Ağıt singers are often known beyond their region and are famous for sound recordings, such as Aşık Veysel .

literature

  • Artur Simon (Ed.) Music from Turkey . 2 records with booklet, commentary and epilogue to the recordings by Ursula Reinhard. Ethnic music department Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin State museums Prussian cultural heritage. Berlin 1985. ISBN 3 88609 5010 (with sound recordings and texts by Uzun Hava)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt and Ursula Reinhard: Music of Turkey . Volume 2: Folk Music . Wilhelmshaven, 1984, pp. 13-18. ISBN 3-7959-0426-9
  2. ^ A. Adnan Saygun: Béla Bartók's Folk Music Research in Turkey . Budapest 1976, p. 214. ISBN 963-05-0377-8
  3. ^ A. Adnan Saygun: Béla Bartók's Folk Music Research in Turkey . Budapest 1976, p. 212.
  4. ^ A. Adnan Saygun: Béla Bartók's Folk Music Research in Turkey . Budapest 1976, p. 217.
  5. ^ Kurt and Ursula Reinhard: Music of Turkey . Volume 2: Folk Music . Wilhelmshaven, 1984, p. 146.
  6. ^ A. Adnan Saygun: Béla Bartók's Folk Music Research in Turkey . Budapest 1976, p. 218.
  7. ↑ Ursula Reinhard: Turkey . In: Music in the past and present . Part 9, Kassel et altera 1998, column 1052. ISBN 3-7618-1128-4
  8. ^ A. Adnan Saygun: Béla Bartók's Folk Music Research in Turkey . Budapest 1976, p. IV.
  9. ^ A. Adnan Saygun: Béla Bartók's Folk Music Research in Turkey . Budapest 1976, p. 212.
  10. ^ Kurt and Ursula Reinhard: Music of Turkey . Volume 2: Folk Music . Wilhelmshaven, 1984, p. 30ff.
  11. ^ Kurt and Ursula Reinhard: Music of Turkey . Volume 2: Folk Music . Wilhelmshaven, 1984, pp. 106f.
  12. ^ Kurt and Ursula Reinhard: Music of Turkey . Volume 2: Folk Music . Wilhelmshaven, 1984, pp. 61-63.
  13. ^ Kurt and Ursula Reinhard: Music of Turkey . Volume 2: Folk Music . Wilhelmshaven, 1984, pp. 30-42.
  14. ^ Kurt and Ursula Reinhard: Music of Turkey . Volume 2: Folk Music . Wilhelmshaven, 1984, p. 122f.
  15. ^ Kurt and Ursula Reinhard: Music of Turkey . Volume 2: Folk Music . Wilhelmshaven, 1984, p. 108.