Ashik
Aşık ( Turkish, plural Asiklar, Azerbaijani asiq, ASYG, ashyq, also aschug, ozan, عاشق after Arabic, DMG ʿ asiq, " the lover " ) is in Turkey and Azerbaijan since about the 16th century, the name for a storyteller and folk singers, which refers to a long-necked lute ( saz ) accompanied. The epic tradition goes up in pre-Islamic time back, as in the Turkic peoples in Central Asia ozan ( Turkish, " Poet" ) called minstrels their songs to the lute komuz ( kopuz ) recited. The texts of folk poetry are similar in the entire area and consist of a syllable -counting verse ( hece Věžní ) with eight or elfsilbigen verses. The melodies of the traditional singers usually belong to a free rhythmic genre that is called in Turkey uzun hava. Asiklar sing love songs or take on current social issues position. Female Asiklar are rare. Since the state subsidization of popular Turkish music from the 1930s, the songs of Asiklar than the typical Turkish national seal are exposed and today predominantly metric bound ( Kırık hava ) or presented in a mixed form. The musical range of the songs has on the simplification assumed to be uniformly " Turkish music " addition.
Origin and Distribution
The word ozan goes back to the old Turkish verb oz, the mentioned Mahmud al - Kāschgharī end of the 11th century in his work Diwan Lughat at- Turk. Around this time were also singers who took part in the campaigns of the Seljuk army, known as ozan. With them, the song tradition spread to the west. The existing of Siberia and Central Asia to Anatolia tradition of epic singers based in the entire area on similar principle in the romantic and heroic poetry of mythic heroes. The boundaries between epics and romantic stories blur occasionally. The shamanistic origins of this song traditions necessitated a special position of the singers in the society, build magical abilities were often awarded. As word element comes ozan today in ozanlama ( " Proverbs" ), ozannama ( " improvised song" ) or ozancı ( " talkative man " ) before.
Until the 15th century had the ozan - later the Aşık - the role of a professional singer -propelled and tradition mediator. Today, a similar function in the Kurdish musical culture takes the dengbêj (Kurdish deng, "voice", BEJ " tell " ) a, with the difference that the dengbêj his stories in a particular style of singing without instrumental accompaniment recites. His Kazakh colleague called jyrau ( zhirau ) and accompanied himself on the two-stringed lute Koby painted shell, while the Kyrgyz and Turkmen baxşi the plucked lute dombra ( Dutar ) plays. Baxşi or sa ʿ ir he is also called in Uzbekistan. According to the same word origin as Aşık called themselves since about the 17th century, the aschugi (also sasandari ) in eastern Georgia and Russia. They were the successors of the medieval, the ozan comparable Georgian mgosani Barden, who was called in Armenia gusan. The last major aschugi in Georgia was Etim Gurji ( " Etim the Georgians ", 1865-1940 ). The Georgian Epensänger, accompanied by historical sound recordings of the long-necked lute tari, the short oboe duduki and the small boiler drum pair diplipito, came up in the 1940s in Tbilisi. Some of her compositions are still among the repertoire of folk and art music. The Armenian gusan was first mentioned in a source from the 5th century. He could be storytellers, musicians, singers, dancers and actors and offered his skills often at weddings and funerals. In the 17-18. Century he fell against the aschug in the background, singing Armenian versions of the Persian- Turkish poetry.
In northern Afghanistan, there was for the Aşık Majnun the epithets ( "crazy" ) and mast ( " drunk " ), which colloquially generally professional musicians were called. In this wider sense Aşık is also understood in the eastern Iranian Khorasan region.
In Arabic, the name was equipped with magical powers storyteller and singer secular stories since pre-Islamic times Sá ʿ ir ( Shaer ); its importance as a guardian of the tribe Kahin corresponded to that of the oracle priest. From the church historian Sozomen by 450 AD, the oldest description the sa ʿ ir is obtained. In the Middle Ages and until the early 20th century Sa ʿ ir was court musician and voice of the ruler of importance. In Egypt and among the Arab Bedouins, the improvisational epics and folk singers accompanied Sá ʿ ir up today with the one-stringed spike fiddle rababa, Sudan to the shell lyre Kisir.
In Kyrgyzstan, the folk singer manaschi carries the old epic Manas against only one of the Epensänger without instrumental accompaniment. The Uzbek national epic bears the name of his hero Alpamysch, in the Altai Mountains states Qaycı, Kazakhstan Zıraw. The epic of the Buryat and other peoples in eastern Tibet is called Gesar ( GASAR ), that of the Kalmyk Schangir. The mythical hero Gesar free with cunning his wife from captivity at the evil king of Hor Previously, he turns into a Epensänger, who is also the soothsayers, jugglers and dancers, as well as later in a forging agents. The blacksmith will be awarded generally exceptional skills. The relationship with the shaman is clear because Gesar has the magical three-legged horse of Hor. It reminds of the horse-head fiddle morin khuur, the instrument of the Mongolian singer, with which the shaman takes up the journey to heaven.
One of the earliest writing epics mentioned is the Oğuz - nāma of the Oghuz, which first appears in the Orkhon inscriptions. It goes back to pre-Islamic legends, as the Oghuz, a former Turkish tribal union settled after the collapse of Göktürkenreichs from the 8th to the 9th century in the basin of the Syr Darya in what is now Kazakhstan. From here, the Oghuz moved further west. Some of them founded in the 11th century in Iran and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia the Seljuks. Ozan singer handed down orally the stories of the eponymous hero Oğuz. The oldest written version is from the Persian historian Rashid ad -Din (1248-1318) in his oeuvre Jami ' at- tawarich ( " Universal History " ) handed down. In it the mythical origin is attributed to Adam. It contains the cosmogonic myths of the hero Oğuz and the historical development up to the conquests of the Seljuk Turks. The pre-Islamic stories about the come down from heaven Oğuz were supplemented by verses from the Koran and from the Shahnameh.
Originated in Central Asia between the 15th and 19th centuries many more Oğuz - Namas, where occasionally the hero of his people converted to Islam. They belong to the widespread epic or lyrical narrative tradition, which is known as dastan ( destan, zhir ). Some popular short stories ( Turkish hikaye ) from this fund are Aşık Garip known as. Another Turkish Verszyklus treated the paternal figure of Dede Korkut, whose model is the Oğuz. The heroic tales were probably in the 15th century written in the Caucasus. It is in them to the struggles of the Oghuz against evil Christians. As in the Oğuz - nāma the migration of Oghuz Turks from Central Asia is portrayed to the west. Azerbaijanis and Turks appreciate the stories as part of their national culture and as a source of knowledge about their origins. At the conclusion of the described adventures of the noble societies occurs every time the hero Dede Korkut on and ensures kopuz - playing with his singing for amusement. The figure in the stories is both a singer and shaman who embodies the typical characteristics of an ozan. He knows the past, can prophesy the future, acts as a healer and counselor in all walks of life and is present at weddings. There are stories of how he sounds kopuz built with the help of otherworldly powers in the forest of a timber for the first time that came along with the nomadic lifestyle to West Asia and is considered a forerunner of the saz. The connection between two worlds is a typical shamanic element, at the same time, the hero for today's Muslim storyteller to connect to the pre-Islamic afterlife dar.
For female Aşık Dede Korkut in Azerbaijan is now held in high esteem, because the stories are about him from an old nomadic world, had a high social status of women. The formerly influential male jyrau in Kazakhstan, accompanied themselves Koby on the stringed lute, did not survive the political pressure during the Soviet rule; Koby -playing women, however, continue to practice as shamans. Women are particularly closely related in Central Asia, the shamanic tradition; than the comparable Aşık epic singers they are still active in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and in Yakutia in Siberia except in Kazakhstan.
The transition to predominantly of shamanic imagery ozan arrested for belonging to Islam sentient Aşık took place largely under the influence of Sufi tendencies. For a time, probably both were traveling as a professional singer go. From the late 15th or early 16th century, the Azerbaijani and Anatolian singer and saz player was called Aşık. The Islamization is evident in the various new forms of storytelling. After the heroic struggle and the adventures of Oğuz Dede Korkut and the more romantic and lyrical style of Qurbani developed dastan, where it is about love and longing for the beloved as well as questions about the religious knowledge of Islam. The mystical poetry of poets like Ahmed Yesevi (around 1100-1166 ) and Yunus Emre ( 1240 - to 1321 ) may have had an influence on the development of the new style. The spread in different versions of oriental love story Majnun Laila also part of the repertoire of Azerbaijani bard. In the entire Caucasus region is the tragic love story of Kerem and Asli ( Azerbaijani Asli fathers Karam, Turkish Kerem ile Aslı ) famous 16th century. Asiq Qərib is a romantic tale about a Epensänger, which was first written in 1837.
The founder of the Iranian Safavid dynasty, Shah Ismail I (1487-1524) was said to be always surrounded by his court of singers. The ruler himself wrote mystical poems in Azerbaijani language in the usual meter of eight or eleven syllables per stanza. Most of his poems are in accordance with the Shiite tradition tributes to Imam Ali.
From the mid-17th century comes the oldest notation Asik songs. It is in the collection of the Polish composer Ali Ufki ( Albert Wojciech Bobowski, 1610-1685 ) included in the form of core tunes that had to be decorated by the musician. The core melodies ( makam, Pl makamlar, not identical with the same makam, the mode of the Arab- Turkish art music) consist of certain, ever- repeating sequences of notes.
Musical form
The term " Aşık music " ( Aşık Havasi ) stands for a different repertoire of melodic and reciting folk songs, which depend primarily on the poetry and the melodies of the past mostly belonged to the free uzun hava rhythmic forms. According to the content, they can be assigned to specific genres such as love songs ( Bozlak ), wedding songs ( dügün Türküsü ) or elegies ( dirges, Agit ). The larger share of the Aşık pieces now have the metric bound dance songs Kırık hava ( " Broken Melody" ) or a creative blend of the two forms. The names of the poets are usually known as in the last stanza usually turns up her name. In contrast, most other Turkish folk songs are ( türkü ) anonymous. Türkü, more halk Türküsü ( " folk song" ) means either generally folk songs of the Turks in contrast to the classical Ottoman art song ( şarkı, " oriental " ), or a particular form of poetry.
In contrast to the lyrics, which were handed down not only verbally, but also writing for centuries, it is from the past hardly recorded melodies to folk music. The earliest and only until the 20th century known notation Turkish folk music is the handwriting Mecmuâ i Saz ü Söz ( " collection of music and dance ") of Poland Bobovsky Albert ( 1610-1675 ), who in his youth as a slave to the sultan had been taken. He called himself Ali Ufki and worked as a music teacher and composer in the classical Ottoman style. He wrote mostly art music and next to some Aşık songs in tune and text on. In the songs we went to his summary of war, victory, love, suffering and the distance from the homeland.
The common idea that the folk song melodies are of ancient date, and had been handed down virtually unaltered, is based on the assumption that that would have Asiklar as prudent keeper of the tradition of a body of the fulfilled compositions. In contrast, it appears from the records of Ufki that every singer has available certain melodic core elements, which he composed as musical building blocks. In the Turkish and Persian folk music such basic melodies hot makam; the term does not match mode ( makam ) of oriental art music. The ethnomusicologist Joseph Kuckertz used for this creative process during the performance that moves between improvisation and factory faithful reproduction, the term componere ( Latin, " composed "). To date, work Asiklar according to this concept. For the Turkish music and especially for the Aşık tunes a slow melodic movement in steps of one second is characteristic of larger interval jumps are attenuated by ornamentierende phrases before.
Traditional Vocational
The function of the professional singer transformed from healers and shamans in the Islamic society to a scholarly authority that was a Sufi sheikh comparable. To date, the Asiklar apply as carriers of cultural memory and have, if not a religious, then at least a moral weight. In addition to the singers of traditional epics ( dastan ) there are others that present are slight lyrical pieces. Dating from the Arabic word Aşık means " lover " in the most mystical sense and refers to songs of worship of Allah and Ali.
The traditional Aşık draws as a professional musician around, contributes predominantly own poems and accompanies himself on the medium-sized sounds of the lute. Some play the larger sounds meydan Sazi or divan Sazi. Especially in underdeveloped eastern Turkey presented the wandering singers until the first half of the 20th century, before the introduction of public broadcasting is an important source of information for news from other areas dar. addition there are semi- professional singers, which occur only occasionally and take over their texts literally of full- Aşık. There is no formal training for the professional singer; as " Aşık " is a person who is addressed by the public so or can call itself without contradiction so. The word " Aşık " is then usually a part of the name.
Some singers wear secular love songs before, other epic poems or religious songs ( Ilahi ). The singer of religious songs do not belong to the Sunni majority, but the Sufi Order of the Bektashi or most commonly to the Alevis. The aforementioned mystical poet - singer Yunus Emre ( 1240 - to 1321 ) is revered by Bektashi and Alevi. Pir Sultan Abdal (1480-1550) is regarded as Alevi freedom fighters against Ottoman rule. A large part of the central Anatolian Alevis Asiklar are, in turn, many of them are at the same time priest ( dede ) and conduct the rites. The Alevi dede the old tradition received by the singer and religious leaders in a person. Traditionally, Alevi singers meet in the Islamic month of Muharram in Iraq Karbala to commemorate the death of Imam Husain. There the musician singer organize contests in which they sing to each other with improvised lyrics. In Turkish the name of this exercise that was practiced earlier in the Black Sea with secular songs, atma Türküsü ( "Song Throw ").
Known representatives of the tradition of the mythical Aşık and folk hero Köroğlu; Aşık Gurbani (16th century); Aşık Abbas Tufarganlu ( 17th century ) from the Azerbaijani city Tufargan; Karacaoğlan ( 1606 - 1680 ) from the southern Turkish province of Mersin; Aşık Ömer ( 1651 - to 1707); Kul Himmet Ustadım close in the 18th century Divriği; Armenian Sayat Nova (1712-1795); the descendant of nomadic Afshar folk poet Dadaloğlu ( about 1785 - about 1868 ); born in Bolu Dertli (1772-1846); the Azerbaijanis Aşık Alasgar ( Elesker, 1821-1926 ); whose son Aşık Talibi ( ASYG Talyb, 1877-1979 ) and Aşık Şenlik ( 1850-1913 ) from Çıldır in the extreme northeast Turkey.
The Azerbaijani folk singers are particularly active in the south of the country, in the north and in the mountain range of Nagorno-Karabakh in western classical singing of mugham is more widespread. The two main styles of music in Azerbaijan also differ according to the social environment. The ASYG usually belongs to the rural provincial culture, mugham singers rather for the educated urban middle class. Both singers perform equally at weddings ( toj ) on their musical forms have many similarities: The range of the initial mode is limited to a pentachord, the melody types (general ASYG havasi ) are easily recognizable by their simple melodies and rhythm consists of a 4 / 4, 4/ 6 or 4/8-Takt. The modes used in folk music are mostly taken from the mugham. Also typical for both styles are the vocal techniques, particularly the grinding of the voice, and the occupation of the ensemble, consisting of three or four musicians. There are classical compositions, which have their origin in ASYG vocals, conversely, the presentation of the simple folk songs ( täsnif ) sections shall be inserted with mugham. Azerbaijani folk singers perform in front as well as the mugham singer reng dance tunes and diringi that are similar to well known in the Iranian music.
The most popular form of poetry called gosma ( qoşma ) and consists of four lines of verse, each with eleven syllables. Variants are bajati ( Bayati ) and muchämmäs. In addition to special folk song genres also the oriental gazal sung. The repertoire of a singer covers about 30 melodies ( hava ) with which he presents the various poems. In total there are about 100 (up to 150 ) known to the classical dastan counted compositions. The ASYG usually accompanied only on the saz. At weddings and other outdoor festivals, it can enhance the short oboe balaban (similar to the Turkish mey ) and by the small -celled questionable tube drum Nagara ( Turkish koltuk davulu ) is zurna by the Kegeloboe and / or.
In Azerbaijan, the repertoire of ASYG includes not only the compositions of nearly 2,000 poems in different forms. 2009, the traditional art of Azerbaijani ASYG was included in the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Until the 1979 Islamic Revolution occurred in the Iranian province of Azerbaijan Aşık regularly solo in the coffee houses of the cities. In Tabriz they made music together with two musicians who balaban and Gaval ( corresponding to the frame drum daf ) played.
Most Aşık are men, occasionally women are recognized as Aşık. An exception is Fatma Oflaz (1894-1980), who lived in the central Anatolian Kangal district under the name " Derdiment ". She was illiterate and wore their seals from memory before. In Azerbaijan are professional singers who accompany themselves on a long-necked lute, known since the 18th century. Aşık Zernigar of Derbent in the 18th and Aşık Zulehxa in the 19th century have survived because of her extraordinary talents. Most women in the 19th century, played music at weddings and other family celebrations together with their husbands, who were also Aşık. Aşık Besti (around 1840-1936 ) belonged to a group of musicians called Qurbani to Aşık Alasgar that occurred regularly. In contrast to other Islamic countries, the female Aşık in Azerbaijan practice to date, no special woman music in a separate area, but play in the same musical tradition as the men in front of a mixed crowd.
Today's match practice
In the Ottoman Empire the classical court music ( Türk müziği klasik ) the educated elite was closely connected with the Arab and Persian music. The technical terms of music were Arab or Persian. The Anatolian sung in simple Turkish folk music was disregarded by the higher Ottoman society as rural - primitive. With the nationalist movement in the late 19th century, in contrast, the desire arose to create instead of Ottoman music, which has now been estimated to be foreign- own Turkish music culture, which should be based on the Anatolian folk music. This was accompanied by the efforts - parallel to the imaginary origin myth of the unified Turkish people - to classify the folk music as belonging together genus with only Central Asian roots.
In 1915 began musicians from Istanbul to collect the hitherto disregarded Folk Songs of Anatolia. After the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 by Atatürk enhanced the ethnomusicological study of folk music and the search for its Central Asian origin. In folk music pentatonic musical scales had to be tracked because this part of the general archetypes of melodic structure. In this context, the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and folk song researchers involved with several Turkish composer in 1936 in search of the " original " Turkish music. A year later a government Folk Music Archives was established in Ankara, where shifted from Instanbul from the focus of folk music research. The collection of folk music in the villages developed in the following decades a respected and institutionally funded research activity of Turkish musicians.
The Central and East Anatolian Asiklar came into the center of attention because of their simple melodies and ancient verses were now classified as a national Turkish cultural asset that was possible "authentic" to preserve it ( Otantik ). 1939 on regional radio station was put into operation in Ankara, who first helped the Asiklar and other folk musicians in an almost country-wide dissemination of their songs. The musical accompaniment of the singers was secondary until then and was technically simple, attention has been focused primarily on their seals.
The new social environment brought for the folk music several changes: The Asiklar increased by the competition since the 1960s, their instrumental skills and the different, regionally and in every situation lecture methods were similar at each other. In the long-necked lute Bağlama was once the size and the number of frets in each region differently, now both were just like the string tunings set uniformly. The standard now includes the moods kara düzen (also düzen bozuk, La -Re - Sol ) and Bağlama düzeni (also Aşık düzeni, La - Re-Mi ). Baglamas rose from its exclusively accompanying function to a solo melody played on an instrument. Previously, only nationally known singer arrived in the 1930s next to the radio through Festivals and Folk Houses ( halk Evleri ) in which they performed on a concert stage, a wide audience. The part on poorly tuned instruments presented at the village festivals songs were elevated to a style of music in rank between folk and art music. Already in 1947, was founded in Ankara has its own choir for folk music on public broadcasting (TRT ), since the mid-1970s own courses for folk dance and folk music are offered at state music schools. The new style of folk music in the cities comes with a mixed choir, large orchestra playing from the sheet and with a conductor therefore. A significant influence on the development of folk music to an art form had trained in the European opera singing Ruhi Su ( 1912-1985 ). For political reasons, he came in 1952 for five years in jail. Subsequently, he sang with his strong but soft opera voice folk songs, which he accompanied with simple clear melody shapes on the baglama. He became famous for his vocal style, which stood out from both the rough uneducated, sometimes only recitative voices of rural singers, as well as from the musical overloaded edits the urban orchestra.
To the political changes after 1923 was that the suppression of the Alevis was lifted. You no longer had to practice in secret rituals and religious songs.
The best known Aşık singer in the mid-20th century were Aşık Veysel ( 1894-1973 ), Sabit Müdami ( 1914-1968 ), Davut Sulari ( 1924-1984/5 ), Feyzullah Çinar ( 1937-1983 ), Aşık Daimi ( 1932-1983), Musa Eroğlu (* 1946), Muhlis Akarsu ( * 1948, he died in 1993 arson attack at Sivas on an Alevi cultural festival in honor of Pir Sultan Abdal ) and in Azerbaijan Adalet Nasibov. The emergence of a " Kurdish folk music " during the 20th century was followed by some time lag, but for similar reasons as in the search for his own Turkish music; not only with support, but in opposition to government policy. The majority of today's well-known popular singer from Turkey are Kurds. Many of them are the Zaza attributed to consider themselves as Kurds, despite different language. Yavuz Top ( † 1950), Aşık Daimi, Davut Sulari, Ali Ekber Çiçek ( 1935-2006 ), Muhlis Akarsu, Arif SAG (* 1945), Rahmi Saltuk (* 1945) and Suleyman Yildiz are Alevi and Zaza are considered. A special " Alevi Genre," coined in the 1980s, the group Muhabbet. It was founded by some of the lute players sang the songs of the old Aşık tradition. In order to develop a new virtuoso instrumental style wore from the 1990s and Erdal Erzincan Arif SAG (* 1971) with, as they selpe the technique developed in Turkey, in which pluck the fingers of the right hand without pick the strings.
Since the 1960s came with the Turkish "guest workers" some Aşık to Germany, where she took up the theme of migration and Turkish life in the Diaspora in their texts. Until the 1980s there were some concerts in Germany, where Aşık occurred. A decade later, the interest went back to the Aşık music both in Turkey and in Europe. Today there are political songwriters of left and right-wing groups, who refer to the tradition of Aşık and recite songs of Pir Sultan Abdal or Aşık Veysel.
In Germany in the 1970s Şivan Perwer ( b. 1955 ) became acquainted with Kurdish political songs. Nizamettin Aric (* 1956, lives in Berlin) published in its traditional Kurdish Ballads and political songs about Kurdistan, where he connected the vocal style dengbêj with folk instruments and elements of western chamber music.
Turkish nationalist musicians such as Ozan Arif ( b. 1949 ) describe themselves as reluctant Aşık but as ozan because they do not want to be confused with the Alevis and to contact with the Central Asian Epensängern into a tradition.
After the military coup on September 12, 1980, many left-wing musicians left the country and fled to Europe. Left political singer called their blend of Aşık songs and Western pop music, since they were allowed to occur in the mid- 1980s and again in Turkey, Özgün müzik ( " eigenwüchsige music "). An earlier name for this style was created in the late 1960s Anadolu pop. In the late 1980s took on in the meantime become commercially successful Özgün müzik müzik style elements of the arabesque, whose invention in the 1960s Orhan Gencebay (* 1944) is attributed. The arabesque version of a song from Mahzuni Serif (1940-2002) was a nationwide hit. Especially with Kurdish nationalists Özgün müzik the Kurdish singer Ali Asker 's (* 1954 in Tunceli, fled in 1981 from Turkey, lives in France) and Ahmet Kaya ( 1957-2000 ) popular.