The grand old man of Turkish music
A. Adnan Saygun (September 7, 1907 – January 6, 1991), was a key figure in Turkish music history. He was a prolific composer of five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, and a range of chamber and choral works. As a musicologist, he accompanied Bartok to Anatolia (Asia Minor) in 1936 to collect and transcribe Turkish folk music, and continued his research as Inspector of the Halkevieri. As a young student he began writing about music, and in high school he created a “Musiki Lügati”, (Dictionary of Music) by translating the music-related articles from the French La Grande Encyclopedie. He would later serve at the National Library, and form Ses ve Tel Birligi, an organization to increase awareness of Western classical music through concerts and recitals. He dedicated his work to the people of his country, stating that “Reflecting on Anatolia lies at the heart of my music.”
Born in Izmir, a port on the Aegean Sea, as a child Saygun’s interest in music was sparked as a child listening to European music performed by Ottoman military bands and various other chamber music ensembles. Entering elementary school at the age of 4, he started playing the piano and the oud, (the short necked fretless lute), and began studying composition and theory in high school. He did not grow up in a musical family however – his father was a mathematics teacher and a scholar of religions and literature, who preferred that his son would pursue a self supporting career. Never the less, at the age of 19, Saygun was appointed as a high school music teacher and two years later he received a grant to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and the composer Vincent d’Indy. There, he was able to pursue his interests in Western art, the music of Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, and was introduced to late Romanticism and French Impressionism. He began to play the organ in order to be more acquainted with the music of the church – the foundation of Christian culture. In 1931 Saygun completed his first large composition for orchestra, Op 1 Divertissement, utilizing highly chromatic, atmospheric textures, and included the saxophone and darbuka, (goblet drum) in the score. The piece won Saygun an award in composition and was enthusiastically received in performances in Paris, Poland and the Soviet Union.
That same year he returned to Turkey with an appointment to the Ankara State Conservatory, newly established by then Prime Minister Atatürk to adopt Western practices in music education, and help foster a Turkish national musical style. The position allowed Saygun to continue his work as a composer, ethnomusicologist, and composition teacher, and led to the commissions ofhis operas Özsoy and Taşbebek, the first two Turkish operas. He was appointed conductor of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, and had become the musical symbol of his country. During that decade he would collaborate with Bartok, compose a variety of chamber music works, songs, choral pieces, and write for the piano – most notably Inci’s Book, a collection of imaginative, short solo piano pieces, possibly one of the most under appreciated works in the piano literature. But a period of inactivity followed, the result of needing medical treatment for his ear and the death of Ataturk. But when his oratorio Yunous Emre premiered in 1947, Saygun’s international fame flourished, fueling his creative energies that lasted for the rest of his life. The hour long work sets the poems of the mystic Anatolian poet using Turkish modes and folk melodies, and features four vocal soloists a full chorus and orchestra. It’s been performed world wide, translated into five languages, with Leopold Stokowski and the NBC Symphony Orchestra performing the English version at the United Nations.
Saygun went on to write three new operas, five symphonies, two piano concertos as well as concertos for the violin, viola, and cello, plus a wealth of chamber music, choral music, and his most poignant works for piano. He attained even greater international acclaim when the premiere of his second string quartet was performed in New York by the Juiliard String Quartet. Notable orchestras throughout the world performed his music, including the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie and numerous others. HIs music continues to live today in a series of recordings commemorating his 100th birthday, and through performances by esteemed musicians, most notably, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
I chose to begin my first solo album, World Keys – a cultural voyage around the globe – in Turkey, with Saygun’s last published work. Ten Sketches on Aksak Rhythms is a joyful exploration of these distinctive Turkish folk rhythms that are considered to be the foundation of the Turkish national musical style. Aksak rhythm is a combination of binary and ternary time units, (2+3, 3+2), an asymmetrical progression that produces a sense of irregularity to the listener. The motif that Saygun uses in his piece is based on the pentatonic scale used in the folk music of Turkey. The abstract approach taken by Saygun to these elements translates the folk music tradition into contemporary piano repertoire. This brief piece is a playful, virtuosic romp around the keyboard, that also illuminates the essence and aspirations that lie at the heart of A. Adman Saygun, and his music. Many consider him to be one of the most important composers of the 20th Century for his synthesis of Romanticism, Western modernism, and Turkish folk song.
I think he’s best remembered just as The Times described him – “the grand old man of Turkish music, who was to his country what Jean Sibelius is to Finland, what Manuel de Falla is to Spain, and what Bela Bartok is to Hungary”.