The oldest historical sources available in the history of Turkish music date back to the ninth century. Safiyüddin Urmevi, one of the most important scientists this century and the founder of the systemist school started a new era when he introduced the systematic approach towards the theory of Turkish music that appeared in the tenth century. Edvars – written pieces investigating the rules of Turkish music- were consulted as the primary sources for the transfer of music culture from this time until the twentieth century, at the beginning of which the first samples of Turkish music have been recorded. The recordings facilitated transferring the performances of the masters to the new generations. We can analyze the performances of the masters using the frequency analysis techniques and understand their preferences of various pitches which is important to establish a unifying theory for Turkish music as the search for such a theory still continues. The results of the analysis of the recordings of the master artists will be the basis of a system where the theory and the practice are consistent with each other. The Arel / Ezgi / Uzdilek (AEU) tuning system, which was developed under the leadership of Hüseyin Saadettin Arel, one of the twentieth-century theorists, is still widely used.
Hicaz, nikriz, hüzzam çenies and many makams such as hicaz, nikriz, hüzzam, karcığar, suzinak, saba in AEU theory, are described as structures using augmented second intervals. Although all these structures are described using the 12 comma augmented second interval values, they have different pitch usage characteristics during the performance. This issue, together with other issues, brings along criticisms that the AUE system is insufficient to describe the relevant cesnies and makams and that it is insufficient in terms of the musical notations. This study applies frequency analysis techniques to the published recording samples of the performer Kani Karaca and examines his preferences of pitches on the augmented second intervals. Each performance is analyzed separately for each makam sample according to the ahenks they are performed and the results are compared to each other. The impact of the changes in the tuning order on the performance is investigated. For each makam, all samples belonging to that makam are analyzed and the results are aggregated. The values of the augmented second pitches used in nikriz and hicaz makams are compared to those in hüzzam, karcığar, and suzinak makams. The variable structure of the pitches used in the fourth-order of hüzzam and saba makams is examined and compared with those used in the other makams. Hicaz and saba çenies used in the saba makam, are examined in terms of pitch usage characteristics and are compared with the values obtained from the other makams. By determining whether the interval values that are not used in the AEU system are used in performance, we demonstrate how well the theory captures the practice and contributes to establishing a unifying theory of Turkish music and a domain database for computational musicology.
Primary Language | Turkish |
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Subjects | Music |
Journal Section | Research Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | December 7, 2021 |
Submission Date | April 30, 2021 |
Published in Issue | Year 2021 Issue: 21 |