47 f
Mercan Dede “W
hen I was a university student in the mid-’80s in order to play ney, or learn how to whirl, we had to hide our instruments and never talk about it openly. Today we have ney courses in every city. Last week we per-
formed in two Sufi festivals in India and there we spoke with qawwali musicians how connected we are. Repetitive beats, hand-clapping and deep breathing voices are some common elements in both.”
“For me the more troublesome parts [of conservative religion in
Turkey] are the conservative elements in Sufism itself – some groups don’t accept women dervishes for example, etc. This is what for the last fifteen years I’m fighting in the Sufi establishments. Freedom is the air of Sufism – without it we’d suffocate.”
Samí Savní Özer, singer (and one of the most popular Sufi- inspired musicians in Turkey):
“I fell in love with music through hearing the Azan [the call to prayer] when I was about six. My music is my own creation. My audi- ence is really wide – including both conservative people and people who like pop. Just because I make Sufi music doesn’t mean that the audience is only religious people. My work has an authentic style which I try to modernise in terms of orchestration to catch the ears of the young. I was the first to use orchestration in Sufi music.”
“Years ago, we gave a concert in Antalya, in a square. There was an elite crowd. I started singing a [Sufi] chant, but no-one reacted. So I asked my orchestra to play some Turkish classical music and everyone started singing along. Then I started singing the chants again, and the audience joined me. Our audience has a prejudice against Sufi music. It’s a cultural thing.”
“I sing in Arabic as well as Turkish because I was a muezzin for five years. Music is the only common language of the heart for mankind. I improvise a lot in my performances. Each country’s tradi- tion of Sufi music is different from the other. Ours, coming from the Ottoman era is more disciplined and strict, because we respect the original versions.”
“Music isn’t unpermitted [in Islam]. It makes you full of love for
people and for life. There isn’t a verse in the Koran which declares music as unpermitted. All the wrong ness in life is a result of declaring your own opinion as the only correct opinion.”
“Mystical music includes the musics of mosques and tekkes. We
don’t distinguish between them. Sufi music includes all types of mysti- cal music, and in my concerts we perform all of these types. I can say that the important thing is not to ruin the originality of a composition. Let’s say that I’m working on a piece by Hoca Efendi, we try to think of the instruments like effects, like the calligraphy around the pages of the Koran, that’s how I use the instruments, they decorate the piece.”
“I’m trying to be a Sufi but I’m really far from that. Being a Sufi means the self does not exist anymore. Of course I’d like to be a Sufi, a real one, that would be my biggest wish.”
Some further listening: Tende Cânım – Ottoman Court Sufi
Music by Süleyman Erguner, Ihsan Özgen & Koray Safkan (Sera); Seyahatname (Sufi Traveller) by Mercan Dede (Doublemoon); Divâne Gönlüm by Samí Savní Özer (Beyza); Bir Özlemdir by Üstad Münir Nurettin Selçuk (Cos¸kun Plak); As¸kın Gözyas¸ ları (Gazelhan ve Hanende) by Hafız Burhan (Kalan); Mes Gündüz Kutbay (Kalan)
¸k by Kâni Karaca & Aka F
Photo: Laura Berg
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