Suite of Turkish and Kurdish Folk Songs

Programme notes

Suite of Turkish and Kurdish Folk Songs: 1. Kara Toprak 2. Yemen Türküsü 3. Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım 4. Xoş e Hewreman

Compositions by Âşık Veysel Şatıroğluand Komkars

Microtonal arrangement by Ricardo Moyano and Tolgahan Çoğulu

Niibori instrumentation by Robert Casteels

1.    Kara Toprak means: black soil. Âşık Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894-1973) wrote the lyrics and the melody. Commonly known simply as Âşık Veysel, Şatıroğlu was a Turkish minstrel, a highly regarded poet of the Anatolian folk literature and a virtuoso player of the Anatolian necked folk-lute, called the bağlama. Kara Toprak is originally played on the bağlama. The poem Kara Toprak celebrates the love and respect for nature. Each of the 11 stanzas of the poem ends with the same verse: “my faithful beloved is black soil”. The melody is based on the musical mode called hüseyni maqam which has in its scale two microtones: g sharp and d sharp, both 35 cents lower than in the equal temperament tuning system.
2.    Yemen Türküsü means: Yemen song. This folk song originates from Anatolia, the region that corresponds to the Asian part of Turkey. Yemen refers to the country located on the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. During the First World War, Turkish soldiers went sent from the eastern Turkish city of Muş to Yemen to fight against the British. The people of Muş wrote Yemen Türküsü in memory of all the Turkish soldiers who perished in the battle. The lyrics close with the following verse: “Girls cry for those who went to Yemen. Over there is Yemen...” The melody contains one microtone: g sharp, 35 cents lower than in the equal temperament tuning system.
3.    Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım means: I'm on a long and narrow road. This well-known song by Aşık Veysel, deals with the inevitability of death. Aşık Veysel was blind for most of his lifetime. His songs are usually sad tunes, often questioning issues such as love, care, beliefs, and how he "saw" the world as a blind man. The melody contains two microtones: g sharp and d sharp, both 35 cents lower than in the equal temperament tuning system.
4.    Xoş e Hewreman means: beautiful Hewreman. Hewreman is a region in Iran where Kurds live. In Kurdî language Xoş means: beautiful. Tolgahan Çoğulu arranged this Kurdish folk song from a Kurdish ensemble called The Kamkars, a Kurdish family of seven brothers and a sister, undeniably one of the leading musical ensembles of traditional Kurdish and Persian music.

Completion of the composition

 28-I-2015