konya international mystic music festival€¦ · 10th konya international mystic music festival...

10th Konya International Mystic Music FestivalOrganized by Governorship of Konya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism

as part of Mevlana Rumi's birthday celebrations, Konya International Mystic MusicFestival is one of the most appreciated festivals of the world in the field of mystic-traditional music. 10th edition of the festival will be September 22nd through September30th, 2013.

The intention of the festival is to introduce mystical music traditions of the worldemphasizing the authenticity and originality as much as possible in presentation. TheFestival strives to commemorate Mevlana Rumi in the best possible way, in alignmentwith his pure, unbounded love for humanity and his trust in every human being, nomatter who or what they are, and with no judgments, questions or prejudices.

Intensive preliminary work has been done for the 9th Konya International MysticMusic Festival. In order to encourage diversity, vivacity, and conceptual integrity, avariety of groups from many parts of the world have been considered.

The organization committee of the festival consists of

Dr. Sefa Çetin (Deputy Governer)

Dr. Mustafa Ç›pan (Director, Konya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism)

Mehmet Yünden (Deputy Director, Konya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism)

Dr. Timuçin Çeviko¤lu (Ministry of Culture Artist, Festival Artistic Director)

Festival Program(22-30 September 2013)

INDIASangat: Rhythms of Indian Classical Music - Zakir Hussain

FRANCEOccitan Chants Lo Còr de la Plana

Gurdjieff's Music and MovementsMovements Foundation

SOUTH KOREAMystic Music and Dance of Korea - Palsandae

Z‹MBABWEMbira Music - Tichakunda Mbira & Caution Shonhai

MOROCCOHadra Chefchaouen Rhoum - El Bakkali Ensemble

AZERBAIJANMugham Music - Alim Qasimov

PAKISTANShah-jo-Raag - Faqirs of Bhit Shah

TURKEYSema (Whirling) Ceremony - Konya Turkish Sufi Music Ensemble

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Intensive preliminary work has been done for the 10th Konya International Mystic MusicFestival, organized by Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism of Konya. In order toencourage diversity, vivacity, and conceptual integrity, a variety of groups from many partsof the world have been considered.

The Art Director of the festival is Dr. Timuçin Çeviko¤lu. Feridun Gündefl, Burak Kaynarcaand Emre Soylu are commissioned as Assistant Art Directors. Feridun Gündefl who is also thecurator, handles communications with the invited groups.

Burak Kaynarca and Emre Soylu is the director of the technical crew whose focus is audio-visual recording, editing, and montage.

Muammer Ero¤lu is the webmaster. Enes Evren and Bahad›r Uysal have designed both thelogo and visual materials for the festival. ‹smet Filizfidano¤lu is the designer of the booklet,invitation, poster, and billboard applications.

Dr. Mustafa Ç›pan is the editor-in-chief of visual and textual publications. Dr. Ç›pan hasalso edited texts translated to Turkish by Feridun Gündefl and Gevher E. Çeviko¤lu, who preparedthe original English texts by using a variety of sources, including the resources sent by the artists.

Amir Kaufmann, Erica Azim of "MBIRA", Pierre-Alain Baud of "Arts Nomades", RebeccaGuillaume and Fairouz Nishanova of the "Agha Khan Music Initiative", Robert van den Bos andMaria Theresa Butarelli of "Anmaro Asia Arts" made valuable contributions for the preparationof the publicity materials and communications with the artists.

Sangat: Rhythms of Indian Classical MusicClassical music of the Indian subcontinent has a rich

history of being one the most developed expressions ofour cultural heritage. Its foundations pre-cede 5000 years,going back to the ancient Indus civilization. Manyinstruments such as harps, flutes and percussioninstruments were found during the excavations at Harappaand Mohenjo Daro, the centers of the Indus valley situatedin present day Sindh, Pakistan.

The earliest form of Indian music was based on chantsor recitation of hymns, found in scriptures or Vedas. Themusic of the Vedic era was of a simple nature, yet it retaineda systematic order, the basis of which is still in existencetoday. This sytem depended on a comprehensive rhytmicbasis since it was based on exact and correct recitaiton ofsacred texts. An extensively developed rhytmic systembased on patterns called 'tala' and the ingeniouty ofpercussion instruments used in Indian music are perhapsits most striking characteristics. Both northern andsouthern classical music has complex, all-embracing rulesfor the elaboration of possible patterns and each suchpattern has its own name, though in practice a few talasare very common while others are rare. The most commoninstrument for keeping rhythm in Hindustani (North Indian)music is the tabla, while in Carnatic (South Indian) musicit is the mridangam.

Zakir HussainZakir Hussain is today appreciated both in the field of

percussion and in the music world at large as aninternational phenomenon and one of the greatestmusicians of our time. A classical tabla virtuoso of thehighest order, his consistently brilliant and excitingperformances have established him as a national treasurein his own country, India, and as one of India’s reigningcultural ambassadors. Along with his legendary father andteacher, Ustad Allarakha, he has elevated the status of hisinstrument both in India and around the world. His playingis marked by uncanny intuition and masterfulimprovisational dexterity, founded in formidable knowledgeand study.

The recipient of countless awards, titles and honors,including the title of Padma Bhushan (2002), Padma Shri(1988) Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1991), Grammy inthe Best Contemporary World Music category (2009),Order of Arts and Letters by France’s Ministry of Cultureand Communication. He received the distinct honor of co-composing the opening music for the Summer Olympicsin Atlanta, 1996.

www.mistikmuzikfest.com www.mysticmusicfest.com www.facebook.com/MysticMusicFest

22NDSeptemberSunday

INDIA

Occitan ChantsKnown also as Lenga d'òc by its native speakers, Occitan

is a Romance language spoken in southern France, Italy'sOccitan Valleys, Monaco, and Catalonia's Val d'Aran: theregions sometimes known unofficially as Occitania. It is adescendant of the spoken Latin language of the RomanEmpire and its closest relative is Catalan. According to theUNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, four of thesix major dialects of Occitan are considered severelyendangered, while the remaining two are considereddefinitely endangered. According to the 1999 census, inFrance, there are 610,000 native speakers (almost all ofwhom are also native French speakers) and perhaps anothermillion persons with some exposure to the language.

One source of the traditional Occiatan repertoire stemsfrom troubadours. Starting in high middle ages in the Occitanarea, this tradition spread first into Mediterranean coastthen into the central Europe. Minstrels all around thecontinent, in company of their instruments, sang their lyricpoetry. Hand to hand with the troubadour tradition is thefolklore, songs of the lovers, heroes and shepherds, someinfused with stories from the religious lore like the storiesof saints including many references to the pre-christianpagan past. Sung in popular religious festivals which are amixture of ancient pagan rites and early christian devotions,these songs betray an attitude of rejection of authority, arecurring theme in the region.

In the Occitan repertoire, religious songs are a reflectionof the societies that followed one another and forged itsmonuments, its heroes and its landscapes, thus defining avariegated geography of the spiritual feeling in the Occitanarea. Peopled by ghosts of a barely buried past, this territorystill smolders from the battles between the monsters ofpagan pantheons and saints of the new monotheistic order.Chants recites these ancient battles and songs of the poorpeople tells about Christ of the poor, riding a donkey andwretchedly dressed, wandering about the cities. These songsmostly get to be sung in familial or neighbourhoodcelebrations. Some people believe that the texts in thesesongs are very closed to the "apocryphal gospels", gospelsnot recognized by the official church. Belonging to a languagewhich lost lots of its speakers, it is unfortunately not commonto hear them at festivals anymore.

Lo Còr de la PlanaFounded by Manu Théron in 2001 and based in the "La

Plaine" area of Marseilles, Lo Còr de la Plana has beenreinventing meridional vocality of Occitan language, oftenmixing it with raw and sometimes violent archaicMediterranean sound. Based on a repertoire of traditionalsongs, the group bring its music to life with voices andpercussions. Dedicated to revive the Occitan heritage,polyphony and whatever can produce the beat, hands, feet,skin makes up the musical alphabet of Lo Còr de la Plana.


23RDSeptemberSunday

FRANCE

Gurdjieff's Music and Movements

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born to Greek andArmenian parents in Gymru in 1866. A thirst forknowledge drove him to travelling for two decades inEgypt, the Near East and Asia, studying hithertoinaccessible cultural and religious practices. Afterwards,he became active as a spiritual teacher

He left a highly varied legacy: an esoteric teaching,three books, 300 musical compositions and hisMovements. In reality, however, all these seeminglydifferent elements form one organic and coherent whole.

Gurdjieff´s books are a first voluminous mythologicalwork and two shorter autobiographical books. Hismusical compositions started as music to accompanyhis Movements, but were extended with some 250pieces for piano solo, composed in the short time spanof only two years and notated by Thomas de Hartmann.These pieces were partly inspired by the music Gurdjieffhad heard during his travels, but also contain manystrikingly original works, some of which showing anastonishingly mathematical precision.

His Movements can be divided into two groups: thosefor demonstrations given in 1923 and 1924 which couldbe called the ‘early’ Movements and those created byGurdjieff between 1937 and his death in 1949, the ‘later’Movements. In total approximately 250 Movementshave been preserved. Only those of the ‘early’ period,about thirty, have Gurdjieff´s own music.

Movements Foundation

Public demonstrations of Movements are rare andthe Movements Foundation will endeavour to presenta selection of Movements in a historically relevantformat. Directors of the performance are ChristianeMacketanz and Wim van Dullemen. All participants havebeen studying Gurdjieff´s teaching and it should be keptin mind that this will not be a spectacle offered byprofessionals, but an intimate ritual by a group exploringthe inner content rather than the outer form ofMovements.


24THSeptemberSunday

GURDJIEFF

Mystic Music and Dance of Korea

The history of Korean Traditional Dance and Musicgoes back to the earliest times of human habitation inthe peninsula and has its roots in the shamanistic andagricultural rituals and worship rites of heaven and earthof the ancient communities. Later, with the introductionof some instruments from Central Asia and thedevelopment of indigenous instruments, music gaineda more sophisticated character. With the rise of royalauthority, the advent of Three Kingdoms brought aboutthe creation of royal music institutions to support thecultural life of the royal and aristocratic families, and ofpalace musicians and dancers specializing in the songs,dances, and instrumental music supported by thoseinstitutions. In addition, Confucian and Buddhistinfluences were very prominent. Confucian influencewas often repressive, while Buddhism allowed a moretolerant attitude as shown in the beautiful court dancesand many shaman dances for the dead.

Palsandae

In the period of Joseon Dynasty, sandae referred tothe stage held at the palace for the most importantfigures at the time: the King and foreign ambassadors.Upon their arrival to the palace the kingdom’s mosttalented performers put out a spectacular sandae.Today, Palsandae with ‘Pal’, meaning ‘eight’ or ‘whole’in Korean added to the name, reproduces the historicalsandae stage and displays the essence of traditionalKorean music and dance.

Palsandae has a wide range of repertoire includingshamanic prayer songs, pansori (traditional storytellingsongs), improvisational shinawi ensemble music, andpangut which is the highlight of its program featuringMaster Kim Woon Tae’s Chaesang Sogo Dance.


25THSeptemberSunday

SOUTH KOREA


Mbira MusicZimbabwe's mbira (the name of both the instrument and

the music) is the primary traditional instrument of the Shonapeople, and has been played for over 1,000 years for religiousrituals, royal courts, and social occasions. It consists of 22 to28 metal keys mounted on a hardwood soundboard, and isusually placed inside a large calabash resonator (deze) toamplify it. The keys are played with the two thumbs pluckingdown and the right forefinger plucking up.

Mbira is mystical music which has been played for over athousand years by certain tribes of the Shona people, a groupwhich forms the vast majority of the population of Zimbabwe,and extends into Mozambique. Mbira pervades all aspects ofShona culture, both sacred and secular. Its most importantfunction is as a "telephone to the spirits", used to contact bothdeceased ancestors and tribal guardians. Mbira is requiredto bring rain during drought, stop rain during floods, and bringclouds when crops are burned by the sun. It is used to chaseaway harmful spirits, and to cure illnesses, it is included incelebrations of all kinds like weddings. Mbira is also requiredat death ceremonies. At the guva ceremony, approximatelyone year after a person's physical death, mbira is used towelcome that individual's spirit back to the community.

An mbira piece consists of a basic cyclical pattern whichincludes numerous intertwined melodies, often withcontrasting rhythms. The extensive possibilities for rhythmicand melodic variation render each performance unique. Whentwo mbiras are played together, the interlocking parts resultin rich polyphony and poly-rhythm. A traditional repertoire ofhundreds of pieces is transmitted from generation togeneration, and pieces popular today are known to have beenplayed over 700 years ago. At traditional ceremonies (mapira),ancestors are called by performing their favorite songs allnight long; thus, the same pieces are retained in the repertoireover the centuries. An mbira ensemble typically includes aminimum of two mbiras and one hosho (pair of gourd rattles)player.

Tichakunda Mbira & Caution ShonhaiMaster musician Caution Shonhai lives in the rural

Nyamweda area of Zimbabwe. He is a n'anga, a Shonatraditional healer and herbalist, as well as a spirit mediumthrust by the deaths of his father and older brothers into theonerous role of head of a large extended family. He has playedthe mbira since the age of 11, learning from elder musiciansin nearby villages and his father's intricate singing of mbiramelodies. He also sang to mbira for years before learning toplay the instrument. Playing mbira in traditional Shona spiritualceremonies with his (now late) older brother as a teenager,Shonhai became deeply immersed in ancient traditions. Then,as the medium of the spirit of his great-great-great-great-grandfather (also a virtuoso mbira player), he began to playthat ancestor's unusual variant of the over 1,000-year oldShona mbira style.

26THSeptemberSunday

ZIMBABWE

Hadra ChefchaouenLocated in northern Morocco, in the foothills of the Rif

Mountains, the small town of Chefchaouen is the center ofa rich and diverse musical and poetic tradition. One of itsmost remarkable expressions is crystallized in a particularform called Hadra. The Hadra (literally "presence") is a ritualthat is practiced in the meetings of sufi brotherhoods. Itincludes invocations, praise and prayers sung, whose purposeis to achieve a state of ecstasy (wajd), considered as theresult of a union with the divine presence. Today this art isparticularly practiced during reliigous celebrations, especiallythose of Mouloud, the anniversary of the birth of the ProphetMohammed.

Dating back to the sixteenth century, the Hadra ofChefchaouen is the prerogative of the prestigious lineage ofSufi order of Bakkaliya. Under the spiritual guidance of afamily of preeminent masters, the Brotherhood has left animportant legacy of teachings, religious poems, invocationsand popular songs. One of the leading figures of this line ofspiritual masters is the holy Cherif Lalla Hiba Bakkaliya. Itwas she who happens to be at the origin of the HadraChefchaouen, the women's ritual which has continueduninterrupted to the present day.

During the Hadra, the singers are dressed in the traditionalcostume of Rif women. Some of them sits on the floor in asemicircle and play some different drums (bendir, darbuka,tabl, tar, ta'rija), others stand and sing and clap, sometimes

swaying repetitively left to right, sometimes back and forth,to bring forth the state of ecstasy. The soloist (munshida)with a beautiful voice carves perfectly the ornamentation ofmelodies whose content is provided by a very homogeneousfemale choir. Beginning with a slow and stately tempo, Hadragradually incorporates rhythmic movements, becoming morelively with drumming and ululating women, reaching its peakwith this kind of ecstasy, which is the essence of Hadra. Thewords of the songs are poems in Arabic from either Bakkalifamily tradition or directory of Sufi songs of sama 'composedby masters of classical Arab-Andalusian tradition, such asAli al-Halabi, Abu Mohammed al- Harraq or al-Shushatri.

With poetic lyrics, melodies and the beauty of its visualand choreographic form, the Hadra Chefchaouen becomesa fascinating performance.

Rhoum El Bakkali EnsembleThis beautiful tradition is now booming as a stage

performance thanks to the determination of a young mother,the charismatic Rahoum Bakkali, current custodian of thisfamily legacy. Daughter of a sheik, she is also a graduate ofArab-Andalusian music (singing and oud), which is why sheparticularly cares for the aesthetic dimension of this spiritualart. It is in this perspective that regularly transmits its heritageto a group of girls in the region of Chefchaouen. The ensemblestrives to preserve this ancient heritage of Sufism and populartraditions, adding to it a degree of creativity and originality.


27THSeptemberSunday

MOROCCO

Mugham Music

Music in Azerbaijan reflects the long history ofcontact between peoples of Central Asia and Iran inTranscaucasia, the region lying south of the CaucasusMountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.In antiquity, the territory of present-day Azerbaijan waspart of a succession of Iranian empires and waseventually infiltrated and inhabited by a succession ofTurkish speaking peoples from the east. Mugham, theindigenous classical music of Azerbaijan is in this regarda fusion between Iranian music at one hand and Azerimusic and poetry at the other.

Mugham and its cognate repertoires are all regionallyspecific but represent what is at root a common musicallanguage. Azerbaijani mugham shares broad featuresof musical form and structure with the Central Asianart song suites known as shash maqâm (six maqâms)but is closest in performance style, instrumentation,and modal organization to the Persian classicalrepertory, dastgâh. Lyrics are often from classical poetssuch as Fuzuli, Khaqani or Nizami and incudesreferences to the great sufi traditions of the region.

Alim Qasimov

Born in 1957 to a peasant family, with his deepdevotion to music, Alim Qasimov became the prominentsinger of Mugham tradition and he was named a "LivingTreasure" of Azerbaijan. He has been passionate aboutmugham since his early childhood, but initially Qasimovsang mugham solely for his own enjoyment. Only at theage of nineteen, after having held various jobs as anagricultural worker and driver, did he decide to pursuea career in music. Qasimov studied at the Asaf ZeynalliMusic College (1978-1982) and the Azerbaijan Universityof Arts (1982-1989). His teacher was well-knownmugham singer Aghakhan Abdullayev.

Qasimov's first remarkable international successoccurred in 1988 when he won first prize at theInternational Festival and Symposium on TraditionalMusic in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Since then, he hasbeen traveling worldwide to spread the art of Azerbaijanimugham. Along with most important stages of his owncountry, Qasimov has performed at most prestigiousfestivals and venues in many countries. In 1999, inrecognition for his musical contributions to world peace,Qasimov was awarded the coveted International IMC-UNESCO Music Prize.


28THSeptemberSunday

AZERBAIJAN

FAQIRS OF BHIT SHAHShah-jo-Raag: Shah Latif and Faqirsof Bhit Shah

Most of what we know about the saint Shah Latif Bhittaihas come down to us through oral tradition, which at timesleaves room for multiple interpretation. However, it isgenerally accepted that he was born in 1102 after Hegira(1690 in the western calender) in the village of Hala Havelinear Hyderabad and died at the age of 63.

Though Shah Latif does not seem to have received anyformal education beyond what his village could provide, hispoetry points to a profound mastery of Arabic and Persian.The Koran, the Hadiths, The Masnawi of Mevlana Rumi andthe poetic anthologies of his ancestor Shah Karim seem tohave been his constant companions. Shah Latif apparentlymanifested at an early age a natural inclanation forcontemplation, meditation and nomadic wandering. Legendoften depicts hims working with villagers in the fields orcrossing mountains and valleys in the company of ascesitcsor preaching to the erudite in some religious congregation.

A sufi saint, he left his mark on a host of fervent disciples.At barely twenty years old his piety and asceticism hadalready attracted a great many to his side. Together, clearinga mound of sand close to a water source in the desert, theyformed a community to be called Bhit Shah. There, amidan ever-growing brotherhood of faithful, he was to composethe essential body of his poetic and musical work.

Shah Latif prolonged the musical narrative Sindhitradition associated with specific rags finally creating Surmusical style, a blending of classical and folk traditions.Finding his inspiration within the minstrels legends andballads rooted for centuries in the Sindhi villages, hedeveloped thirty or so melodies for his poetry, selecting asmany from the field of classical music as from the world ofSindhi popular music. He also developed an instrument toaccompany the singing of his faqirs, five-stringed damboor,an originally four stringed lute introduced to subcontinentfrom Persia to which Shah Latif added a new string tunedto 'pancham', a note of the median octave. This string iscalled 'zuban', meaning the instrument's 'tongue' since usedto expound the melody. Moreover, Shah latif had the wisdomto also conceive the damboor as a percussion instrumentmarking the rhytym like the daff or the dholak.

Favoring communal singing over single voice, Shah Latifcreated for his damboor a unique vocal and musical form,the 'Shah-jo-Raag' blending low voice and high voice andresulting in a simultaneity of singing at different octaves.Voices superimposed at different octaves, the sound of thedamboors and the ardent rhythm coming from their belliesjoin to create a unique experience.


29THSeptemberSunday

Sema (Whirling) Ceremony

The literal meaning of the word “Semâ” is “to hear”.For Mevlevi dervishes it carries the added meaning ofbeing enraptured while listening to music, being inmotion and whirling. It symbolically refers to the creationof the universe and humankind’s coming into being. Italso refers to one’s acting on both her love for the GrandCreator and on the perception of her station as servantof that creator while maturing into the “Perfect Man”.

Semâ is a zikir said silently while whirling on foot.The whirling dervishes silently call “Allah” inwardly onevery whirl.

Konya Turkish Sufi Music Ensemble

The Sema (Whirling) Ceremony will performed byKonya Türk Tasavvuf Müzi¤i Toplulu¤u. The Ensemblespecialized on Mevlevi Music and the Sema (Whirling)Ceremony was established in 1991. The Ensemble hascontinued to perform Sema Ceremony on Shab-i Arusand other periodic performaces every year since itsestablishment.

Yusuf Kayya

He was born in Kütahya in 1963. He graduated fromAnkara University, Faculty of Language History andGeography, department of Arabic Philology in 1985. Hestarted his career in music in Kutahya; learning how toplay ney from ney player-painter Ahmet Yakubo¤lu. Hebenefited from the ney player U¤ur Onuk. He wasassigned to Ankara Radio passing the qualifiedinstrument player test prepared by the Turkish Radioand Television Association (TRT). He worked as anexpert in TRT Music Department.

He joined The Turkish Republic Ministry of Cultureand Tourism's Konya Turkish Sufi Music Ensemble thatwas established in 1990. He gave lectures in SelçukUniversity Faculty of Education and State Conservatory.

In 1997, he was appointed as Konya Turkish SufiMusic Ensemble Assistant Art Director. He is serving asEnsemble’s Art Director dated from 2004.

Dr. Timuçin Çeviko¤luArt Director009 0 509 859 9696

Feridun GündeflCurator009 0 545 261 4545

[email protected]


30THSeptemberSunday

KONYA TURKISH SUFI MUSIC ENSEMBLE

konya international mystic music festival€¦ · 10th konya international mystic music festival...

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