500-year old love songs
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Vercihan Ziflioglu
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 12, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Anatolia's 500-year old love songs, censored for centuries, have been brought to life by researcher Hüseyin Irmak who has taken their stories, legends and lyrics and brought them together for the first time.
Anatolia’s love songs have echoed sadly for centuries and now researcher Hüseyin Irmak, after seven years pursuing the traces of inter-religious love songs, has collected his findings in the book "Inter-religious Love Songs."
Religion and ethnicity have always been a muse for minstrels. The pain of not reuniting with lovers of different faiths has always become the subject of legends, poems and songs. Irmak has looked everywhere and collected more than 60 love songs composed in the Armenian, Greek, Syriac, Laz, Syriac, Turkish, Kurdish, Pomak, Albanian and Romanian languages in a book alongside musical notes, legends and stories. "Inter-religious Love Songs," will be released by Punto Publishing House at the end of February for researchers. Kalan Music will also release a CD of the book.
Minstrels, who have composed many songs in many languages, have always been known by their ethnic identity. Nobody could have understood the love of a Christian girl for a Muslim boy or the love of a Muslim boy for a Christian girl for 500 years. Love songs were censored in societies for hundreds of years. But they are now the subject of interesting research, 500 years after they were composed in Anatolia.
Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review about his research, Irmak said he sometimes faced difficulties during the research process. He said: "A professor, who heard that I would research at Istanbul University on the issue told me to give up and said I should not help minorities inadvertently. I applied to Christian minority families, whom I know to hold archives about these songs, in Istanbul. But they said no family wanted their daughter to fall in love with a Muslim boy even in songs and said that was why they could not help."
Melancholy songs of Anatolia
Irmak said he had felt deep pain because of their attitude, "I do not serve any ideology. These people have shared a common geography for hundreds of years and have produced these songs. Both sides continue to be conservative about the issue."
Irmak said the subject of love was very attractive but it was sensitive at the same time. "Even if hundreds of years pass, love between Muslims and Christians is not accepted. These songs are full of melancholy."
Irmak said different versions of the songs were still performed today, "Particularly after the declaration of the Republic, some songs were banned on the radio. Today, the lyrics of these songs have been completely destroyed in the Turkish versions."
Even though lovers could not reunite with each other in song, in light of his research, Irmak thinks Christians and Muslims in Anatolia had a very comfortable and civilized lifestyle in the 19th century.
Religion and ethnicity have always been a muse for minstrels. The pain of not reuniting with lovers of different faiths has always become the subject of legends, poems and songs. Irmak has looked everywhere and collected more than 60 love songs composed in the Armenian, Greek, Syriac, Laz, Syriac, Turkish, Kurdish, Pomak, Albanian and Romanian languages in a book alongside musical notes, legends and stories. "Inter-religious Love Songs," will be released by Punto Publishing House at the end of February for researchers. Kalan Music will also release a CD of the book.
Minstrels, who have composed many songs in many languages, have always been known by their ethnic identity. Nobody could have understood the love of a Christian girl for a Muslim boy or the love of a Muslim boy for a Christian girl for 500 years. Love songs were censored in societies for hundreds of years. But they are now the subject of interesting research, 500 years after they were composed in Anatolia.
Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review about his research, Irmak said he sometimes faced difficulties during the research process. He said: "A professor, who heard that I would research at Istanbul University on the issue told me to give up and said I should not help minorities inadvertently. I applied to Christian minority families, whom I know to hold archives about these songs, in Istanbul. But they said no family wanted their daughter to fall in love with a Muslim boy even in songs and said that was why they could not help."
Melancholy songs of Anatolia
Irmak said he had felt deep pain because of their attitude, "I do not serve any ideology. These people have shared a common geography for hundreds of years and have produced these songs. Both sides continue to be conservative about the issue."
Irmak said the subject of love was very attractive but it was sensitive at the same time. "Even if hundreds of years pass, love between Muslims and Christians is not accepted. These songs are full of melancholy."
Irmak said different versions of the songs were still performed today, "Particularly after the declaration of the Republic, some songs were banned on the radio. Today, the lyrics of these songs have been completely destroyed in the Turkish versions."
Even though lovers could not reunite with each other in song, in light of his research, Irmak thinks Christians and Muslims in Anatolia had a very comfortable and civilized lifestyle in the 19th century.