Singing for unity at the Choir Fest
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Kübrakan Güleç
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 01, 2009 00:00
ANKARA-A number of people, regardless of their work, age or hometown, came together to sing for peace and unity at the 14th Choir Festival, which ended Sunday. The number of participants, both amateur and professional, as well as audiences for the event increases each year
Lawyers, doctors, journalists, army officersÉ Primary school children, street children, music studentsÉ Professionals and amateursÉ All of these people, regardless of their work, age or hometown, came together to sing for peace and unity. This was a photo from the opening ceremony of Turkey’s 14th Choir Festival.
"Our motto is let the people sing in a universal way," Kutluay Alpuğan, secretary-general of the Polyphonic Choirs Association of Turkey, said during an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. Alpuğan, who is a lawyer himself, is one of the architects of the weeklong choir festival, which ended Sunday, and has helped the festival increase its participants and audience each year. "When we first set out to hold such a festival, some mocked us, saying the number of participant choirs would not exceed 10," Alpuğan said.
"However, our first festival had 18 choirs and today we are hosting 86."Alpuğan said Turkey lags behind developed countries in the number of choirs it has. Turkey has two professional choirs, the State Polyphonic Chorus and state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s TRT Polyphonic Chorus.
Although the number of professional choirs is at a standstill, people are forming their own amateur choirs in Turkey in recent years. Turkey’s Polyphonic Choirs Association has made great progress on the issue by establishing many choirs within itself. Some of these are the Children’s Choir, the Youth Choir, the Girl’s Choir, the Mixed Choir and the Elite Choir.
"We first founded the Association’s Choir and later, the Children’s Choir. While the parents of the children waited for them during their rehearsals, we also established a choir for them. This is how our story began," Alpuğan said, adding that one of the targets of the Choir Festival is to encourage more people from different parts of the country to form choirs.
Currently, the asociation has almost 350 students whose ages range from 5 to 80 years old. The association also provides music training for new participants.
Choirs help democratic development
During the interview, Alpuğan drew attention to the development of choral music in Turkey and marked Atatürk’s Cultural Revolution as the starting point. "The substance of a choir is human. While singing in a choir, one learns to live together in peace and solidarity based on love and brotherhood. Thus, choirs play an important role in democracies," Alpuğan told.
Indeed, while watching a choir, one forgets about all the borders and thick walls that have divided people throughout the history, he said, adding that instead a choir invites one to journey into a utopian world that people always talk about but never make reality. Alpuğan said nature is the greatest of all polyphonic choirs. "One experiences the harmony of different sounds in nature. You hear a bird singing while listening the sound of a flowing river. People feel the same harmony while singing in a polyphonic choir."
’We protect our folk songs, adapting them to new forms’
Alpuğan said they have struggled to introduce choral music to Turkish people and that some people even accuse them of promoting Western music instead of their own. "Actually, we protect our traditional music. We adapt our folk songs to the form of choral music and introduce them to the world on international platforms," Alpuğan said.
The Rengim Vocal Group of Turkey’s Polyphonic Choirs Association is a successful choir that has won awards and prizes at international competitions. The group won two silver medals at the Third World Choir Olympics held in Bremen in 2006.
"We want to encourage all people to sing songs. We believe that one day, the whole of Turkey will sing songs," Alpuğan said.
"Our motto is let the people sing in a universal way," Kutluay Alpuğan, secretary-general of the Polyphonic Choirs Association of Turkey, said during an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. Alpuğan, who is a lawyer himself, is one of the architects of the weeklong choir festival, which ended Sunday, and has helped the festival increase its participants and audience each year. "When we first set out to hold such a festival, some mocked us, saying the number of participant choirs would not exceed 10," Alpuğan said.
"However, our first festival had 18 choirs and today we are hosting 86."Alpuğan said Turkey lags behind developed countries in the number of choirs it has. Turkey has two professional choirs, the State Polyphonic Chorus and state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s TRT Polyphonic Chorus.
Although the number of professional choirs is at a standstill, people are forming their own amateur choirs in Turkey in recent years. Turkey’s Polyphonic Choirs Association has made great progress on the issue by establishing many choirs within itself. Some of these are the Children’s Choir, the Youth Choir, the Girl’s Choir, the Mixed Choir and the Elite Choir.
"We first founded the Association’s Choir and later, the Children’s Choir. While the parents of the children waited for them during their rehearsals, we also established a choir for them. This is how our story began," Alpuğan said, adding that one of the targets of the Choir Festival is to encourage more people from different parts of the country to form choirs.
Currently, the asociation has almost 350 students whose ages range from 5 to 80 years old. The association also provides music training for new participants.
Choirs help democratic development
During the interview, Alpuğan drew attention to the development of choral music in Turkey and marked Atatürk’s Cultural Revolution as the starting point. "The substance of a choir is human. While singing in a choir, one learns to live together in peace and solidarity based on love and brotherhood. Thus, choirs play an important role in democracies," Alpuğan told.
Indeed, while watching a choir, one forgets about all the borders and thick walls that have divided people throughout the history, he said, adding that instead a choir invites one to journey into a utopian world that people always talk about but never make reality. Alpuğan said nature is the greatest of all polyphonic choirs. "One experiences the harmony of different sounds in nature. You hear a bird singing while listening the sound of a flowing river. People feel the same harmony while singing in a polyphonic choir."
’We protect our folk songs, adapting them to new forms’
Alpuğan said they have struggled to introduce choral music to Turkish people and that some people even accuse them of promoting Western music instead of their own. "Actually, we protect our traditional music. We adapt our folk songs to the form of choral music and introduce them to the world on international platforms," Alpuğan said.
The Rengim Vocal Group of Turkey’s Polyphonic Choirs Association is a successful choir that has won awards and prizes at international competitions. The group won two silver medals at the Third World Choir Olympics held in Bremen in 2006.
"We want to encourage all people to sing songs. We believe that one day, the whole of Turkey will sing songs," Alpuğan said.