The saga of an unusual record: A Turkish history album for piano
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Gul Demir and Niki Gamm
OluÅŸturulma Tarihi: Haziran 06, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - It’s not everyday there’s a compact disc recording with a timeless quality about it that can be played many times with pleasure. Not only that, but clearly a great amount of research was invested in finding copies of the relevant music. All the tracks on the CD are marches composed for the Turks in the 19th and 20th centuries. Reşit Mehmet Erol is the man behind this idea of putting history onto a music recording.
The sounds coming from the CD were supposed to be those of marches from the 19th and 20th centuries but many of them sounded more like sprightly dance music. Â
Intrigued, listeners may turn to the Turkish/English booklet to learn about the composers and the background behind each of the compositions.
All the tracks on the CD are marches that were composed for Turks in the 19th and 20th centuries. The composers include Donizetti, Guatelli, Selvelli, Lange, Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini, Karlibel, Saint-Saens, Strauss and Liszt.
It’s not everyday there’s a CD that has a timeless quality and can be played many times with pleasure. Not only that, but clearly a great amount of research went into finding copies of the relevant music.
The person who was responsible for the concept and all the sleuthing was Reşit Mehmet Erol. He is a pianist in his own right and a history buff and he answered a number of questions put to him by the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
Asked how he got interested in the subject, Erol said: "History was one of my greatest passions when I was a child. I continually read books connected with history. The library director used to call me ’900’ because the code number of the history section was 900. My interest in history influenced my musical life a lot, too. As I started piano lessons when I was very young and I enjoyed researching the many works and composers while working on their pieces.
Reşit Mehmet Erol’s first step into
music publishing
When Erol was asked to describe how he got involved in music publishing, he said: "In 1976 I returned to my music education after a break. Around that time, I watched a film on TV related to Franz Liszt and I was very impressed. Later I learned that Liszt had come to Istanbul and composed a piece and that my great-grandfather, who was the Foreign Minister at the time, Emin Ali Paşa, went to Liszt’s concert and gave him an award in the name of the sultan. It became a passion for me to find this piece and record it.
"I found the March Paraphrase’s notes that Liszt had composed using Donizetti Pasa’s Mecidiye March as a base. Following this when seeing the photograph of the house in Beyoğlu where Liszt had stayed in Said N. Duhani’s book ’Old People, Old Houses’ that Touring Publications had produced, I remember that I immediately found myself transported there.
"Pianist Ergican Saydam made the first recording of this work and I visited him and in 1986 we produced the first record of the work.
"This for me was my first step into the world of records.
And up until today, I have produced and been the artistic director for 14 records. I presented this record later to Gotfried Wagner, Liszt’s grandson and Prof. Miklos Forrai, the director of the Budapest Liszt Academy. I remember it as if it were yesterday. Prof. Forrai kissed the record, saying ’This is a rarity.’"
Following the Liszt recording, "I delved deeper into my research and my purpose was to produce an album in which Liszt’s March Paraphrase had a place, especially with Donizetti’s Mecidiye March, with other works written for Turks that had not been recorded previously.
"In the ensuing years I asked the grandson of Johann Strauss in Vienna for the waltzes that his grandfather had written for Ahmet Fethi Pasa, the Ottoman ambassador and I was helped in this by my friend in Vienna, Ertugrul Sevsay. So after 160 years this work was once again performed at Turkey’s Vienna Embassy. Believing that it was not enough to just collect these works, I went to my close friend Aydin Karlibel, who had also collected some works. We added three of his works and arrangements to the repertoire and it was completed.
"Speaking of finding these works it is more correct to say that we brought them out again because these works were played and published close to when they were completed but they were forgotten. Because there was no possibility some that weren’t recorded were not considered important.
What I have done is to bring these works out into the light of day again and recording them ensures they won’t be forgotten. For example Liszt’s work was recorded by three more pianists after the first record was produced in 1986."
The album is called Piyano Icin Bir Türk Tarihi Albümü (An Album of Turkish History for the Piano) and is a musical understanding of the Ottoman Empire’s Westernization movement that began with Sultan Mahmud II (1808-1839).
"We made the recording of the CD in 2001 at Bosphorus University’s Albert Long Hall. Pieter Snapper and his assistant Bilgehan Öziş made the recording. Quite a few people helped to make this CD happen. The gravure on the cover was given by the late Çelik Gülersoy and is from the original Besiktas Palace (today’s Ciragan Palace) where Liszt played. With this CD my dream that had begun in 1976 came true in the complete meaning of the word."
Erol was engaged in producing this CD in a very direct way. "I didn’t just have a place on this CD as its producer. First I created the idea and then I found the works. I created their stories and engaged in my first research over partition. At first I carried on the work but in later years I shared it with my friends and especially with Karlibel but not with many. I have always seen it as valuable.
"We did the recording over two November days in 2001. The first day was stormy and rainy. The noise it made influenced the recording negatively. I even thought of postponing it. But Sunday when snow fell the atmosphere was buried in silence and we worked very comfortably. The exception to this was that from time to time a cat would scream and a drummer would practice. We were so so wrapped up in our work that we forgot to eat. Karlibel gave a magnificent performance and concentrated well.
At the end of the recording we celebrated at a kebab restaurant in Etiler. I was very pleased with myself. I produced nine records before but the pleasure this one gave me was different."
CD attracts European interest
Erol commented on how this CD had attracted much greater interest in Europe and he found that normal. "We got congratulatory letters from the authorities in very important musical centers. In Italy it was a topic in the Amadeus magazine.
We organized a conference at the Italian Culture Center with Francesco Martinelli among the writers for the magazine in 2003. Karlibel some works from the CD, we organized an exhibition, and Martinelli gave a good lecture.
"Prior to the program the director of the Italian Cultural Center my professor and friend Aldo Baldini sent me an e-mail. Pierluigi Selvelli, the grandson of Italo Selvelli who composed the last Imperial March of the Ottoman Empire that was on the CD, had found out about the CD on the Internet and sent an e-mail. We hadn’t been able to find out a lot of information about his grandfather so we corresponded after that and I completed all of the information and documents that were lacking.
"When asked whether there were other works of interest that had not been included on this CD, Erol said there were some but not meaningful for recording. "But from the point of view of documentation it is necessary to record these and others that we find.
Especially there are some larger and smaller works that many not-very-well-known composers produced in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. One day I want to record them."
Intrigued, listeners may turn to the Turkish/English booklet to learn about the composers and the background behind each of the compositions.
All the tracks on the CD are marches that were composed for Turks in the 19th and 20th centuries. The composers include Donizetti, Guatelli, Selvelli, Lange, Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini, Karlibel, Saint-Saens, Strauss and Liszt.
It’s not everyday there’s a CD that has a timeless quality and can be played many times with pleasure. Not only that, but clearly a great amount of research went into finding copies of the relevant music.
The person who was responsible for the concept and all the sleuthing was Reşit Mehmet Erol. He is a pianist in his own right and a history buff and he answered a number of questions put to him by the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
Asked how he got interested in the subject, Erol said: "History was one of my greatest passions when I was a child. I continually read books connected with history. The library director used to call me ’900’ because the code number of the history section was 900. My interest in history influenced my musical life a lot, too. As I started piano lessons when I was very young and I enjoyed researching the many works and composers while working on their pieces.
Reşit Mehmet Erol’s first step into
music publishing
When Erol was asked to describe how he got involved in music publishing, he said: "In 1976 I returned to my music education after a break. Around that time, I watched a film on TV related to Franz Liszt and I was very impressed. Later I learned that Liszt had come to Istanbul and composed a piece and that my great-grandfather, who was the Foreign Minister at the time, Emin Ali Paşa, went to Liszt’s concert and gave him an award in the name of the sultan. It became a passion for me to find this piece and record it.
"I found the March Paraphrase’s notes that Liszt had composed using Donizetti Pasa’s Mecidiye March as a base. Following this when seeing the photograph of the house in Beyoğlu where Liszt had stayed in Said N. Duhani’s book ’Old People, Old Houses’ that Touring Publications had produced, I remember that I immediately found myself transported there.
"Pianist Ergican Saydam made the first recording of this work and I visited him and in 1986 we produced the first record of the work.
"This for me was my first step into the world of records.
And up until today, I have produced and been the artistic director for 14 records. I presented this record later to Gotfried Wagner, Liszt’s grandson and Prof. Miklos Forrai, the director of the Budapest Liszt Academy. I remember it as if it were yesterday. Prof. Forrai kissed the record, saying ’This is a rarity.’"
Following the Liszt recording, "I delved deeper into my research and my purpose was to produce an album in which Liszt’s March Paraphrase had a place, especially with Donizetti’s Mecidiye March, with other works written for Turks that had not been recorded previously.
"In the ensuing years I asked the grandson of Johann Strauss in Vienna for the waltzes that his grandfather had written for Ahmet Fethi Pasa, the Ottoman ambassador and I was helped in this by my friend in Vienna, Ertugrul Sevsay. So after 160 years this work was once again performed at Turkey’s Vienna Embassy. Believing that it was not enough to just collect these works, I went to my close friend Aydin Karlibel, who had also collected some works. We added three of his works and arrangements to the repertoire and it was completed.
"Speaking of finding these works it is more correct to say that we brought them out again because these works were played and published close to when they were completed but they were forgotten. Because there was no possibility some that weren’t recorded were not considered important.
What I have done is to bring these works out into the light of day again and recording them ensures they won’t be forgotten. For example Liszt’s work was recorded by three more pianists after the first record was produced in 1986."
The album is called Piyano Icin Bir Türk Tarihi Albümü (An Album of Turkish History for the Piano) and is a musical understanding of the Ottoman Empire’s Westernization movement that began with Sultan Mahmud II (1808-1839).
"We made the recording of the CD in 2001 at Bosphorus University’s Albert Long Hall. Pieter Snapper and his assistant Bilgehan Öziş made the recording. Quite a few people helped to make this CD happen. The gravure on the cover was given by the late Çelik Gülersoy and is from the original Besiktas Palace (today’s Ciragan Palace) where Liszt played. With this CD my dream that had begun in 1976 came true in the complete meaning of the word."
Erol was engaged in producing this CD in a very direct way. "I didn’t just have a place on this CD as its producer. First I created the idea and then I found the works. I created their stories and engaged in my first research over partition. At first I carried on the work but in later years I shared it with my friends and especially with Karlibel but not with many. I have always seen it as valuable.
"We did the recording over two November days in 2001. The first day was stormy and rainy. The noise it made influenced the recording negatively. I even thought of postponing it. But Sunday when snow fell the atmosphere was buried in silence and we worked very comfortably. The exception to this was that from time to time a cat would scream and a drummer would practice. We were so so wrapped up in our work that we forgot to eat. Karlibel gave a magnificent performance and concentrated well.
At the end of the recording we celebrated at a kebab restaurant in Etiler. I was very pleased with myself. I produced nine records before but the pleasure this one gave me was different."
CD attracts European interest
Erol commented on how this CD had attracted much greater interest in Europe and he found that normal. "We got congratulatory letters from the authorities in very important musical centers. In Italy it was a topic in the Amadeus magazine.
We organized a conference at the Italian Culture Center with Francesco Martinelli among the writers for the magazine in 2003. Karlibel some works from the CD, we organized an exhibition, and Martinelli gave a good lecture.
"Prior to the program the director of the Italian Cultural Center my professor and friend Aldo Baldini sent me an e-mail. Pierluigi Selvelli, the grandson of Italo Selvelli who composed the last Imperial March of the Ottoman Empire that was on the CD, had found out about the CD on the Internet and sent an e-mail. We hadn’t been able to find out a lot of information about his grandfather so we corresponded after that and I completed all of the information and documents that were lacking.
"When asked whether there were other works of interest that had not been included on this CD, Erol said there were some but not meaningful for recording. "But from the point of view of documentation it is necessary to record these and others that we find.
Especially there are some larger and smaller works that many not-very-well-known composers produced in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. One day I want to record them."