Klarinet Archive - Posting 000075.txt from 2003/01

From: Mark Gresham <mgresham@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] the clarinet in Turkey
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 20:58:22 -0500

Ingrid Elizabeth Pearson wrote:
> Having spent a week in Turkey over the Christmas/New
> Year period, I was really excited to hear a
> clarinettist in a bar in Istanbul one evening. The
> bloke was playing a G clarinet
>
> I've looked through the obvious clarinet reference
> books for some information about who introduced the
> clarinet to Turkey and why the G in particular, but
> alas, there's not much to be found. Perhaps it was
> Giuseppe Donizetti but then this would mean that the G
> clarinet was used in 19th-century Italian
> bands.........

Given that it was in Istanbul, a major crossroads for travel by sea or
by land, is it possible the clarinet was introduced in part by roving
bands playing klezmer and gypsy music? Because is the entry point to
Turkey on the major land route from Sofia (Bulgaria) and the rest of
southeastern Europe to/from anywhere in the middle or far east (it is
the former Constantinople). It appears that the "art music" of the late
Ottoman Empire (the last sultan ruled until 1922) was culturally "open"
rather than rigid, and in part freely shaped by minorities such as
Armenian, Jewish, and Greek composers, and Gypsies.
See this URL for an interesting account of Ottoman Gypsy music from
the 19th century: http://www.ffaire.com/pr/psoc/turkish.html It might
explain how clarinet got brought into the mix at all. The G clarinet in
particular, I can't say. But if you can point to use of G clarinet in
Klezmer and other Gypsy music, you might have your smoking gun (or
smoking clarinet, as it were).
"Gypsies have played an important role in shaping the music of the
region around Istanbul since the 10th century." says the webpage article.
Also, just after the end of the Ottoman Empire it appears there was a
specific intensive period of musical activity in Istanbul. (See this
URL for a mention of that ("Istanbul 1925"):
http://www.traditionalcrossroads.com/4266.html under "Album Profile.")

--
Mark Gresham, composer
mgresham@-----.com/
Lux Nova Press http://www.luxnova.com/
LNP Retail Webstore http://www.luxnova.com/lnpwebstore/

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