Melodies, nature and culture to intermingle in Music Village

Engin Esen – ISTANBUL

Shepherds from various parts of Anatolia, musicologists from several universities, amateur musicians and some masters of traditional genres played in countries such as Georgia, Iran and Greece will gather in a village in the southwestern province of Muğla in August to perform “hormone-free, natural music.”

The Music Village, founded in 2015 in the resort district of Fethiye, was inspired by principles of the relations between music and nature, as outlined by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, one of the founding fathers of ethnomusicology in the 20th century.

“A music detached from the soil is doomed to death, says Bela Bartok. As the team of the village, we think that music production disconnected from daily life, the wisdom of ancient traditions and humbleness of the soil cannot leave its mark; therefore, we believe in rediscovering the ancient traditions and handing them down to future generations and bringing them together with other traditions,” Aytaç Gökdağ, the Music Village Project Coordinator, told Hürriyet Daily News.

“We have carried out many auditions, seminars, workshops and social responsibility projects with hundreds of participants up until today. We also recorded the ‘Melodies with Üçtelli from Anatolia’ album. We are very pleased with the place we have reached and quite eager to go further,” he added.

Prior to the foundation of the Music Village, Gökdağ toured around villages in the Teke Peninsula, a region between the Aegean province of Muğla and the Mediterranean province of Antalya, also known as Lycia, to record traditional music especially played by the üçtelli, a stringed instrument.

Osman Kırca, a villager and master of the üçtelli, will accompany another master of the folkloric instrument, Yusuf İhsan Bodur, in workshops that will take place in the first round of the Music Village program between Aug. 17 and 21.

In another workshop, Riste Gjorgjijev will give information about traditional Macedonian dances, instruments and voice technics. Sami Hosseini from Iran will organize a workshop on the frame drum known as “daf.” Spanish/Andalusian musician Efren Lopez-Sanz will present samples of improvisation in modal music. Traditional polyphonic Georgian music will be played during the workshop managed by İberya Özkan Melaşvili, the founder of the Georgian Art House in Istanbul.
The second round of the Music Village between Aug. 23 and 27 will present kamancha master Arslan Hazreti, “rembetiko” (Greek folk music) expert Theodora Athanassiou, Turkish mey (a woodwind folk instrument) and duduk (double-reed wind instrument made of apricot wood) master Zafer Taşdan, Black Sea region kemenche (pear-shaped bowed instrument) player Rıza Can Özel.

The program also features “countryside evening auditions in which masters play music on a small stage together offering gatherings that can only be experienced in the Music Village,” according to Gökdağ.

To attend, register at https://www.muzikkoyu.net/blog/default/muzik-koyu-2019-programi