A COMPOSER WITH A 200-YEAR-LONG PREDECESSOR CHAIN OF MESK: ALAEDDİN YAVAŞÇA
MEŞK SİLSİLESİ 200 YILA DAYANAN BİR BESTECİ: ALÂEDDİN YAVAŞÇA

Author : Gözde ÇOLAKOĞLU SARI
Number of pages : 1-17

Abstract

“When the tradition of Turkish music education is considered, the first concept encountered is ‘mesk’. Mesk, a term borrowed from the art of writing by the world of music, is a term used to describe a writing draft given as a lecture by a calligrapher to his student. However, this word could also be used in the field of teaching and learning. The lyrics of the piece of art to be practiced is written by the student or a printed lyrics or text can be used as well. The tempo of the piece of art to be practiced is certain. If there is a need to remind, this tempo will be beaten several times before the beginning of the piece of art. One of the memory refresher tools for sure (for verbal works) is lyrics magazines and the other is the tempo”. “In mesk, the student learns the tempo of the piece of art first, then memorizes the teacher makes the student memorize the piece of art section by section. This lasts until the student has memorized the complete piece of art without any errors. In Ottoman music education, instrument mesk is relatively difficult. In the hands of the instrument student, there are no auxiliary instruments such as lyrics for remembering the piece of art and it is necessary to have a stronger memory as it is difficult to hit the tempo during performance. It is necessary for a student who is enthusiastic for learning stringed instrument to learn both the stringed instrument and the oral repertoire as well as the technical difficulties that he has to deal with”. The only behavior that the instrumentalist can perform within the memory-based system instead of the note is to follow his master well, to assimilate the instrument and try to progress. In this direction, Yavaşça describes the education series extending to Dede Efendi, one of the basic building blocks of Turkish Music: "I am proud to think that I am one of the student-apprentices and the grandsons of a great mentor and composer, Dede Efendi. It is not possible to explain Prof. Dr. Alâeddin Yavaşca with a single identity or character. Besides his assignments in Zeynep Kamil, Taksim İlk Yardım, Şişli Etfal Vakıf Gureba and Haseki hospitals for long years, he was one of the founder members of ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory which is the first institute in its field. Because apart from medicine medical degree, he is a master who was educated by masters of music and educated many students after reaching to master level. Alâeddin Yavaşça, can be introduced by many of his identities such as doctor, composer, performer, notist, chorus conductor, lecturer. However, in this study the focus point will be his composer identity which adopted the traditional mode and tempo structure originated from chain of mesk and which combines it with his own style as a sign of his pursuit for innovation.

Keywords

Alaeddin Yavaşça, Chain of Mesk, Musical Analysis

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