Sacred Voices of the Golden Horn
Abstract
Sacred Voices of the Golden Horn is a multi-movement work for a mixed chamber ensemble and sound files with a duration of approximately thirty minutes. The ensemble consists of flute (c, alto), clarinet (B-flat, E-flat, bass), violin, cello, percussion (vibraphone, hand drums), and piano. In this work, I explored transmutations and combinations of a variety of musical material derived from the musical traditions of several minority religious communities in Istanbul. I transformed the material into combinations of scales that would never occur in the traditional music and I used polyphonic textures and harmonies of my own invention. The shape of musical material was affected by various cultural symbols associated with these traditions.
The piece comprises six movements, each of which is dedicated to one of the musical traditions of Istanbul. The first movement, Time, is dedicated to Orthodox Christianity; the second movement, Cry, is dedicated to Sunni Islam; the third movement, Kam, is dedicated to the old pagan religion of the Turkic people (Tengriism); the fourth movement, Triangle, is dedicated to Catholic Christianity; the fifth movement, Exodus…again, is dedicated to Judaism and, the sixth movement, Spin, is dedicated to Sufi Islam. Sacred Voices of the Golden Horn combines both instrumental and electroacoustic media (soundfiles) in order to capture the expressive character of the religious practices in a manner that reveals the ways in which they have maintained their own identity and profoundly affected each other. The piece is a celebration of the generous character of Istanbulite society and an attempt to bring that spirit, in an aesthetic manner, to a wider audience. The thesis contains the complete score and analytical essay.
Description
Keywords
Music
Citation
Tongur, G. I. (2017). Sacred Voices of the Golden Horn (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27700