Trasferring music by meşk: Suzidilara Mevlevi Ayini of Sultan Selim III

Abstract

A teaching system –namely meşk– has been evolved in Ottoman-Turkish music by transfering the musical repertoire via mentor-protégé relationship, and several attempts have been made in designing new musical notation systems. Sheikh Nasır Dede of Yenikapı Mevlevihanesi invented a notation system which was commanded by the composer and the reed-flute player Sultan Selim III. Nasır Dede notated the Suzidilara Mevlevi Ayini of Sultan Selim III in Tahririye (1794) in which he describes the ebced notation he invented. This is the first Mevlevi ritual composed in that period of time. The musical pieces that have been notated by taking their performances as a base are quite uncommon in the eighteenth-century, and this Mevlevi ritual is one of those rare samples we have. The aim of this article is to make a close examination of how a composed Mevlevi ritual in the eighteenth-century has been transferred to the twentieth-century via meşk system and to examine the changes that has been made. The important factors in choosing the Suzidilara Mevlevi Ayini in this article are the presence of its other several versions survived until today via meşk system and its being as a musical piece that enables us to have a clear view of the differences between these versions. The eighteenth-century transliteration of Suzidilara Mevlevi Ayini and the other three transcripts of this ritual published in the twentieth-century, i.e. Darülelhan, Ali Rıfat Çağatay and Sadettin Heper, are examined by comparison in chronological order. Transcipt A (Abdülbaki Nasır Dede): It is notated in Tahririyyetü’l-musiki (“Notation of Music”) of the author. The two transcripts of the piece is in Esad Efendi Collection, No. 3898 and in Nafiz Paşa Collection, No.1242 of the Süleymaniye Library; both are enrolled under manuscripts. Transcipt B (Darülelhân): Both the original version and the twentieth-century transcript of this piece were translated into Western music notation and published by Darülelhan Committee. Transcript C (Ali Rıfat Çağatay): The first musical piece written by use of Hamparsum notation in the book of Mevlevi Rituals in the estate of Ali Rıfat Çağatay is Suzidilara Mevlevi Ayini. Transcript D (Sadettin Heper): The last transcript of the piece, written in Western music notation, is published in the book of Sadettin Heper who indicated that he made use of the meşk series. The method used in this article is to compare the first, second, third and fourth selam, semai according to their genre, meter and the number of measures in order to reveal the differences between the original and the meşk transcripts. The selams, meter and the number of measures of the Mevlevi ritual have been set, and the melodic similarities or the differences have been considered. In conclusion, the short melodical appoggiaturas and the ornaments appended because of the transmission from one performer to the other via meşk in time, resulted in the alterations of the rhythmic patterns of the Mevlevi ritual. Alongside of the melodical variation the accidentals have also been affected in the course of the transmission. Despite the fact that the “frenkçin” meter with twelve beats is indicated in the title of the third “selam” of the transcript C, the meter groupings are written in the “düyek” meter with eight beats. The “frenkçin” meter should have been written as in other transcripts. As 5/8 meter is indicated in the title of the third “selam” in the transcipt C once again, “aksaksemai” in 10/4 meter has been used in the groupings of the Hamparsum version. Although the Suzidilara Mevlevi Ayini is given as a whole in the transcript A, the peşrev in “sadedüyek” meter and the sazsemai in “aksaksemai” meter of Selim III are given to be performed seperately. While “serhane” and “mülazime” of the peşrev are performed following the first “selam” of the ritual, the middle and the last “hane” of the peşrev are performed as terennüm-saz. “Serhane”, “mülazime” and the last “hane” of the sazsemai are used as the terennüm-saz of the third “selam”. Whereas the meter of the terennüm-saz following the second “selam” in the transcripts of A, B and C is in “düyek”, the meter of the same section in the transcipt D is given as “evfer” with nine beats. The dissimilarity of the terennüm-saz in the other three transcipts signifies that the aforementioned peşrev was not taken as a base. This indicates an important modification in music during the transmission via meşk. In spite of various ornaments are added on the “selam”s of the ritual, it has been observed that the main structure is preserved.