ISLAMABAD, April 12: The Turkish concert, put up by Ruhi Ayangil and the Sitare Orchestra at a local hotel on Friday night, provided a combination of high beats and soft tunes. It came from Istanbul, and like the city where East meets West, it was patterned on a style that accommodated both the Eastern and the Western, and came in vogue in the late 1830s in Turkey. “This music,” Ruhi Ayangil told Dawn, “is based on modality rather than tonality”.

Artistic nuances apart, the listener, as Turkish Ambassador, Hasan Kemal Gur, whose embassy along with the Pakistan Services Ltd, Turkish Airlines and Ladin Fairs and Congresses organized it, said “it was soft enough” to soothe your ear for a while at a time when there was “enough trouble everywhere.”

Ruhi Ayangil plays on Kanun (equivalent of the word Qanoon), a special instrument with 72 strings which the instrumentalist places it in his lap, and plays with fingers of both the hands. It is a smaller, rectangular instrument, unlike sitar in shape, but giving one the feeling of piano and sitar at the same time. While receiving the applause of the audience towards the end, Ayangil also kept it in his hand, and you could see how beautifully the decorated instrument was carved out. The strings these days are of nylon; previously they were made out of guts. A graduate in law (see the relationship with Qanoon!), Ayangil studied music, became Head of the Department of Music at Yeldiz University at Istanbul, and was heading this group after taking retirement from there. All ladies, except him, the other members of the group were teaching music at the university. Ozgul Ozbilen, the Soprano, gave a real melodious performance in her songs, Aslihan Ozel (violin), Sebnem Usen (flute) and Ebrau Ayata (piano) presented themselves as equally good instrumentalists both in the orchestra and in solo performances.

Ozgul Ozbilen’s is a voice that can render the Arabic, Turkish and Persian tone with the same ease as it can sing in the high, Western beat. In fact, she changes from one to the other so swiftly, that the jump is hardly noticeable. The words remain Turkish, but the tonal perspective, as it were, changes. So it doesn’t jar on your ear. Both the “mod” and the “old” are at ease in the melody. The instrumentalists also played well, enthralling audience with notes on which they seemed to have worked for long. Solo items were rendered equally well. There were poems which could be translated as “an evening on the beach”, and musical notes, entitled Seni or “Lion”. A Turk march composed by Mozart was also played. Both Beethoven and Mozart had composed this kind of music also. The 11th Sonata of Mozart is an example.

And then there was Kanun. Ruhi Ayangil started playing it from the age of ten. Born in Istanbul in 1953, he studied vocal harmony, piano and composition. He built his ‘Kanun’ playing technique upon the style of H.F. Alnar, his mentor in the field. He so mastered the instrument of ‘Kanun’ that the wrote a book Learning to Play Kanun, and used this book in his lectures on the instrument between 1976 and 1986, while a member at the Faculty of Music at the University. Between 1973-1981, Ayangil directed the Bogazici University Chorus which gave performances in Holland, Russia and Poland. He performed the Alnar’s Kanun Concerto for the first time in 1980, and in 1983, founded the Ayangil Turkish Music and Chorus. He was awarded the “Artist of the Year” title by the Turkish Writers’ Association in 1988 for Uyan Ey Gozlerim, a concert based on 400 year old hymns. Between 1989-1992 he gave concerts with Muttlu Tarun in various European cities, including London and Frankfurt, Brussels, and London. He gave seminars in Manchester and London on “Kanun and the Development of the Turkish Music.”

The impressive performance indeed seem to amply reflect the brilliant record of the performer and his team. It provided much warmth to an otherwise (as also remarked by the Turkish Ambassador in his speech) “chilly” hall of the hotel because of the airconditioning. And even those who were not wearing suits and jackets because of a warm April evening outside, did not seem to feel uncomfortable. —Mufti Jamiluddin Ahmad